ASIC fees to rise — Need to register a company? Save a little this financial year

Christopher Balmford, MD

On 1 July 2011, the ASIC fee:

• for registering a Proprietary Limited (Pty Ltd) company will increase from $412 to $426. The Cleardocs fee of $137.50 (inc. GST) will stay the same.
• for reserving a name (or extending a name reservation) for a Proprietary Limited (Pty Ltd) company will increase from $41 to $42. The Cleardocs fee of $22 (inc. GST) will stay the same.

According to ASIC, the fee rises are to reflect an increase in the Consumer Pricing Index (CPI).
Also, there will be a one-off increase to the company annual review fee, to cover the increased costs of the national scheme.

Various other ASIC fees are increasing. You can read more information about the new fees here on ASIC’s website.

Remember you can use Cleardocs to create legal documents, and to register companies with ASIC 24 hours a day, even on weekends.

Registering companies this financial year
Also, remember:

• that company registrations cannot be back-dated. So if you need a new company to exist in this financial year, then you must register it before the end of this financial year; and
• that a company’s Certificate of Incorporation is dated the day that ASIC approves the registration – not the date the application is lodged (if those dates are different).

So if you find yourself with a last minute company to register, then make sure you keep an eye on your order through Cleardocs to make sure the company gets registered. For example, if you lodge a company registration application before 30 June 2011 but ASIC rejects the application, then you will need to make sure you correct and resubmit your application — and that it is successful — on or before 30 June 2011.

Extended helpline hours
We will extend our helpline hours for the last few days of the financial year. We'll answer the helpline:

• on the weekend of Saturday  25 and Sunday 26 June from 9am to 5pm; and
• each day from Monday 27 June until Thursday 30 June until at least 8pm.