VIDEO: New Director Identification Number Searches
- 31 Jan 2022
Being a company director carries great responsibility. Not only does it give you power to control the every day activities of a company, it also gives rise to responsibility and accountability to shareholder, the ATO and ASIC.
Recent changes to the Corporations Act came into effect on the 1st of November 2021 which affects all directors and companies Australia wide. That is, the 2020 Budget Digital Business Plan has established the Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS) that has brought together 30 ASIC registers into this one single new digital platform managed by the ATO.
All directors will be given a 15 digit Director Identification Number (“DIN”) and will need to register their personal details against this number on the ABRS.
You will only need to register 1 DIN. You don’t need to apply for another one, even if you are appointed as a director of another company. From the 5th of April 2022, new directors will need to register their details before becoming a director. But until this time, while we are transitioning into this new system, any existing director as at 1 November 2021, will have until 30 November 2022 to register their details. Any new director appointed after 1 November 2021 but on or before 4 April 2022, will have 28 days to register their details.
It will be a criminal offence to not register on time. Fines are up to 5000 penalty units. At $222 per penalty unit, the fine is up to $1.1 million. Directors may also face imprisonment for up to 12 months if they apply for more than one DIN.
At some point soon, new Director Identification Number searches will become available and will provide quicker, more powerful and more reliable director searches which will become part of everyone’s standard due diligence practices in the future.
For professional legal advice, contact Maclarens Lawyers on (02) 9682 3777
