Apply for Your ABN Online

An Australian Business Number is the 11-digit identifier that marks you out as a business to the ATO, to other businesses, and to anyone who pays you. You need one if you are carrying on an enterprise in Australia, whether as a sole trader, a partnership, a company or a trust.

An ABN costs nothing to hold and does not expire, though the ATO will cancel one that has looked dormant for long enough.

Yes. If you are providing services to businesses or individuals and invoicing for your work, you are generally required to have an ABN. Without one, clients are required by law to withhold 47% of any payment to you under the no-ABN withholding rules.

You can apply for an ABN free of charge directly through the Australian Business Register at abr.gov.au. Our $89.95 service fee covers preparation, review and correction of your application and lodgement by a Registered Tax Agent (TPB No. 26027163), plus correspondence with the ATO if your application is referred for manual review.

If you would rather not pay for that work, applying direct is the right choice and we would encourage it. Our refund policy sets out where we will refund the fee.

Ask us to cancel before we lodge and you get the full $89.95 back with nothing deducted. Because we lodge within 24 hours of payment, that is usually a same-day window. We also refund in full where the mistake was ours.

What we do not refund is the fee for work already done because the ATO reached a decision we do not control. Our refund policy sets out every case in specific terms, including the exceptions.

We lodge your application within 24 hours of payment. Most ABNs are then issued by the ATO within one business day, and we email yours as soon as it is confirmed.

Some applications are referred by the ATO for manual review, which can take up to 28 days. That is the ATO's process and it is outside our control; we tell you if it happens and follow it up on your behalf.

You'll need your Tax File Number (TFN), date of birth, residential address, and details about your business activity. The application takes about 5 minutes to complete.

Yes. Once the ATO issues your ABN it is active immediately and you can start invoicing clients, registering for GST, and using it for all business purposes.

An ABN is the 11-digit number every kind of entity uses when it deals with the ATO. An ACN is nine digits, issued by ASIC at the moment a company is incorporated, and only companies get one.

An Australian company holds both, and its ABN is built from its ACN by adding two digits in front. Sole traders and partnerships only ever hold an ABN.

GST registration is compulsory once your annual turnover reaches $75,000, and optional below that. Registering voluntarily often makes sense where your customers are other businesses, because they can claim the GST back themselves.

We can add GST registration to your ABN application for $29. You are only charged for it if you select it.

As soon as you employ anyone, or pay a contractor who has not quoted an ABN. Once registered, you hold back part of every such payment and send it to the ATO, report it through your BAS and reconcile it at year end.

This is one worth getting right: if you should have been registered and withholding and you were not, the amounts that should have been withheld can become your personal liability. We can add it to your application for $29.

Only if you trade under something other than your own legal name, or your company's registered name. Trading as “Jane Smith” needs no registration; trading as “Smith Landscaping” does.

We register it with ASIC as part of your application — $149 for one year, or $199 for three.

No, and this is the assumption people most often arrive with. Registration lets you use the name lawfully and puts it on the national Business Names Register, but it gives you no exclusive right to it.

Stopping someone else from using a name means a trademark, which is filed separately with IP Australia and is not part of a business name registration.

Yes. Partnerships and companies each have their own application: a partnership needs details for every partner, and a company needs its ACN along with its directors and shareholders.

One thing to be clear about for companies: we apply for the ABN, we do not create the company. It has to be registered with ASIC first, because the application asks for its ACN. Choose your structure when you start an application.

An ABN that has been cancelled can be reactivated, and one you no longer need should be cancelled rather than left dormant — reporting obligations continue until it is.

Both are done directly with the ATO rather than through an application here. Get in touch if you want help working out which one applies to you.