Company Compliance Checklist Australia

A company compliance checklist for Australia is the short list of things you must do every year to keep your company registered: pay your ASIC annual review fee, keep your company details current, and pass a solvency resolution. Miss them and you face late fees, and eventually the risk of deregistration.

This is the admin nobody starts a company for. It sits in the background until an ASIC letter lands, a fee goes overdue, or a buyer’s lawyer asks for your company register during due diligence. The good news is that the annual list is short, the deadlines are fixed, and once you know them you can mostly set and forget.

What annual compliance does my company need?

Every registered Australian company has the same annual baseline, whether it’s a one-director startup or a group of twenty. The obligations sit in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), and ASIC administers them through the annual review. Three jobs make up the core.

First, pay the annual review fee by the due date on your statement. Second, check the details ASIC holds and correct anything wrong. Third, have your directors pass a solvency resolution confirming the company can pay its debts. That’s the whole annual spine, and it’s less work than most owners fear.

Where it gets people is everything around the edges: keeping a proper register, telling ASIC about changes within 28 days rather than waiting for review time, and holding a director ID for every director. None of it is hard. It just has to actually happen, on time, every year.

The company compliance checklist (Australia)

Here’s the list you can copy. Run it once a year when your ASIC statement arrives, and check the change items whenever something actually changes.

• Pay your ASIC annual review fee within two months of your annual review date.
• Check your annual statement for the right officeholders, registered office, principal place of business, and share structure. Correct anything wrong within 28 days of the statement’s issue date.
• Pass and store a solvency resolution within two months of the review date (unless you lodged a financial report with ASIC in the past 12 months).
• Update ASIC within 28 days of any change to directors, secretaries, addresses, members or shares. Don’t wait for the annual review.
• Confirm every director holds a director ID. It’s a one-off, lifetime number, and it’s mandatory.
• Keep your company register and minute book current so your internal records match what ASIC holds.
• Record major decisions (share issues, transfers, director changes, constitutional changes) as minutes or written resolutions.
• Keep your corporate key safe. It’s how you access ASIC’s online services to lodge changes.

That’s it. Eight items, most of which only move when your business does. If you only do the first three every year, you’ve covered the obligations that actually keep your company registered. The rest keep you clean for the day a bank, investor or buyer looks under the bonnet.

What’s extra on a new company’s first-year checklist?

Brand-new companies have a handful of one-off jobs before the annual rhythm starts. They’re easy to miss because they happen once, so bolt them onto your company compliance checklist in year one.

• Get a director ID for every director before they’re appointed. It’s required up front, not after the fact.
• Decide your governing rules. Adopt a constitution or rely on the replaceable rules in the Corporations Act, and keep a copy with your records.
• Register for tax. Apply for a company tax file number and an ABN, and register for GST if you expect to turn over $75,000 or more.
• Set a real registered office. It must be a physical street address in Australia (PO Boxes aren’t allowed), and ASIC sends official letters there. If it’s your accountant’s office, keep their written consent on file.
• Issue your first shares and record them in the member register from day one, so the paperwork matches the deal you actually did.

Get these right at company registration and your first annual review is a formality. Skip them and year two becomes an exercise in untangling records that never matched reality.

ASIC annual review explained

The ASIC annual review is the once-a-year checkpoint that keeps your company on the register. Shortly after your registration anniversary, ASIC issues an annual statement with an invoice and a snapshot of your company details. From that date, the two-month clock starts.

Step one is the fee. Pay it within two months of your review date, or late fees apply automatically. Step two is the details check: read the statement and make sure the officeholders, addresses and share structure are right. If anything on the statement is wrong, correct it within 28 days of the statement’s issue date. Miss that and ASIC adds a late review fee ($102, or $428 after a month), on top of any late lodgement fee for the original change.

Step three is the solvency resolution. Your directors formally decide whether the company can pay its debts as they fall due, and you store that resolution with your records. A positive resolution stays on file. A negative one has to be lodged with ASIC on Form 485 within seven days, and it’s a serious signal, so get advice before you go there. Our guide to the solvency resolution walks through what directors are actually signing.

Key ASIC deadlines and fees for 2026-27

Deadlines are what trip people, so here’s the whole year on one page. Fees shown are 2026-27 and index every 1 July, so always confirm the exact figure on your own statement.

Obligation	When it’s due	2026-27 cost
Pay the annual review fee	Within 2 months of your annual review date (your registration anniversary)	$342 proprietary / $1,591 public
Pass a solvency resolution	Within 2 months of your annual review date	No ASIC fee
Update changed company details	Within 28 days of the change	No fee for most officeholder and address updates
Correct your annual statement details	Within 28 days of the statement’s issue date	No late fee if on time
Lodge a negative solvency resolution (Form 485)	Within 7 days of passing it	No fee
Late annual review fee, up to 1 month late	After the 2-month due date	+$102
Late annual review fee, more than 1 month late	More than 1 month after the due date	+$428
Special purpose company annual review	Same timing as above	$70 proprietary / $65 public

One timing quirk worth knowing: the 28-day change clock and the annual review are separate. If you appoint a director in March and your review date is November, you were meant to lodge that change in March. Waiting for the review to tidy everything up is how late lodgement fees sneak in.

What happens if I miss ASIC deadlines?

You get charged, quickly and automatically. Pay the annual review fee up to a month late and ASIC adds $102. Go past a month and it’s $428 on top of the review fee. The same $102 / $428 late fees apply if you lodge company changes late. Wait until annual review to catch up, and ASIC can charge both.

ASIC can’t waive the underlying review fee, and it only reviews late fees in genuinely exceptional circumstances. “I forgot” isn’t one of them. So the late fee is best thought of as fixed: if you miss the date, you pay, and arguing about it rarely works.

Keep ignoring it and the stakes climb. Unpaid fees and an unresponsive company can lead ASIC to begin deregistration, which ends your company’s legal existence. A deregistered company can’t trade, hold assets or sue, and its property can vest in ASIC. Reinstating it is slower and dearer than the fee you skipped. Our rundown of common ASIC compliance mistakes covers the traps that get companies there.

The compliance slips that cost small companies

Most compliance failures are small, boring oversights that compound. These are the ones we see trip owners up most.

Treating the review as the only deadline. Owners save every change for annual review time, then get stung by 28-day late lodgement fees they never saw coming. The fix is to lodge changes when they happen, not once a year.

Letting the registered office go stale. If ASIC mail bounces because you moved and never updated the address, you can miss the annual statement entirely and only find out when late fees have already stacked up. Your registered office is where ASIC assumes you’ll get its letters.

Skipping the solvency resolution. It feels like a formality, so it quietly doesn’t get done. But it’s a formal director duty, and a missing one looks bad in any dispute or due diligence. Two minutes once a year avoids it.

A register that doesn’t match reality. Founders agree a share split over coffee, issue shares in their heads, and never update the member register. Years later a buyer’s lawyer finds the paperwork says something different from the cap table, and a clean sale turns into a clean-up job.

Do directors need anything beyond the annual review?

Yes, two things worth flagging. Every director must hold a director ID, a unique lifetime number issued through the Australian Business Registry Services. It’s already mandatory, and running a company without one is a breach, so if a director hasn’t got theirs, sort it now.

From 1 July 2027, director IDs also become part of the ASIC process itself: companies will need to report director IDs to ASIC during the annual review and when notifying director changes. It’s not live yet, but it’s close enough that getting every director’s ID in order now saves a scramble later. Directors also carry ongoing duties under the Corporations Act, like acting in good faith and avoiding insolvent trading, that sit alongside the paperwork.

Beyond ASIC: the compliance your company can’t ignore

ASIC is the headline, but a complete company compliance checklist in Australia runs wider than the annual review. Three other areas catch owners out, and each has its own regulator and its own penalties.

Tax. Your company lodges its own annual company tax return, separate from your personal return. If you’re registered for GST, you also lodge business activity statements through the year. The ATO runs its own penalty regime, entirely separate from ASIC’s, so a tidy ASIC record won’t save you from a late BAS. Keeping your business tax compliance on track is half the job of running a company.

Employment. The moment you hire, a new layer lands: correct pay and award rates, superannuation, payslips, and record-keeping under the Fair Work system. A company with staff carries far more compliance than one without, and underpayment is the area that generates the most back-pay claims. If you’ve got a team, it belongs on the checklist.

Records. Companies must keep financial records that correctly explain their transactions and position, and hold them for at least seven years. It feels like box-ticking until the ATO, a bank, or a liquidator asks, and then it’s the difference between a one-email answer and a month of reconstruction.

None of this is a reason to panic. It’s a reason to keep one compliance calendar and one place for your records, so each deadline is a quick tick rather than a late-night scramble.

Frequently asked questions

Company compliance checklist Australia: what’s on it?

The core company compliance checklist in Australia is: pay your ASIC annual review fee within two months, confirm your company details are current, pass and store a solvency resolution, lodge any changes within 28 days, and make sure every director holds a director ID. Keeping a current register sits alongside those.

What annual compliance does my company need?

Every year, a registered company must pay its ASIC annual review fee, check and correct its company details, and pass a solvency resolution. Corrections to your annual statement are due within 28 days of its issue date, and the fee and solvency resolution within two months of your annual review date. Lodging changes within 28 days and keeping proper records are ongoing obligations that run alongside the annual review.

ASIC annual review explained: what are the three steps?

After your registration anniversary, ASIC sends an annual statement. You then pay the review fee ($342 for a proprietary company in 2026-27), check and update your company details, and pass a solvency resolution confirming the company can pay its debts. Fix any wrong details within 28 days of the statement’s issue date, and pay the fee and pass the resolution within two months of your review date.

What happens if I miss ASIC deadlines?

You pay a late fee: $102 if you’re up to a month late, $428 if you’re more than a month late. The same applies to lodging changes late. ASIC can’t waive the review fee and rarely waives late fees. Prolonged non-compliance can lead to your company being deregistered.

Do I really need a solvency resolution every year?

Yes, unless your company lodged a financial report with ASIC in the previous 12 months. Directors must pass it within two months of the annual review date and keep it on file. A solvency resolution template makes it a two-minute job rather than a forgotten one.

How do I update my company details with ASIC?

Lodge the change through ASIC’s online services using your corporate key, within 28 days of the change. It covers officeholders, registered office, principal place of business, members and share structure. If you’d rather not deal with ASIC directly, Lawpath can update your company details for you.

How much does company compliance cost each year?

The unavoidable cost is the ASIC annual review fee: $342 for a proprietary company in 2026-27, or $1,591 for a public company. On top sit your accountant’s fees for the company tax return, and a service fee if you use an agent to run the review. Late fees of $102 or $428 are the avoidable part.

Stay compliant without the mental load

If this list made your stomach drop a little, you’re in good company. Most directors run their annual compliance from memory and a vague sense of dread, and it works right up until the year it doesn’t. You need the dates tracked and the fee paid on time.

That’s the one thing worth handing off. Lawpath’s ASIC annual review service acts as your ASIC agent, retrieves your statement, and gets your review done on time so the late fees never start. Set it up once and the yearly scramble turns into a non-event.