ASIC rejections due to an existing business name

Grant Stoddart, Customer Service Representative

As we approach one of the busiest times of year for company registrations at Cleardocs, I thought I would address a common query about ASIC rejections. Some of you might discover ASIC has rejected your company registration on the basis the name you want to register is identical to an existing business name.

It is ok for ASIC to register a company with a name identical to an already registered business name provided the business name holder is involved in the company and meets ASIC’s requirements in terms of the level of their involvement.

ASIC advises that in order to register a company using an existing business name,the following conditions must be met:

If the business name is held by a:	ASIC registration requirements for the company are:
Sole trader	The sole trader must be a director
Partnership	Each partner must be a director
Trust	Each trustees of the trust must be a shareholder, and a copy of the trust deed emailed to ASIC
Company	The company must be a shareholder in the new company

After you submit your application to ASIC, its system will flag the existence of the identical business name and ASIC will reject the application. All you need to do is call or email Cleardocs support and we will lodge the application manually for you, confirming with ASIC that the above conditions have been met. As this application will be manually reviewed by ASIC, it will take a bit longer to process, but in most instances the company will be registered on the same business day.

If the company has no connection to the existing business name, or does not agree to the ASIC requirements in the table above, then they will need to choose a different company name to register.

For further information about ASIC rejections or Cleardocs document packages, please call our helpline on 1300 307 343.

+Cleardocs Thomson Reuters