ATO debt and no finalised financials — can you still get fleet finance through a major bank?
When a business gets declined by their own bank, the assumption is that the deal is dead. It usually isn’t. It just needs a different structure.
This client’s accountant knew that. That’s why they picked up the phone.
The situation
A fire protection services company across Greater NSW had secured a wave of new contracts and needed 10 GVM utes to service them. $397,000 worth of vehicles, a clear business case, and a growing order book.
They went to their dealer first. Declined — ATO debt on file. They went to their own bank next. Declined again — current year financials hadn’t been finalised, and the ATO position made the assessment too complicated to proceed.
The challenge
Two declines in quick succession, vehicles that needed to be on the road, and a business that couldn’t deploy staff to meet growing demand. The standard paths were blocked.
The accountant referred them to Yakka.
What Yakka did
The core problem wasn’t the business — it was how the application was being assessed. Both the dealer and the bank were trying to run a standard full-doc process against financials that weren’t ready and an ATO position that hadn’t been resolved yet.
Yakka restructured the approach entirely. Rather than waiting for financials to be finalised or the ATO position to clear, the deal was split across two major banks — Westpac and Bank of Queensland — using Low Doc limits at each. This removed the need for finalised financial statements while keeping the pricing competitive.
Neither lender needed to take on the full $397,000. Each assessed their portion under their own Low Doc policy. Clean, compliant, and faster than any full-doc process would have been.
The outcome
– All 10 vehicles approved and settled within 4 business days
– Major bank rates — better than both the dealer finance and the primary bank’s offer
– No need to wait for year-end financials
– Business deployed its fleet immediately to meet new contract demand
Why this matters for your practice
This case is a good illustration of what a referral to Yakka actually looks like in practice. Your client had a problem. Their bank said no. You could see the business was sound — the issue was structural, not fundamental.
The fix wasn’t finding a more lenient lender. It was splitting the deal across two major banks in a way that each individual application could be assessed cleanly. That’s not something a business owner figures out on their own, and it’s not the kind of creative structuring most bank managers have the mandate to offer.
When a client gets a decline, that’s often the moment the referral is most valuable. Not after they’ve accepted a second-tier loan at higher rates — but while there’s still a better option on the table.
Got a client in a similar position? Talk to Drew.
Drew Davis — Head of Partnerships
drew@yakkafinance.com.au | 0481 002 879
