Company Incorporation in Australia
Registration of an Australian company with ASIC. A Pty Ltd is registered electronically by lodging Form 201 — Australia does NOT require notarised constitutional documents to be lodged; what must be supplied is information and signed consents (Corporations Act 2001 s.117, s.120, s.201D). Two hard gates apply to inbound clients: at least one director must ordinarily reside in Australia (s.201A) and, where there is a single director, that director must be the resident one; and EVERY director — foreign nationals included — must already hold a Director Identification Number from the Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS), applied for BEFORE appointment. ASIC issues a Certificate of Registration and a nine-digit ACN, after which the ABN, business TFN and GST are registered free through the ABR. The ASIC registration fee is unpriced: ASIC's fee pages did not render an amount to the research fetcher, and the fee is re-indexed every 1 July. The day window below is a Comriq delivery estimate — ASIC publishes no registration service level.
3–6 business days
AUD
Compare the structures
Every column is a vehicle you can actually incorporate here, and each is bought on its own terms. Every fact carries where it was read: on the authority’s own page, or — marked Indicative — on a filing platform or publication we name and link. Anything we could not read anywhere is marked Pending verification and confirmed with the authority before you pay.
| Proprietary Limited Company (Pty Ltd)The default trading and holding vehicle for SMEs, startups and foreign-owned Australian subsidiaries — one director minimum, capped at 50 non-employee shareholders and unable to raise from the public | Public Company Limited by Shares (Ltd)Businesses that will raise capital from the public, list on the ASX or need more than 50 shareholders — at least 3 directors (2 ordinarily resident in Australia) and a resident company secretary, with full audit and AGM obligations | Sole TraderFreelancers, contractors and single-owner micro-businesses — no ASIC registration and no director ID, just a free ABN (and a business name if not trading under your own name), but the individual is legally responsible for all aspects of the business | PartnershipTwo or more people or entities sharing income or losses without incorporating — flow-through tax with its own ABN and TFN, but joint and several unlimited liability, and formation is a State/Territory matter with no national registrar or fee | Trust (discretionary / unit trust, typically with a corporate trustee)Asset protection, family businesses and investment structures wanting income-distribution flexibility | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum owners | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Maximum owners | 50 | Pending verification | 1 | Pending verification | Pending verification |
| Minimum directors | 1 | 3 | Pending verification | Pending verification | Pending verification |
| Liability | limited | limited | unlimited | unlimited | limitedlimited (in practice, where a Pty Ltd acts as trustee) |
| Foreign ownership | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tax treatment | Company tax: 25% if a base rate entity (aggregated turnover < AUD 50m and <=80% base rate entity passive income), otherw… | Company tax 25% / 30% on the same base-rate-entity test as a Pty Ltd (a listed public company will almost always pay 30%… | No separate entity: business income is taxed in the individual's hands at personal marginal rates. Uses the individual's… | Flow-through: the partnership lodges its own tax return but does not pay income tax; each partner is taxed on their shar… | A trust is generally not itself taxed if it distributes all net income to beneficiaries each year; beneficiaries are tax… |
| Audit required | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Audit threshold | A proprietary company must be audited only if it is a 'large' proprietary company (meets 2 of 3 tests: consolidated reve… | A public company must generally prepare, have audited and lodge financial reports regardless of size (limited exceptions… | Pending verification | Pending verification | Pending verification |
| Annual compliance | Medium | High | Low | Low | Medium |
| Typical use | Wholly-owned Australian subsidiary of a foreign parent, funded startup, and the standard vehicle Comriq would sell to an… | Pre-IPO restructuring, ASX listing, crowd-sourced funding, or a not-for-profit needing a public-company-limited-by-guara… | Solo consultant or tradesperson who needs an ABN (and GST registration once turnover reaches AUD 75,000) but no separate… | Professional practices and family businesses. General partnerships are governed by State/Territory Partnership Acts; lim… | Discretionary (family) trust or unit trust running a business or holding investments, almost always with a Pty Ltd corpo… |
What we will need from you
Upload these once. They are stored encrypted and reused across every service you buy from us.
Proposed company name, or an election to use the ACN as the name
Checked for availability on ASIC's register. A paid name reservation (Form 410) is optional and only needed to hold a name ahead of registration.
Australian registered office address, plus the occupier's written consent if the company does not occupy it
Once per office, not per director. Required under Corporations Act 2001 s.117.
Principal place of business
For each director and each secretary: full name, date of birth, place of birth and residential address
Per officeholder (s.117).
Signed written consent to act, per director and per secretary
Per officeholder, under s.201D. Consents are held by the company; certified paper is not lodged.
Director Identification Number (director ID) for every director
VERIFIED: each director must apply to the ABRS personally and BEFORE appointment. It is a 15-digit permanent identifier, one per person for life. We guide the application but cannot make it on a director's behalf. A foreign-resident director without an Australian tax identity follows a different ABRS identity pathway, which research could not confirm — that workflow is scoped at quote.
At least one director who ordinarily resides in Australia
VERIFIED (s.201A). A sole director must be the Australian resident, so a wholly foreign-owned company has to appoint a resident director. A public company needs at least 3 directors, 2 of them resident, plus a resident company secretary (s.204A) — confirmed against the sections before we rely on the public-company multiplicity.
For each member: name, address and share / consent details
Per shareholder (s.117). The exact Form 201 information and consent set is confirmed at quote against ASIC Form 201 and its guide — research deliberately did not enumerate it from memory.
Cost breakdown
Our fee and the government’s are always separate lines. Government fees are passed through at exactly what the authority charges — we add nothing to them.
| ASIC fee to register a proprietary company limited by shares (Form 201)NOT read from an official page. Strongly corroborated at AUD 611 for FY2025-26 and AUD 636 from 1 July 2026, but not published here as an amount. | Confirmed before payment |
| ASIC fee to register a public company limited by sharesone line of this schedule appliesHigher than the proprietary fee; no figure rendered and none corroborated in research. Read the live ASIC fee page. | Confirmed before payment |
| ASIC fee to reserve a company name (Form 410)only if it appliesOptional — most incorporations take the name as part of the single registration step. Not read from an official page; corroborated at AUD 62 for FY2025-26 and subject to the same 1 July indexation. | Confirmed before payment |
| ASIC business name registration (sole trader trading under a name)only if it appliesOnly where a sole trader trades under a name other than their own. Renewable for 1 or 3 years. | Confirmed before payment |
| ABN registration (Australian Business Number, via the ABR)VERIFIED FREE on business.gov.au: it is free to register for an ABN through the Australian Business Register, which the ATO manages. Beware third-party sites that charge for the free ABR service. | No statutory feeIndicative — from asic.gov.au, not confirmed on a government portal. We confirm the exact amount before you pay. |
| Comriq professional feeper filing | A$749 |
How it runs
You will see these exact stages update in your client portal as we progress.
Check and choose the company name
Confirm the proposed name is available on ASIC's register, or elect to use the ACN as the name. An optional paid reservation (Form 410) holds a name before registering.
Obtain Director IDs
Every proposed director applies to the ABRS for a Director Identification Number BEFORE appointment — a verified precondition, not a formality.
Collect consents and registered office
Signed consent to act from each director and secretary (s.201D), member consents (s.117), and an Australian registered office secured, with the occupier's consent where the company does not occupy it.
Lodge Form 201 with ASIC and pay the fee
The company is registered under s.118; ASIC issues the Certificate of Registration and the nine-digit ACN.
Register ABN, TFN and (if required) GST
Free via the ABR / Business Registration Service on business.gov.au. The ABN is an 11-digit number built on the ACN, and the business TFN and GST can be obtained in the same application.
Indicative guidance — confirmed before payment
Requirements and statutory fees are set by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC); business and tax registrations via the Australian Business Register (ABR) / ATO and change without notice. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Your engagement letter and quote are the binding documents.