Clerp 7 an easier way to lodge and pay for companies

One way that company directors can help improve public confidence in commercial markets is to ensure that your company complies with ASIC's lodgement and compliance procedures - by doing so, you help keep Australia's popular, publicly searchable database of 1.2 million companies up-to-date.

One way that company directors can help improve public confidence in commercial markets is to ensure that your company complies with ASIC's lodgement and compliance procedures - by doing so, you help keep Australia's popular, publicly searchable database of 1.2 million companies up-to-date.

The good news is that your company lodgement and compliance procedures will get easier, with the upcoming seventh Bill in the Commonwealth Government's Corporations Legislation Economic Reform Program (CLERP 7).

The Corporations Legislation Amendment Bill 2002 was tabled in Parliament on December 12 and is expected to start on 1 July. The main intentions of this Bill are to:

• simplify document lodgement and compliance procedures for companies under the Corporations Act
• facilitate a more efficient and competitive business environment
• improve the efficiency of corporate regulation
• reduce regulatory burdens on business, especially small business
• improve compliance through streamlined lodgement and payment
• provide a benefit to small business through reduced business costs and from being able to access more reliable, accurate and timely information.

Proposed changes

Some of the changes proposed in the Bill are:

• No more annual returns. Soon, around 1.3 million companies won't need to send us an annual return.
• Annual fees will replace the annual return fee. Companies will pay a review fee at annual review time. Payment will be due two months after the anniversary of their registration date.
• Companies will review their company or scheme particulars against information we will send to them. If there are no changes, you won't have to lodge anything with us. This will ease the compliance burden for many small businesses.
• Companies will still tell us about basic changes in company details when they occur. However, at annual review time, if there are no changes, you don't need to lodge any paperwork.
• Lodging documents will be streamlined. Some existing company forms (eg forms 203, 304, 207 & 284) will be replaced by a multi-purpose form. The lodgement period for changes (registered office address, officeholders, etc) will be increased from 14 to 28 days.
• If you're a proprietary company, you must tell us of changes to your 20 members in each class as they occur. Use the multi-purpose form mentioned above. You will have a 28-day lodgement period.

We're making payment easier

For your convenience, in the next few months, you will soon be able to pay your fees by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or over the counter at Australia Post offices. Of course, you can still choose to pay your fees using Bpay.

Do you have an agent?

After the Bill is passed by Parliament, your company will be able to notify us that you have appointed an agent (if that is the case) to receive official ASIC documents on the company's behalf (using ASIC Form 362). Currently, it is the agent who notifies us. A company officeholder must sign Form 362. If lodged electronically, the agent must keep the original signed document.

If your company is already linked to an agent, this arrangement will continue to apply unless you notify us otherwise, using Form 362.

If your company does not have an agent, use ASIC Form 486 to let us know of your contact address (if different from the registered office address) for receipt of official ASIC documents on your company's behalf. This address can be a Post Office address.

New forms not available yet

Unfortunately, you can't get copies of the new forms at this stage. We expect to have draft forms available for comment after the Bill is passed.

For a copy of CLERP Paper No. 7: Proposals for Reform -Simplified Lodgements and Compliance, June 2000, visit the Commonwealth Treasury website at http://www.treasury.gov.au/

The Corporations Legislation Amendment Bill 2002 is available from the Parliament of Australia website at http://www.aph.gov.au.

For more information about the current status of the reforms visit www.asic.gov.au, or phone 03 5177 3988.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this database is to provide a full-text record of all articles that have appeared in the CDJ since February 1997. It is aimed to assist in the research and reference process. The database has a full-text index and will enable articles to be easily retrieved.It should be noted that information contained in this database is in pre-publication format only - IT IS NOT THE FINAL PRINTED VERSION OF THE CDJ - therefore there might be slight discrepancies between the contents of this database and the printed CDJ.