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Business Name Registration

30 August 2011


One of the centuries-old hangovers from Australia's colonial days is being fixed. As simple a thing as registering a business name currently has to be done in every State if you want registration in each State. All registrations will now be handled centrally through the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) with recognition in every State. This might seem a small issue but the change is incredibly sensible.

Summary of the new laws

You must have a registered business name if trading. That is, it will be an offence not to have one except where:
  • You use your own name or
  • Have a company name.
Your business name will be tied to your Australian Business Number. If you don't have an ABN, you won't be allowed a registered business name.

Business name registration does not give you proprietary rights over the name. It's just a registration and identification system.

You will have to use your business name in all your commercial dealings.

If you have an existing business name registered in a state, you'll be automatically registered under the new system.

Trusts and superannuation funds also have to register.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) will administer the new system.

Here's the Bill and the Explanatory Memorandum.

The summary fact sheet is here.

Links to general information are here.

Summary from April 2010 Consultation Forum

ICA attended a consultation forum in April 2010. Here's our summary of key points of the new system:
  • Current State-based registers of business names will be automatically 'rolled over' into the new scheme
  • ASIC will administer and maintain the register
  • Registration will available online 24/7.
  • Fees will be much the same as present (if anything, a little less for many registrants) and significantly cheaper for businesses who currently register in more than one State.
  • It will use computer-based checks to determine if a name is materially identical with an existing name (ie, there will be little 'human' input into determinations of uniqueness, as is often the case in most current State schemes).
  • Names which are 'identical or nearly identical' to existing names will not be registered under the new scheme.
  • But, identical names that are currently registered in different states will become part of the new schemeÑwith a geographical suffix to distinguish them (on the register only, not in the marketplace).
  • There will be provisions for appeal if an applicant is unsuccessful.
  • All new applications will need to have an Australian Business Number (ABN) when registering a business name (but will be able to apply for an ABN at the same time as the business name application).
The summary fact sheet is here.

Links to the draft legislation and other materials are here.


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Submitted Comments

On 4 September, Ray commented:

At first this seems like a good idea, however:

When the same was first suggested for Credit Providers it was thought to be a good idea. Registration and licensing for Credit Providers went from the Business Licensing Authority (Victoria) to ASIC. The result was a vast increase in Compliance requirements ... tens of thousands of pages of extra rules, years of work (not finished yet), thousands of dollars in costs for business owners ... failure and or serious damage to many business ... loss of service providers to consumers.

ASIC have proved that they can't be trusted not to abuse their authority ... If you are in business and not very worried, you should be. It took me 2 and half years of struggle to get a registration/license that I already had from the state authority.


On 30 August, LynVA asked:

So will this apply to existing registrations once approved? Or will my biz name still only be registered in Qld?

To which Ken Phillips replied:

All existing registrations will be transferred to the federal (ASIC) system. It seems your existing Qld business name will become registered across Australia. This assumes that no-one in another state has the same name. If this occurs, ASIC will have some sorting out to do, I guess.