Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS) aims to provide effective and efficient business registration services that ensure integrity and accuracy of information to maximise the value of our registry data for government, intermediaries, business and the community.
ABRS was established to assist the Registrar to carry out their functions. The Registrar has separate and distinct responsibilities from the Commissioner of Taxation, including administering director identification numbers (director IDs) and assisting the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to manage its registry functions. The Commissioner of Taxation remains the Registrar of the Australian Business Register (ABR) under the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999.
The Commissioner of Taxation has also been appointed as the Registrar under the:
- Business Names Registration Act 2011
- Commonwealth Registers Act 2020
- Corporations Act 2001
- National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009.
Purpose
We provide business registry services such as Australian business number (ABN), director ID, company and business name registration (with company and business name registrations currently being delivered on behalf of ASIC). We provide access to business data via online look-up services (available to the public) as well as access to additional information for eligible and authenticated third parties.
The purpose of ABRS is to provide:
- effective and efficient business registry services that reduce the regulatory burden for business
- robust identity verification and over-time relationship traceability for directors of companies through director ID – a critical tool for improving the integrity of director appointments and revealing potential involvement in unlawful activity, including illegal phoenix activity
- a unified and trusted source of business data that supports the activities of businesses, 3 tiers of Australian Government and the broader Australian community
- support to the ATO and ASIC in their early identification and disruption of the attempted misuse of corporate vehicles through the implementation of director ID.
Risk focus
Our risk focus is on ensuring the integrity of our registers. We have well-established systems of risk oversight and management that align with the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy and section 16 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).
The Registrar of ABRS has entered into an operational memorandum of understanding with ASIC regarding the management of ASIC’s registry functions, including working together to ensure appropriate oversight and collaboration on registry-related risks.
Find out about our enterprise registration risk and risk management strategy.
Performance measure
The ABRS performance measure is:
- Increased use of the ABR – Increased use of the ABR as the national business dataset.
The Registrar of ABRS is also responsible for assisting ASIC to perform its registry functions (under a delegation from ASIC). This includes reporting against the associated performance measures through the delegation model.