Patison Partners: News & Articles - ASIC - Are Your Company Details Up To Date?

This is an additional compliance requirement of ASIC to that of your Company Annual Review.

Details of every company registered in Australia are contained on the ASIC corporate database.

Companies are required to ensure that the details held on this database are kept up to date by notifying ASIC of any changes to details. The Corporations Act 2001 (the Act) requires companies to notify changes to details on the appropriate form, generally within 28 days of the change.

The Return of particulars:
To ensure that the information is kept up to date, ASIC may give a company a Return of particulars under section 348A of the Act. The company must respond to the Return of particulars within 28 days. A failure to respond within this time frame is a contravention of the Act.

When might you receive a Return of particulars?
A company may receive a Return of particulars if:

ASIC suspect or believe that the information recorded for the company on their corporate database is not correct, or
The company's review fee has not been paid in full by the due date, or
No documents have been lodged with ASIC for the company for at least one year. (Annual Reviews are not lodged with ASIC. They are required to be signed and held in your corporate binder. Documents referred to here are changes to company details.)

A letter describing what you need to do to meet your legal requirements
A Company Statement setting out the information recorded for your company on the ASIC database for review, and
A Form 483 Company Compliance Statement to complete and return to us.

What you need to do:
If we send a Return of particulars, the company will need to:

Review the information in the Company Statement and make a declaration about its accuracy on the Form 483 Company Compliance Statement. If the information is not correct, it must be updated using the appropriate ASIC form. If fees are outstanding they must be paid in full.
Provide a solvency resolution statement and pass a solvency resolution, if required,
Lodge the completed Form 483 Company Compliance Statement together with the Form 484 or Form 492 within 28 days of the issue date shown on the Return of particulars.

Compliance action:
It is important to respond to a Return of particulars within 28 days of the date of issue. Where a company fails to respond in time, ASIC can commence civil or criminal action against the company. In the case of civil action, the court can make orders that the company lodge the response to the Return of particulars and pay legal costs to ASIC. In the case of criminal action, the court can convict both the company and an officeholder, impose fines and order the company to pay legal costs to ASIC.

Failure to respond to the Return of particulars may result in ASIC initiating deregistration action against a company under section 601AB(1) of the Act.