Starting a business carries with it certain obligations which have to be met. Perhaps the most important obligation is accurate reporting to ASIC of your company’s circumstances and income. If the circumstances of your company change, you are required to provide adequate notification of this. The most common change is a change of company address. Read on to find out the three steps you need to take to ensure that your company is compliant.
1. Know what the term ‘Company Address’ entails
Most business owners are aware of the requirement that they must update their company details if there is a change of Company Address. However, many people don’t know what the term ‘Company Address’ specifically refers to.
Generally, your Company Address refers to the Registered Office Address of your company, which could be either a residential address or virtual address. However, a company has other addresses, and if any of these change, ASIC have to be notified. Notice is required for change of the following addresses:
- The registered office address;
- The principal place of business;
- The residential address of each officeholder;
- The address of each member of a proprietary company (if there are less than 20 members); and
- The company’s contact address (if it chooses to have one).
It is worth noting that these addresses are available to the public when conducting a company search, and you should always ensure that this information is correct and updated where needed.
2. Know when the change of address will occur
It may seem obvious that an address change will occur when you move your office or place of business to a new location. Ensure you plan enough in advance so that the required form is lodged within 28 days of the change.
Even if you are not moving offices or physically changing your company address, it could also be changed by Council. For example, if your address is a lot number, it may be changed to a street number or the suburb in which it is located may change if new boundaries are drawn. Whether you actively change the company’s address or not, you are still required to inform ASIC.
3. Form 484 and ASIC Connect
Most of the required processes, including updating company details now has to be done online. Most importantly, you will need to lodge a ‘Form 484 – Change to Company Details’ form which will provide your company’s previous and updated details.
ASIC has recently introduced ‘ASIC Connect’ to provide online assistance for companies to lodge their notices or applications, and they no longer accept forms in hard copy format. Although most ASIC forms have been converted to an online format, paper forms still have to be used if a registered foreign company want to change the address of its registered office in Australia (Form 489).
To use ASIC Connect, you will also have to apply for a corporate key, which is an 8-digit login number allocated to your company for ASIC’s reference.
Conclusion
Changing your Company Address can be as simple as clicking a few buttons online in lodging the required forms. Yet, if not done correctly, you can face significant financial penalties which start to come into effect only 28 days after your change of address.
If you have any further questions about changing your Company Address, it is always worth consulting a business lawyer for advice.
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