Company Registration FAQs

The total fee is $483 which includes all government fees, our service fee and GST. The ASIC registration fee is $433 and our service fee, inclusive of GST, is just $50.

For $50 you get the convenience of being able to lodge your company 24/7 from the comfort of your own home/office, and also having all your company documentation such as consents, share registry, opening minutes etc automatically prepared for you.

If your application has no errors and doesn't get flagged for manual approval, your company will usually be registered within 5 minutes of submission. Your documentation and invoice is then immediately emailed to you.

Orders flagged for manual approval at ASIC typically take an extra 10 - 50 minutes to be registered if submitted during ASIC business hours. If the order is submitted outside of ASIC business hours then it won't be processed until the next business day. Common reasons for a manual approval include, non dictionary words in the company name and your chosen name being identical to an existing registered state business name.

Please note this section only applies to companies that have been registered. If your application was rejected you may edit your order through eCompanies and resubmit it.

Once registered all dealings are done directly with ASIC. ASIC provides a number of forms for the ongoing compliance of registered companies which are listed here. Forms can be lodged over the counter at your nearest ASIC office, by posting the completed form to ASIC, or by lodging online.

To lodge online you will need your corporate key. This is sent to your registered office by ASIC upon registration. When you have this key you can register for online access with ASIC to lodge forms.

Types of mistake include:

• Incorrect Company Name
  Even if its just a typing mistake you will need to lodge a form 205a which ASIC currently charges $357 to lodge.
• Incorrect personal details
  For example you entered someone's birthday incorrectly. In this case you can most likely lodge a form 492.
• Missing director/shareholder etc
  For example you incorrectly added or missed a director or incorrectly allocated shares. You will most likely need to lodge a form 484.

Once you have confirmation from ASIC that a form 492 has been lodged you can let us know and we can reissue your documentation if needed.

Once registered all dealings are done directly with ASIC. ASIC provides a number of forms for the ongoing compliance of registered companies which are listed here. Forms can be lodged over the counter at your nearest ASIC office, by posting the completed form to ASIC, or by lodging online.

To lodge online you will need your corporate key. This is sent to your registered office by ASIC upon registration. When you have this key you can register for online access with ASIC to lodge forms.

The most commonly used form for changes is a form 484.

We are an ASIC registered agent, agent no.: 26944. ASIC registered agents can lodge documents including company registrations on behalf of third parties.

We are an ASIC accredited software provider software rego. no.:2053. This means we have our own direct electronic link to ASIC, allowing us to lodge your registration at any time of day, any day of the week.

For some more information on the registration process read our how it works page.

Anyone can, however you must have at least one Australian resident director and a physical Australian address for the registered office of the company.

eCompanies allows you to register proprietary companies limited by shares. This is by far the most common form of company and is almost always used for the conduct of small and medium sized businesses which choose to operate as a company.

Yes, within limits. The name must not be taken by someone else or be too similar to a registered company name or state trading name. There are also restrictions on certain words and language and other pitfalls if your chosen name is too similar to a trademark.

You can find out more on the rules regarding company names on our choosing a company name page.

Yes, a proprietary company limited by shares can have one directer and one share member who may be the same person.

Information you will need to gather includes:

• Full name, full residential address and date and place of birth for each director or secretary of the company.
• Full name, address and number of shares for each member of the company.
• The address of the registered office and principal place of business.

eCompanies allows you to save your application at any point, so the easiest way to find out would be to click register a company and start the process. If you find out you don't have all the required information save the application and come back later.

Firstly, have a read of this article on company shares for an overview of what shares represent.

Secondly, if you are unsure then you will probably want to use Ordinary shares. For a company that is owned by 1 person it would be typical to have between 1 - 100 Ordinary shares with between 1c and $1 paid per share and $0 unpaid.

We automatically prepare all documentation required for your company to be compliant under the Corporations act 2001 and more! Upon registration the following documents will be emailed to you and made available in our client area.

• Official certificate of registration and ACN
  issued by ASIC.
• Company officer consent forms
  All required company officer consent forms created from your answers and if required, consent to use address as registered office.
• Application for shares
  All required member share application forms created from your answers.
• Opening company minutes
  Contains all the resolutions for the formation of your company.
• Share member register
  Full register prepared with the relevant share & member details including class, issue price and balance.
• Other registers These include, Register of Options, Register of Debentures, Register of Directors, Company Seal Register, Forms Lodged Register.
• Share certificates
  Share Certificates for each holding member with individual serial numbers.
• Blank Forms
  Blank consents, share applications and share certificates.
• Constitution
  Constitution with Div 7A loan clauses
• Client Copy of Lodgement
  A copy of the Form 201 used to form your company.

ASIC does not provide a certificate printed on their letterhead. It has not done so for electronically registered companies since 2001. The PDF that is supplied as part of the documentation is the 'Original' certificate of registration. If you are queried about the authenticity of a print out of the certificate you can verify it by calling ASIC.

All documentation is in pdf format. Upon successful registration all documentation will be emailed to the provided applicant address. All documentation will also be available for download from the eCompanies website under the client area.

Pdf documents require adobe reader to view. While it is most likely that you already have this already installed you can download adbobe reader from http://www.adobe.com if necessary.

No identification is required.

At the completion of the questionnaire you will be required to download declaration forms for each company officer and share holder. These forms will need to be printed and signed by the relevant people. They do not however, need to be posted, they are to be kept safe with the other company documentation.

Yes, we provide a constitution sourced from TressCox Lawyers. Our constitution contains a dozen share classes and Div7a loan clauses as standard. If you would prefer to use the replaceable rules we provide a collated pdf for download. Simply download it and use it in place of the provided constitution in your company documentation.

Click here for more information on our provided constituion.

Yes! You can now specify that the company is to be a superannuation trustee. We also provide the tailored constitution, requisite minutes and superannuation declaration.

Read more about special purpose companies at our special purpose company page.

No, we perform the company registration with ASIC, the ABN is an identifier with the tax office for a business which doesn't have to be a company.

To get an ABN (Australian business number), you need to apply for one at the Australian Business Register website. You can also register for GST and obtain a tax file number for your new company at the same time.

You will need to register a company here to get your ACN (Australian Company Number) first before you can apply.

Your corporate key is issued by ASIC and sent to your registered office in the post. The key is issued within two business days of the company being registered and may take a few more days to arrive in the post.

If you still haven't received it after 5 business days you may need to request a new one be sent, this can be done online by visiting the ASIC corporate key request form.

For more information please visit ASIC's corporate key page.

If you have no further use for your company and it is not in financial difficulty or insolvent you can voluntarily deregister your company by lodging a form 6010 with ASIC.

For more information please visit ASIC's deregistering a company page.

No, eCompanies is only a company registration service. Trusts are legal relationships which requires a trust deed and registration with the ATO. Trusts are a complicated area and we strongly recommend professional advice if you are considering forming one.

If you have a trust and want the trust to own shares in your company, you must remember a trust cannot directly own shares as it is not a legal entity. The trustee(s) of the trust will hold shares in the newly formed company for the benefit of the trust. This is easily done when registering through eCompanies.

No, eCompanies does not offer a service to use our address for your registered office.

A common seal is a rubber stamp used to execute company documents. Since 1st July, 1998 the use of a common seal is optional, with a document considered correctly executed by a company if it is signed by two directors or a director and secretary or by a single director if they are the sole director and secretary.

eCompanies doesn't supply a common seal.

Very.

In fact we're probably the cheapest company formation service you'll find that has a Fully Compliant company register that is automatically tailored from your answers. There are sites that advertise a cheaper price but once you have selected all the necessary corporate register documents, included their merchant fees and a constitution, they are actually more expensive. Unfortunately they don't reveal this until you have completed the application and are asked to pay.

Also we're one of the few that talk directly to ASIC and lodge your company 24/7. You can form a company cheaper by downloading the 201 form from ASIC's site, filling it out and lodging it over the counter at an ASIC office. But if you do you DON'T get all the documentation required to be compliant with the Corporations ACT 2001.

If you find someone cheaper please contact us.

We accept VISA and Mastercard credit cards at time of submission via our secure payment system.

Our payment system is unique to the company registration world. When you submit your application we do a preauthorisation for $483 on your card. A preauthorisation checks that the amount is available on your card and reserves the amount without taking the money. When your company registration is accepted we then complete the transaction and take the money from your card.

If the company is rejected and you do not wish to proceed with the registration, the preauthorisation will expire in 3 - 6 days, depending on your financial institution making the money available to you again. You can be confident you get what you pay for. Other companies take your money upfront before your company is registered and then make you jump through hoops to obtain a refund if you no longer want the company.

If the company is registered it will only be possible to refund the service fee of $50 under exceptional circumstances. The $433 ASIC fee is not recoverable.

Refunds are given at our discretion and must be applied for via email stating the full reasons for the refund.