Setting up a Company in Australia

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First of all it is pretty easy to do, you simply go to the ASIC website and search for the company name you would like to register to see if it has not been taken, and to be extra sure I also suggest you search in the business registration website as well by clicking on ABN look up and you can type the name of the company just to see if anyone else has this name.

Now that you are 100% certain nobody has registered your name, you can download the form 201 which appears as a drop down from the right sidebar on their home page and leads you to this page and then gives you the option to register either a public or proprietary company, to keep this really simple, I recommend you register the proprietary company (201c) which has a cost of $400.

This is the download form (unfortunately they do not yet have an online version) Once you are ready to fill out the form, remember that it is highly likely you need to nominate yourself as the director, and you can leave other directors and secretary pages blank if you do not have partners, however if you have partners then you will need to fill out those pages and also state the shares each partner has. Otherwise leave it as 100 shares at 100% ownership at $1 per share. (This is just an example)

From the time the application is submitted there is usually a 3 day waiting period, it really doesn’t take that long and then you will need to wait a week or two on the company registration certificates. You will need the original certificate in order to open the company bank account.

You will then have an ACN number which will be very useful for when applying for certain things. Remember also that if you think that you will be earning over $75,000 to apply for GST. This means you will need to charge 10% on top of all your invoices to your clients. But also remember that by doing so you will need to get your bookkeeper to fill out the GST statements each quarter before giving them to your accountant, which can be very time consuming and costly.

For those who are in need of branding out, I highly recommend trademarking your name as well. This can be done through IP Australia and remember to do a search there as well!

And if you have a new product on the market, do not forget to patent it!

I hope you found this post useful and wish you all the best in getting a company set up and good luck!