Setting up here means picking a structure, registering it, and then meeting the obligations that follow. This page sets out what that actually involves for a company entering the Australian market from outside it.
By Naletova Advisory Pty Ltd — Registered Tax Agent No. 26027163 | ASIC Agent No. 523357. Last updated: 5 September 2026.
Australia’s registration and taxation system is highly prescriptive. Establishing the correct structure at the outset avoids costly corrections, penalties and delays that can affect a commercial timeline set before the regulatory requirements were assessed.
Naletova Advisory is registered as both a Tax Agent and an ASIC Agent, so we can act for clients directly with the ATO and with ASIC — between them, the two bodies that govern registration and ongoing compliance in Australia.
Overseas companies generally establish an Australian presence through one of three structures:
To carry on business here, a foreign company must register with ASIC as a foreign company under the Corporations Act 2001. No new legal entity comes out of this; it simply makes the existing overseas company able to trade in Australia lawfully. You must appoint a local agent and keep a registered Australian address.
This is the more common preference: a separate Pty Ltd company, which is its own legal entity with its own ABN and ACN. The parent’s exposure is limited to what it puts into the subsidiary. At least one director has to ordinarily reside in Australia.
A branch is not separate from the parent — it is the same company operating here. Australia taxes branch profits to the extent they are attributable to the Australian business. It still requires registration with ASIC as a foreign company.
Once the structure is established, the entity will generally be required to:
Any group operating through an Australian entity must consider Australia’s transfer pricing rules, which require related-party dealings — loans, services, intellectual property licensing and management fees — to be priced on arm’s length terms. The ATO has broad power to adjust an Australian entity’s taxable income where it considers they are not. Documentation and pricing analysis should be established at the outset rather than assembled subsequently under audit.
Payments sent overseas — dividends, interest, royalties, management fees — can attract Australian withholding tax. The rate turns on the kind of payment and on whether Australia holds a Double Tax Agreement with the recipient’s country of residence. Australia has DTAs with more than 40 countries, and they often reduce the withholding rate or remove it altogether.
A Pty Ltd company must have at least one director who ordinarily resides in Australia. If you have no presence here yet, that is a genuine obstacle rather than a formality. We can talk through the options and help resolve it as part of setting the entity up.
For most structures the core registrations take two to four weeks. Incorporating a Pty Ltd through ASIC is usually one to two business days once the information is actually complete, and the ABN and GST registrations follow straight after. Registering a foreign company runs longer, because ASIC wants certified copies of the company’s constitution or its equivalent, translated into English where that applies.
In practice, the most common cause of delay is the resident director requirement. A proprietary limited company cannot be incorporated until a suitable Australian-resident director is in place, so this is best resolved early in the process.
For companies entering Australia we handle company formation and ASIC registration, ABN and GST registration, appointment of a local registered agent, accounts preparation, tax planning, payroll setup and STP compliance, and the ongoing BAS and tax return lodgements afterwards. That runs from the first market-entry decision through to steady-state operations.
If you are still at the planning stage, we can work through which structure actually serves the commercial objective, what each one costs in tax terms, and what obligations you inherit once it exists.
Contact us with your commercial objectives and timeframe, and we will set out the structure and registrations required.
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