Company secretarial support that keeps your ASIC records current.
Every Australian company has to keep its details up to date with ASIC, pay its annual review fee, keep registers and minutes, and lodge changes on time. As a registered ASIC agent, we help you meet these obligations alongside your tax and accounts. Your directors remain responsible for the company’s compliance.
Four obligations that come with the annual review.
ASIC sends each company an annual statement soon after the anniversary of its registration. The statement starts a short window in which the company has to check its details, pay its fee and confirm it is solvent.
Annual Statement
The statement lists the details ASIC holds: addresses, share structure, officeholders and members. If it doesn’t arrive within 15 business days after the annual review date, the company should contact ASIC.
Review Fee
The annual review fee is due by the date on the statement, usually two months after the annual review date. A late payment fee applies if it is missed, and ASIC may consider deregistering the company.
Solvency Resolution
Within two months of the review date, directors must resolve whether the company can pay its debts when they are due. This is not needed if the company lodged a financial report with ASIC in the past 12 months. A negative resolution, or none at all, must be reported to ASIC on Form 485 within seven days.
Outstanding Changes
Changes not already lodged must be made within 28 days of the annual review date. Otherwise a late review fee applies on top of any late lodgement fees.
Proprietary companies do not need a company secretary. If one is appointed, at least one secretary must normally live in Australia. Public companies must have at least one secretary who normally lives in Australia.
Secretarial work connected to your tax and accounts.
We are a registered ASIC agent. A company can nominate us as its agent, so ASIC notices, including the annual statement, come to us and we lodge on the company’s behalf.
Annual Review & Fees
Checking the annual statement against your records, arranging the fee and preparing the directors’ solvency resolution.
ASIC Lodgements
Lodging changes to addresses, officeholders, members and shares within the 28-day deadline.
Registers & Minutes
Keeping the members register and preparing minutes and resolutions for directors and shareholders.
Company Changes
New companies, new directors, share issues and transfers, and voluntary deregistration of a company that is no longer needed.
Events that need a record or an ASIC lodgement.
Late fees often follow changes that were not reported to ASIC on time. Tell us when any of these happen and we will prepare the record or lodgement.
New or Departing Officeholders
ASIC must be told within 28 days of appointing or removing a director or secretary. A person becoming a director must have a director ID before they are appointed.
Address and Detail Changes
Changes to the registered office, principal place of business or an officeholder’s residential address must be reported within 28 days, or a late fee applies.
Shares and Members
Every company keeps a register of its members and the shares they hold. Proprietary companies must report changes to member details, and all companies must report share issues, cancellations, buy-backs and capital reductions.
Resolutions and Minutes
A resolution must be recorded in the company’s records within one month of the vote, in minutes signed by the chair of that meeting or the next one.
Records and ABN Details
Financial records must be kept for at least seven years. ABN details must be updated within 28 days of becoming aware of a change.
Closing a Company
A company can apply for voluntary deregistration when all members agree and it is no longer carrying on business. Its assets must be worth less than $1,000, it must have no outstanding liabilities or legal proceedings, and all ASIC fees and penalties must be paid.
One firm for your company records, tax and accounts.
Corporate Secretarial Services sit alongside our accounting, tax, and ATO and ASIC compliance services and our Business Structuring advice. The company details we keep with ASIC are the same ones we report on and lodge for each year, so when your details change we can update both your ASIC and ABN records.