Olivia is the Head of Legal at Lawpath, where she helps Australian businesses navigate complex legal challenges with practical, commercially minded advice. She specialises in employment matters, contract drafting, pre-litigation strategy, dispute resolution, commercial law and startup compliance, and has supported clients across technology, healthcare, professional services and retail. Olivia is passionate about making legal services accessible, personable and effective for every client.
The ASIC annual review fee is the yearly charge every Australian company pays to stay registered, and from 1 July 2026 it’s $342 for a standard Pty Ltd. ASIC invoices it with your annual statement around your company’s registration anniversary, and you then have two months to pay.
Here’s what nobody mentions on registration day: the bill comes back every year, whether your company made a million dollars or nothing at all. Most founders learn the rules when a late fee lands. Ten minutes now saves you that.
- A Pty Ltd pays $342 a year from 1 July 2026. Public companies pay $1,591, and SMSF trustee companies pay a reduced $70.
- The deadline is two months after your review date. Your review date is usually the anniversary of the day ASIC registered your company.
- Late fees are $102 or $428. Pay more than a month late and the penalty is bigger than the fee itself.
- Paying is one of three annual jobs. You also need to check your company details and have your directors pass a solvency resolution.
- Dormant companies still pay. If you no longer need the company, voluntary deregistration costs a one-off $52.
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What is the ASIC annual review fee, and why do you pay it?
Think of it as rent on your company’s spot on the national register. Under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), every company has an annual review date, and the Corporations (Review Fees) Regulations 2003 set what each company type pays on it.
Paying it keeps your company registered. Registration is what gives you an ACN, a separate legal entity and the limited liability you set up a company for in the first place.
Don’t let the name fool you. ASIC doesn’t audit anything for the money. The “review” is you reviewing your own details. People search for it as the company annual fee, company maintenance fees or the ASIC renewal fee. Same bill.
It’s also separate from the one-off fee you paid to register a company, and separate again from any business name renewal. Plenty of founders pay one and assume it covers the others. It doesn’t.
How much is the ASIC annual review fee in 2026-27?
It depends on your company type. Most small businesses run a proprietary company, so $342 is your number.
| Company type | ASIC annual review fee (from 1 July 2026) |
|---|---|
| Proprietary company (Pty Ltd) | $342 |
| Special purpose company (proprietary), such as an SMSF corporate trustee | $70 |
| Special purpose company (public) | $65 |
| Public company (Ltd) | $1,591 |
| Charity registered with the ACNC | No fee |
| Company in liquidation | No fee |
No GST applies to ASIC fees, so the amount on the invoice is the amount you pay.
Watch the reduced rate. An SMSF trustee company only qualifies if acting as trustee is its sole purpose and its constitution bans paying income or property to members. Use that same company to invoice clients or hold business assets and it no longer fits the $70 category.
How has the fee changed since last year?
Every 1 July, ASIC indexes most of its fees to the March-quarter CPI. That’s why your invoice creeps up even when nothing about your company has changed.
| Fee | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Annual review fee, Pty Ltd | $329 | $342 |
| Annual review fee, public company | $1,528 | $1,591 |
| Annual review fee, special purpose (proprietary) | $67 | $70 |
| Late fee, up to 1 month late | $98 | $102 |
| Late fee, more than 1 month late | $411 | $428 |
So a Pty Ltd with an April review date paid $329 this year. One with an August review date pays $342. Budget for another small rise from 1 July 2027.
Is it worth prepaying 10 years?
You can pay ten years of annual review fees upfront at a discount. For a Pty Ltd at 2026-27 rates, that’s $2,538, against $3,420 for ten single payments at today’s price. You also skip every CPI increase in between.
What’s the catch? Commitment. Close the company in year three and you’ve funded seven years you’ll never use. Prepaying suits a company you’re confident will still exist in 2036, like a holding company or an established trading business. For a side project you’re still testing? Pay year by year.
One more thing. Prepaying covers the fee and nothing else. You still check your annual statement and pass a solvency resolution every single year.
When is the ASIC annual review fee due?
Two months after your annual review date. For most companies the review date is the anniversary of registration, so a company registered on 14 March has a review date of 14 March each year and must pay by 14 May.
| What happens | When |
|---|---|
| Annual review date | Usually the anniversary of registration |
| ASIC issues your annual statement and invoice | On or shortly after the review date |
| Deadline to correct wrong details on the statement | 28 days after the statement’s issue date |
| Directors pass the solvency resolution | Within 2 months of the review date |
| ASIC annual review fee due | 2 months after the review date |
Look closely at that 28-day window. It’s shorter than the payment deadline, and it runs from the date ASIC issued the statement, not the day you finally opened it.
Not sure of your review date? It’s on your company’s ASIC extract and your certificate of registration. You can also apply to move it using ASIC Form 488 (a fee applies). That’s handy if you run several companies and want one deadline instead of four.
Where does ASIC send your annual statement?
To one place, not all of them. If your company has a registered agent, the statement goes to the agent. If you’ve signed up for ASIC’s online services, you’ll get an email. Otherwise, it’s posted to your company’s contact address.
That’s where most late fees start. An old accountant is still listed as your agent. The email lands in an inbox nobody checks. You moved and the post went to your old office. Whatever the reason, the deadline runs anyway.
What happens if you pay the ASIC annual review fee late?
Miss the deadline and a late payment fee is added automatically:
- Paid within one month after the due date: $102
- Paid more than one month after the due date: $428
There’s no grace period. On day one after the deadline, the $102 applies, whether or not you ever saw the invoice.
Worked example: how $342 turns into $1,300
Say your company was registered on 1 March. Your review date is 1 March and the fee is due on 1 May.
You moved office in January but didn’t tell ASIC, so the statement shows your old address. In mid-June you finally find it, update the address and pay. Here’s the bill:
- Annual review fee: $342
- Late payment fee (paid within a month after 1 May): $102
- Late review fee (statement details corrected more than a month after the 28-day window closed): $428
- Late lodgement fee (address change notified months after its own 28-day deadline): $428
Total: $1,300 for a bill that should have been $342.
Why so much? Each fee punishes a different failure. ASIC’s fee schedule confirms one late change can attract both a late lodgement fee and a late review fee, on top of the late payment fee.
Found a late fee already? Do this today
First, pay the full amount on the invoice, including the late fee. Waiting while you argue about it only risks the jump from $102 to $428.
Next, fix whatever caused the miss. Update the contact address, remove an old agent or sign up for ASIC’s online services so the next statement lands somewhere you actually read. Then put next year’s review date in your calendar with a reminder a fortnight before it, because the cheapest late fee is the one you never pay.
Can ASIC waive late fees?
Sometimes, but don’t plan around it. ASIC has limited power to cancel late fees, and it generally needs the delay to be outside your control, such as a natural disaster or an error on ASIC’s side.
“I didn’t see the email” won’t get you there. Neither will “my bookkeeper forgot”. If you think you genuinely qualify, ask ASIC in writing and attach your evidence.
What if you never pay?
Leave it long enough and ASIC can start deregistering a company once its annual review fee is more than 12 months overdue. After deregistration, the company no longer exists as a legal entity, and anything it still owns, including money in its bank account, passes to ASIC.
Getting it back means applying to reinstate a deregistered company and clearing every outstanding fee. It’s fixable. It’s also far more work than paying $342 on time, because while the company is off the register it can’t sign contracts, operate its bank account or invoice anyone, and your customers and suppliers will notice long before ASIC finishes processing the paperwork.
What should you check on your ASIC annual statement?
Your annual statement is a snapshot of what the public register says about your company, plus the invoice. Before you pay, check:
- Company name, ACN and review date
- Registered office and principal place of business
- Directors and company secretary, including their residential addresses
- Share structure and the members (shareholders) listed
- The contact address ASIC uses for notices
All correct? You don’t lodge anything. Just pay. If something’s wrong, fix it within 28 days of the issue date. Our guide to updating your company details explains which change goes on which form.
What do directors miss most? Their own home address. A director who moved two years ago and never told ASIC makes the whole statement wrong. And if you’d rather not have your home listed as the company’s registered office, a virtual office address keeps it off the public record.
Do you need to pass a solvency resolution every year?
Yes. Within two months of the review date, your directors must resolve whether, in their opinion, the company can pay its debts as and when they fall due. It’s free. It isn’t optional.
You don’t send a positive resolution to ASIC. Sign it, date it and file it with your company records. A solvency resolution template gets it done in a few minutes.
If the directors can’t say the company is solvent, or don’t pass a resolution at all, the company must notify ASIC within seven days using Form 485. The exception is a company that has lodged a financial report with ASIC in the past 12 months.
Treat it as a real check, not a signature on autopilot. Sign a positive resolution while the company can’t pay its bills and you’ve created a problem for yourself as a director. If the honest answer is no, get advice before you sign anything.
How do you pay the ASIC annual review fee?
Your invoice shows your payment reference and the options available. The main ones:
- BPAY, using the biller code and reference printed on your invoice. Allow a few business days for it to clear.
- Card, through ASIC’s online services or Australia Post’s Billpay.
- Cheque or money order by post, with the payment slip from your invoice. ASIC has to receive it by the due date. Posting it that morning doesn’t count.
Paying by BPAY in the final week? Assume it lands late and pay today.
Registered a company but not using it? Keep it or close it?
A company that isn’t trading still gets an annual statement, still owes the ASIC annual review fee and still needs a solvency resolution. Dormant doesn’t mean free.
So the real question is whether you need the company at all.
| Option | Cost | Makes sense if |
|---|---|---|
| Keep it dormant | $342 a year, rising with CPI (over $1,700 across five years at today’s rate) | You’ll trade through it soon, or it holds an asset, contract or name you need |
| Voluntarily deregister | $52 one-off ASIC fee | The plan is over and the company owes nothing |
Voluntary deregistration comes with conditions. All members must agree. The company can’t be carrying on business, its assets must be worth less than $1,000, it must have no outstanding liabilities and it can’t be party to any legal proceedings.
A shareholders’ resolution to deregister records that agreement, and our guide on how to deregister your company covers the ASIC application step by step.
Leaving a dead company on the register “just in case” is the expensive habit. Five years later, you’ve spent more than $1,700 on a company you never used. Add a couple of forgotten invoices and the late fees push that well past $2,000.
Where do founders get caught out?
None of these rules is complicated, but the timing trips people up, mostly because the annual review arrives once a year when your attention is on everything else. These five mistakes cause most of the pain:
- Assuming the registration fee covered it. Registration was a one-off. Your first annual review fee arrives twelve months later, right when the novelty of owning a company has worn off.
- Leaving an old agent on file. Switched accountants? Your statement may still be going to the old one. Check who ASIC lists as your registered agent.
- Mixing up the two deadlines. The fee has two months. Corrections to your statement have 28 days. Fixing details in week six costs money even if you pay on time.
- Prepaying and switching off. Ten years of fees doesn’t cover ten years of solvency resolutions or detail checks.
- Confusing the company fee with the business name renewal. A business name is a separate registration with its own invoice: $47 for one year or $108 for three from 1 July 2026. If your company trades under one, you pay both.
How can you take the annual review off your plate?
Make someone else the address on file. When Lawpath acts as your company’s registered agent, ASIC sends the annual statement to us. We check your details against the register and prepare a company review package and solvency resolution for your directors to sign.
It costs $240 a year plus the government fee, which is less than a single late fee for paying more than a month late. And it sits in the same place as your company’s legal documents and accounting, so your ASIC admin isn’t scattered across three inboxes.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay the ASIC annual review fee if my company isn’t trading?
Yes. Every registered company pays the ASIC annual review fee, whether it’s trading, dormant or hasn’t started yet. Registered charities and companies in liquidation are exempt, and special purpose companies pay a reduced rate. If you no longer need the company, deregistering costs a one-off $52.
What happens if you register a company but don’t use it?
It stays on the register and keeps generating obligations: an annual statement, the annual review fee and a yearly solvency resolution. Ignore them and late fees build up. Once the fee is more than 12 months overdue, ASIC can deregister the company. Use it, or close it properly.
How long do I have to pay the ASIC annual review fee?
Two months from your annual review date, which is usually the anniversary of your company’s registration. Corrections to the details on your annual statement have a shorter deadline: 28 days from the date ASIC issued the statement.
How much is the ASIC late fee in 2026-27?
$102 if you pay within one month after the due date, and $428 if you pay later than that. Separate late fees also apply when you correct statement details or notify changes late, so one missed deadline can attract more than one fee.
Is the company annual fee the same as my business name renewal?
No. The annual review fee keeps your company registered. A business name is a separate registration with its own renewal, costing $47 for one year or $108 for three years from 1 July 2026. If your company trades under a business name, you pay both.
Can I change my company’s annual review date?
Yes. Lodge ASIC Form 488 and pay the application fee. It’s most useful if you run several companies and want them on the same cycle, so you only have one review season a year.
What if I never received my annual statement?
Unfortunately, the deadline still applies. Check your registered agent, your ASIC online account and your company’s contact address first. If nothing turns up, download the statement through ASIC’s online services or contact ASIC rather than waiting for it to arrive.
Do I send the solvency resolution to ASIC?
Not if it’s positive. Keep a signed copy with your company records. You only notify ASIC, within seven days using Form 485, if the directors decide the company can’t pay its debts or don’t pass a resolution within two months of the review date.
If you’ve just found a late fee on your invoice, you’re not the first, and it isn’t a disaster. Pay what’s owed, fix the details and diarise next year’s review date. That’s the whole job, and you’ve now done it once.
Want it off your list for good? Let Lawpath handle your ASIC annual review.
