Business names
Business names
Register a company
Key points:
- If you choose a company as your business structure, you must register it on the Australian companies register, managed by ASIC.
- Before registering a company, you will need to have some building blocks in place.
- Company officeholders have ongoing legal obligations after the company is registered.
Before registering a company
Before registering a company, you should decide if it is the right business structure for you:
Sole trader? Partnership? Company? Trust?
Other business structures such as sole traders, partnerships and trusts do not need to register as a company.
The companies register and the business names register are separate. If you want to operate under a business name that is different to your company name, you will also need to register a business name.
Business.gov.au has a ‘Help me decide’ tool that can help you work out the registrations you need for different business structures.
Building blocks you need to register a company
Company name
You can choose a company name when registering your company. There are rules about what name you can have.
If you do not choose a name, the we give you when you register will be your company name, along with the legal status of the company. For example, your name could be ACN 123 456 789 Pty Ltd.
See more about rules for company names.
Reserving a name
If you are not ready to register your company but want to make sure a name is available, you can apply to reserve it.
You can reserve a name for up to 2 months. If you need to extend this, you must reapply. We do not reserve names indefinitely.
If you want to reserve a name, lodge this form:
Form 410 Application for reservation of a name.
There is a fee to reserve a name. The current fee is $62.
Company address
Every company must have rules for how it will be internally managed. Your company can:
- use from the Corporations Act 2001
- have its own
- use replaceable rules for some things and a constitution for others.
Company rules or constitution
Every company must have rules for how it will be internally managed. Your company can: use replaceable rules from the Corporations Act 2001 have its own constitution use replaceable rules for some things and a constitution for others.
Share structure and shareholders
You must provide your company’s and the number and type of shares issued.
For a proprietary company, you must provide the name and home address of each . If the company has more than 20 members, you only need to provide details for the top 20 members in each class of shares. People will be able to see shareholder details for proprietary companies online on the companies register.
You must also get written consent from all proposed members, confirming the number and class of shares to be owned and amount to be paid. Here is an example of a member consent template.
Officeholders (directors and secretaries)
For each proposed officeholder We use ‘company officeholder’ to mean a director or secretary of a company. A company officeholder is an officer of a company, but not all officers are officeholders. The term officer is defined in the Corporations Act 2001 but officeholder is not. of your company, you must provide: their name (including any former names) their home address their place and date of birth. People will be able to see these details online on the companies register.
Officeholder obligations
After registering a company, officeholders must meet their legal obligations, including:
- keeping company details up to date on the Australian companies register
- maintaining company records and the company share register
- paying fees, including an annual company review fee.