The Liberal candidate for next Saturday's Manly byelection, James Griffin, was a director of a company a liquidator found may have traded while insolvent before it was wound up owing the Australian Tax Office $160,000.

Mr Griffin, who hopes to replace Premier Mike Baird as Manly MP on April 8, was a director and shareholder in "social media intelligence" startup, SR7, which was bought in February 2014 by consultancy KPMG.

The company was co-founded by former Liberal party advertising guru Greg Daniel, who was also a director and shareholder.

On March 3, 2014, as part of the sale to KPMG, SR7 was re-registered as ACN 141 620 724 and placed into voluntary liquidation.