FAQ

Information here may help you as a guide to provide general overview of operation of a unit trust and explain the commercial advantages and disadvantages of conducting business or investing with a Family unit trust structure.

There are many tax planning, asset protection and distribution of wealth issues which must be considered before a decision is made to establish a family trust. Those who intend using this tax structure, information contained herein should be taken as starting point of their investigation.

Many accounting and legal matters, such as, stamp duty and land tax, have not been addressed here. We are not in a position to advice you, trustees and beneficiaries should read the trust deed to better understand their rights, powers, obligations and duties. This guide is not intended to replace any legal advice; readers should consult a qualified legal practitioner for advice.

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

Yes, but within prescribed guidelines. The name must not be identical to a company already registered or a registered business name. There are also restrictions on certain words. More information about rules regarding a company name can be found here. Choose a company name

Yes, a Pty Ltd company can be formed with one person who can be both a shareholder and a director.

If you already have a registered business name, and you want to register a company with that same name, you can do that. While filling the company registration application you must inform ASIC whether the proposed name is identical to already registered business name or not.

If the proposed name is identical to already registered business name, you will be required to provide –

1. the ABN, if business name was registered after 28 May 2012 OR

2. the state or territory of registration and the registered Business Number, if the business name was registered before 28 May 2012

If you have got your proposed company name already reserved with ASIC you will need to submit the reservation letter received from ASIC and an authorisation letter. Hence, your company will not be automatically lodged directly with ASIC. For reserved names, after submitting the application please fax these two documents to our office at 02 9037 0320 or, our support centre will get in touch with you and guide you further.

Your application may be rejected by ASIC for a number of reasons like proposed company name not conforming to the guidelines laid down by ASIC, incorrect holding company's ACN or for any other reason. If your application is rejected, you will receive an email from our system detailing the reason of rejection. You can login to our website using your password and fix the application and re-lodge it. If you have any difficulty, please do not hesitate to contact our support centre on 02 9037 0320.

As soon as the company is registered with ASIC, our automatic system generates all the relevant documents which are instantly emailed to you. You can also get the documents printed, professionally bound and express couriered to you in a 'Deluxe Soft Leather Feel' folder with all documents marked with 'Sign Here' stickers by paying additional $66.

All these documents can also be downloaded from our website anytime and from anywhere after logging in.

No, we provide the service of registering your company with ASIC only. Registering with ASIC does not mean automatic registration for ABN and TFN. You can register for ABN and TFN online at www.abr.gov.au for free. We have also provided an application form in the document package for offline registration for ABN and TFN. You also have the option for additional $29 to use our form to Apply for an ABN, TFN, GST and PAYG withholding Registration where we will pre-fill the online ABR application form for you and save you over half an hour of your time.

You can register only Proprietary companies limited by shares on our website.

Yes, with us, you can register a ‘Special Purpose’ company which can act as trustee of a Self Managed Super Fund (SMSF). However, we do not provide service to register other types of special purpose companies. Constitution of this special purpose company must have relevant clauses to specifically state that it is a special purpose company to act as trustee of SMSF.

Certainly you can. We have direct connectivity with ASIC server which means you can form your company 24/7.

If your company has not yet been registered and is rejected by ASIC for whatsoever reason, you can access your application by logging in and edit the information before resubmitting it.

However, if the company has already been registered, the matter moves to ASIC's domain and we will not be able to help you. There are various forms provided by ASIC to change various details.

Some of these are:

  • Form 205A: For correcting incorrect company name. There is an ASIC fee to lodge this form. So you need to be very careful while filling the form. Even if you make a typing mistake, it would cost you $395 to fix it.
  • Form 484: For changing details of a company like adding or deleting a director or shareholder or changing share structure or changing the registered office of a company.
  • Form 492: For correcting personal details like date of birth of officeholders.

No, we only provide a service to register the companies online. We are not a law firm or accountants. We cannot advice you on the suitability or otherwise of the company structure for you. All the information provided on our website is generic in nature and you should seek suitable professional advice before buying anything from our website.

No, we do not provide a common seal. Since 1st July, 1998 the use of a common seal is optional. A document is considered correctly executed by a company if it is signed by two directors or a director and secretary or by a single director if he is the sole director and secretary

Out of the total fee, $576 goes to ASIC as registration fee and balance is our service fee plus cost of documents provided. Once a company is registered, the ASIC fee of $488 is not recoverable. The only refund possible is of our service fee and that too in exceptional circumstances at our discretion.

However, if the company is rejected by ASIC and you do not want to proceed with the registration process, we can refund the whole amount after deducting 4% merchant charges.

You will be provided with A Certificate of registration of "Australian Business Number" issued by the Australian Business Registrar and the company's Tax File Number will be sent by the ATO to the company's nominated address for service of Notice and your ABN will appear on "ABN Lookup" page.

You can apply for an ABN for free on www.abr.gov.au. However the government online form takes about half hour to fill as you have to fill in several pages. We can pre-fill this form for you. You can lodge your ABN, TFN & GST application with your trust information and some additional information which you have to provide on our form. We will notify you when your ABN is registered and is ready to use.

You can Apply for an ABN, TFN, GST & PAYG withholding registration for your proprietary company if it is an Australian resident company for tax purposes and is incorporated for profit and it does not operate an agricultural business or owned or controlled by a state or local government.

When you deal with Australian Tax Office you will need an ABN. When you supply goods and Services, you are required to charge Goods & Services Tax (GST) by law if your annual turnover is over $75,000. Also when you purchase goods and services, you pay GST, to claim or remit GST, you need an ABN.

Company's registered by ASIC are eligible for an ABN if they carry on an enterprise. If your company is going to only act as a trustee of a trust, usually you will not need an ABN for that trustee company, however, we recommend that you seek your independent legal advice or talk to ATO.

If your company is carrying on an enterprise and its turnover is over $75,000 then you must register for GST and charge GST to your clients on the goods and services you supply and issue a proper Tax Invoice displaying your company's ABN. If your turnover is less than $75,000, then GST registration is optional unless you operate certain types of enterprise, like a taxi. We recommend that you seek your independent legal advice or talk to ATO.

If an identity of any company associate cannot be verified or more information is needed by Australian business registrar (ABR) then it is possible that instead of an ABN you get a reference number by ABR, in all other cases, you will get an ABN instantly. ABR will contact you within 20 days and request further information from you.

Yes, it is possible that ABR refuses to issue you an ABN in some exceptional circumstances. They will send you a refusal number and you will receive a letter within 14 days confirming your refusal and the reasons for refusal.

Your application with ABR is lodged as soon as your company is registered with ASIC and ACN is available, this takes usually couple of minutes. Once the application for ABN is lodged ABN is issued immediately, say within 10 minutes of company being registered.
However if any information is incorrect, for example the information provided does not match ATO records, then ABR will need some more information from you. This new information will be requested by ABR directly within 28 days of our form being lodged.

No, since a company is a separate entity, it must apply for its own ABN. An ABN identifies a particular business and if you are trading as a sole trader, then your ABN is for that enterprise and not for your new company.

Yes, Once your company is registered and we have sent you your company's ACN, you can apply for the companies ABN directly on www.abr.gov.au

The information collected by us is the same as required by ABR however, for the ease of our customers who are filling out the form, we have automatically filled in answers for same of the standards questions based on your responses. Also some of the non-mandaotry questions have not been considered. If you intend to provide additional details, you can always contact them and update your details. Details of the these questions as well as our presumed answers are as follows:

# QUESTIONS RESPONSE
ABN FORM
ABN Entitlement
1 For taxation purposes which type of entity is the applicant?* Company / Private Company
2 Are the terms of the trust set out in a trust deed or are the terms of the trust implied?* Yes
3 Will your activities be carried out in Australia?* Yes
4 Have you started or are you taking steps to start your activity?* Yes
Application detail
5 Does the applicant currently have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or previously had an ABN?* No
6 Does the applicant wish to apply for an Australian Business Number (ABN)?* Yes
7 Does the applicant have a Tax File Number?* No
8 Does the applicant wish to apply for a Tax File Number?* Yes
Business Information
9 What type of organisation is the applicant?* Unit trust - investment
10 Is the applicant an Australian resident for tax purposes? Yes
11 Is the applicant a type of organisation that fits within an income tax exempt category? No
12 Is the applicant a not-for-profit organisation? No
13 Is the Unit Investment Trust owned or controlled by Commonwealth, State, Territory or Local Government? No
14 Does the Unit Investment Trust operate an agricultural property?* No
15 What is the Unit Investment Trust's email address for service of notices and correspondence? Authorized person email address
16 Does the Unit Investment Trust have more than one business location in Australia? No
Reason for application
17 Why is the Unit Investment Trust applying for an ABN?* New Business in Australia
18 Is this the Unit Investment Trust's first time in business in Australia?* Yes

We provide stamping of your discretionary trust documents, including payment of duty to the New South Wales or Victoria State Revenue offices.

Our fee for duty stamping is $70(inc GST) plus state government fees which is $500 plus $10 for every duplicate trust deed for NSW (if stamped within 3 months of the date of execution) and $200 for Victoria (if stamped within 30 days). No duplicates are available for VIC as digital certificates is issued.

Our single online form allows you to order stamping services (for NSW and VIC jurisdictions) at the time of setting up the trust deed. If you have ordered a print bundle, we will include an addressed Express Post envelope to return the executed deeds for stamping. If you have not ordered the print bundle, you can send the executed copies (at your expense) to our office address mentioned on the invoice for stamping.

Please note that if deeds are not stamped with a certain time period from the date of execution (Within 3 months of the date of execution for NSW and within 30 days of the date of execution for VIC) there is additional cost to be paid.

It is very important that deed must be correctly executed for us to process the duty. It should be dated, signed by all the parties including witnesses wherever required on the deed. If you’re not clear on the process, please feel free to call us for the guidance.

If your trust deed was set up in NSW we can process the stamping within 2-3 business days and have your stamped deed sent back to you via express post. If your trust was set up in Victoria however, the Victorian SRO takes 3-5 business days to issue the certificate once assessment is done.

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Click here for ASIC Guideline on names unacceptable for registration