InFocus December 2025 - Volume 34 Issue 11
- Festive season - Online options to keep you moving
- We’ve made lodging forms easier
- Why keeping your Registered Agent details updated matters
- Acting on behalf of someone? Are you authorised?
- New scam alert
Festive season - Online options to keep you moving
While our offices take a short pause over the festive season, you can still manage your registrations, lodge forms and access key services online anytime, anywhere.
Closedown over the festive season
- ASIC offices will close from 5:00 PM AEDT Wednesday, 24 December 2025, and will reopen at 8:30 AM AEDT Friday, 2 January 2026 excluding our Customer Contact Centre (CCC)
- CCC will be unavailable from 12:00 PM AEDT on Wednesday, 24 December 2025 and will be available from 8:30 AM AEDT on Friday, 2 January 2026.
Important to know
- All online services will be operational throughout the closedown. You can lodge documents, search registers, and purchase information or extracts via ASIC Online Services.
- Forms and transactions – can be lodged online via ASIC portals and via email for email-enabled forms.
- Paper lodgements – forms can be lodged by mail during the closedown.
- Manual reviews – expect responses from 2 January 2026 for lodgements requiring manual review.
Late lodgements and late fees
- Documents and annual review fees due on or before 24 December 2025 will attract late fees if not lodged or paid by its due date.
- Lodgements made after 12:00 PM AEDT, 24 December 2025 will be processed from 2 January 2026.
Gazette Publication Schedule
- ASIC Gazette: Last issue for 2025 will be published on Tuesday, 23 December 2025.
- Business Gazette: Last issue for 2025 will be published on Tuesday, 16 December 2025.
Plan ahead to avoid delays:
- Lodge your critical documents before 24 December 2025.
- Make payment on or before its due date
- Use online services for uninterrupted access.
- Check Gazette deadlines for notices.
Find out more information about our Christmas closedown.
We’ve made lodging forms easier
More forms can now be submitted via email. This is part of our commitment to making your experience more convenient and streamlined.
From 28 November, we’re accepting additional forms by email to improve flexibility and reduce reliance on paper. You can still lodge in paper if you prefer.
Which forms have been added to the list?
There’s a full list of forms that can be emailed on our website.
Here are the forms we added on 28 November:
- 218 Constitution of company - form part of 201, 205, 206 lodgement
Forms that can also be lodged by email (in exceptional cases where you’re unable to lodge online):
Email lodgement for these forms is allowed only when:
- Error messages are received due to the non-recognition of a place of birth or a company address.
- The company you are attempting to register has one or more of these characteristics (refer to the bottom of the page).
- System limitations prevent online lodgement.
If any of the above apply to you, please contact us.
How do I lodge via email?
You can find the full instructions on how to lodge on our website.
To support the transition, we’ve consolidated ASIC’s Document lodgement requirements into a single resource. This includes lodgement guidance on forms, manner of lodging documents and signing documents.
Important note: Each form on our website will reference the applicable fee where required. If a fee applies to your form and you’re a:
- company officeholder or responsible entity lodging for a registered scheme, search for your organisation's payment details using BPAY and Post Billpay, or,
- registered agent lodging on behalf of a company or registered scheme and have an account with ASIC, make the payment using the reference number on your account, not the company’s account.
If you don’t have your payment details, send the signed form to us and we’ll contact you via email with payment instructions.
If we need more information about a form emailed to us, we’ll reply to your email. This aims to further reduce dependencies on postal services and delays in updating the registers.
What’s next?
Our focus now shifts to identifying the next group of forms that we’ll start accepting via email. Over the coming months, more forms will be converted to digital channels as part of our commitment to making your experience more convenient and streamlined.
This a part of the ongoing simplification work we are doing to make it easier for you to interact with us. You can read more about ASIC’s simplification initiatives on our website.
Why keeping your Registered Agent details updated matters
If you’re a Registered Agent, you’ll receive important notifications from us on behalf of the companies you represent. This is why it’s essential to keep your contact details up to date.
If your details change, notify us within 14 days. This includes your:
- postal or physical business address,
- responsible person or contact person,
- email address (essential for important notifications), and
- contact phone number.
Maintaining accurate contact details isn’t just good practice – it’s a requirement. Keeping your information current ensures you receive important updates and remain compliant.
To update your details, submit a Notification to register change details of or cease as an agent by email to agent.registration@asic.gov.au.
To learn more about meeting the obligations of a Registered Agent, view the terms and conditions.
Acting on behalf of someone? Are you authorised?
If you’re an ASIC Registered Agent and lodging on behalf of a client, remember: Authorisation for a company is different from authorisation for a business name.
Being appointed for one doesn’t automatically give you authority for the other.
Company Registered Agent Appointment
The directors of a company must appoint you as their Registered Agent. They do this by lodging Form 362 – Notification by a company to nominate or cease a registered agent or contact address.
Business Name Authorised Lodger Appointment
A business name is separate from a company.
You must also be appointed as an authorised lodger for the business name.
- The business name holder gives permission by sharing their ASIC key with the person they want as their authorised lodger.
- Once you have the ASIC key, you need to link the business name to your own ASIC Connect account.
Learn more - Authorised lodgers for business names | ASIC
New scam alert
A new email scam impersonating the ATO that asks you to complete a ‘DocuSign’ to release your refund is circulating in the community.
The ATO will never use DocuSign to finalise a tax refund.
For more information, go to ato.gov.au/scamalerts.
