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Voluntarily deregistering a Company

If your company meets certain criteria, you can apply for voluntary deregistration. This closes your company and removes your obligations as a company officeholder.You need to pay any outstanding fees and penalties, if applicable, to ASIC before you apply for deregistration. Your application will not be approved by them if there are still outstanding fees on your account.

You should apply at least two weeks before the annual review due date; this gives enough time for ASIC to receive your application and publish the notice on their website.  Alternately, we can lodge your company’s deregistration online using our ASIC-linked software, which they will receive immediately.

When a company lodges an application to voluntarily deregister, ASIC will publish a notice of the intended deregistration. If the notice is published before the review fee is due, you won’t have to pay the fee.  For example: if your company’s annual review fee is due on 1 June and the notice is published on 30 May, the review fee does not need to be paid.If the notice isn’t published before the review fee is due, you will need to pay the fee before you can deregister your company.

Before ASIC will accept your application, you need to ensure:

  • all members of the company agree to deregister
  • the company is not conducting business
  • the company’s assets are worth less than $1000
  • the company has no outstanding liabilities (e.g. unpaid employee entitlements)
  • the company is not involved in any legal proceedings and
  • the company has paid all fees and penalties payable to ASIC.

If you apply for deregistration and you do not meet all these requirements (e.g. there are unpaid company fees), ASIC will reject your application& your application fee will not be refunded.

We also recommend for you complete the following steps before lodging an application:

  • check any bank accounts in the company’s name are closed, regardless of the balance
  • review all company records/registers to ensure all company property is dealt with (e.g. vehicles, land, shares, trade marks, intellectual property, leases, permits)
  • all transfers of company property are registered and no property is registered in the company name
  • if the company was a trustee, a new trustee has been appointed and no trust property remains registered in the company’s name
  • ensure all registered business names held by the company are cancelled or transferred
  • ensure any licenses held by the company are cancelled or ceased

You should carefully consider the effects of de-registration before applying to deregister your company.

What happens once I’ve lodged my application?

If your application is rejected, ASIC will advise why they have rejected it.

If your application is approved, ASIC will write to you to confirm your company’s impending deregistration and publish a notice on their published notices website.It can take up to two weeks for ASIC to process your application and publish a notice on their website.Two months after the notice has been published, your company may be deregistered. ASIC will send you a confirmation notice.

Related Tag: Registering a Company

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