Australia

Anyone can register a company in Australia. The only conditions are: the company must have at least one Australian resident director and a physical Australian address for the registered office of the company.

For Directors and Secretaries: Full name, residential address, and date and place of birth of each member.

For Shareholders: Full name, residential address, and number of shares acquired in the company.

General Information: The complete address of the registered office and principal place of the business.

Most applications are registered within 5 minutes as long as there are no errors and is not flagged by ASIC for manual review. Once your company is officially registered with ASIC, you will receive all certification and company documentation within 20 minutes.

An Australian Business Number (ABN) is a unique 11-digit number that identifies your business to the government and community. An ABN doesn't replace your tax file number, but it is used for various tax and other business purposes.

An Australian Company Number (ACN) is a unique 9-digit number is issued by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) purely for companies unlike ABN which is issued for all type of businesses.

Company registration cost in Australia varies depending on the type of company. But before registering a company, one must have an Australian Business Number (ABN), without which you cannot legally run a business. Obtaining ABN is free of cost. The next step is to register a business name, which costs $36 for one year and $84 for three years. The total registration fees include:

This is a number that Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) gives you and it is sent directly to the Registered Office within about 10 days of incorporation. It is like a pin number for your company and must be noted when you lodge some paper documents with ASIC.

A proprietary company is not required to have a secretary. If it does, they must live in Australia. A public company must have at least one secretary. They must live in Australia.

Public companies must hold an AGM at least once each calendar year in addition to other general meetings, except if they have only one member. A public company’s AGMs must be held within five months after the end of its financial year.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Australia is charged on each transaction in the supply chain, but registered businesses receive a credit for GST paid on purchases. As a result, GST effectively becomes a 10% tax on the retail price of goods and services.