The six steps
In the order they usually come: decide whether a company is the right structure, register it, make sure every director has an ID, settle its rules, register for tax, then keep up with its yearly review.
Sole trader, partnership or company
Who carries the debts, who owns the money, and what each structure costs to run.
From business.gov.au and the ATO
Registering a company
The building blocks ASIC asks for, the application and what arrives when it is done.
From ASIC
A company’s rules
A constitution, the replaceable rules in the Corporations Act, or some of each.
From ASIC
ABN, GST and tax registrations
What a new company registers for, in what order, and when GST becomes compulsory.
From the ABR and the ATO
A company’s yearly obligations
The annual statement, the review fee, the solvency resolution and the 28-day rule.
From ASIC
What ASIC asks for before a company exists
A company is registered on the Australian companies register, which ASIC manages, and ASIC calls the things you need first the “building blocks”. They are:
- A name, or none. Without one, the company’s name is its Australian Company Number with its legal status, as in ASIC’s example “ACN 123 456 789 Pty Ltd”.
- A state or territory and two addresses: a registered office and a principal place of business.
- Its rules: the replaceable rules, its own constitution, or some of each.
- Its shares and members: the share structure, and for a proprietary company the name and home address of each member, with their written consent.
- Its officeholders: each one’s name, home address and place and date of birth, which the public can see on the register. Every director must apply for a director ID before the company is registered.
An application can be made online through the government’s Business Registration Service, and ASIC then processes it. business.gov.au says registering that way takes around 15 minutes, with confirmation in 2 business days when every document and the fee are in. Each block, step by step.
A company name can’t already be registered to another company or as a business name. ASIC’s name availability search is where business.gov.au points you to check.
After registration: the company’s year
Registration is the start of a yearly cycle. Soon after the anniversary of its registration, ASIC sends the company an annual statement, and the company then has three things to do: pay the annual review fee, check and update its details, and have its directors pass a solvency resolution. Between reviews, most changes to a company’s details have to reach ASIC within 28 days.
A company also has tax obligations of its own: the ATO says it must apply for its own tax file number and lodge an annual company tax return. The year, as a timeline.
ASIC fees, as at October 2026
These are the amounts ASIC’s pages showed on 8 October 2026. Check ASIC’s fee pages before relying on them.
| What | Fee | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Register a company with share capital | $636 | ASIC: Register a company |
| Register a company without share capital | $524 | ASIC: Register a company |
| Reserve a company name (up to 2 months) | $65 | ASIC: Register a company |
| Annual review fee, proprietary company | $342 | ASIC: Company annual review |
| Late payment of the review fee | $102 up to 1 month late; $428 more than 1 month late | ASIC: Late annual review fee |
About this guide
companysetup.com.au is a concept website: a guide to starting an Australian company, published by Dotto. It covers setting a company up and its first obligations. Closing a company is a separate subject, and ASIC’s pages on deregistration and winding up cover it.
Every page is written from government pages and lists its sources at the foot. A company’s own circumstances matter, so the guide describes the rules and leaves the decisions to the people setting the company up and their advisers.