Get hold of a basic accounting book and look up the terms "provisions for doubtful debts & bad debts"
If a provision for doubtful debts is made in the accounts it means the bottom line profit and assets values are already reduced by this amount. If a debt becomes bad it comes of the already accounted for provisions figure before it affects the bottom line profit figure. THe bad debts only become a problem if and when they start to exceed the already accounted for provision amount.
The same applies to provisions for tax debts.
Both the POTENTIAL tax debt and the Bad debts have ALREADY been accounted for. Would agree though that ANZ would not want to incur to many more large bad bebts but it is a long way of being insolvent
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