Act as a registered agent for companies

Who can be a registered agent

To be a registered agent, you must be one of the following:

• a registered Australian company
• a business name holder
• a sole trader over 18 years old who lives in Australia and does business under their personal name.

A registered agent must have an ABN.

If the registered agent is a company or a business name holder, they must appoint someone to be accountable for meeting the registered agent obligations. This is a ‘responsible person’.

The responsible person must:

• be over 18 years old
• live in Australia
• be a company officeholder if the registered agent is a company
• be the business name holder or a representative of the registered business name if the registered agent is not a company.

You cannot be a registered agent or a responsible person if:

• you are disqualified from managing a company under the Corporations Act 2001, or
• ASIC has cancelled you as a registered agent in the past 6 months for any reason unless your registration was reinstated.

The ASIC registered agent terms and conditions (PDF 280 KB) include more information about how we determine eligibility.

Obligations of registered agents

When you apply to become a registered agent, you must read and agree to the ASIC registered agent terms and conditions (PDF 280 KB).

The terms and conditions include obligations to do with:

• keeping your agent details up to date
• using our online services
• carrying on a business
• lodging documents with us
• acting or ceasing to act as the agent of a company.

Apply to be a registered agent

You can apply to become a registered agent by completing the following form:

Form RA01 Notification to register, change details of or cease as an agent

Email the completed form to agent.registration@asic.gov.au.

If we accept your application, we will send you an ASIC registered agent number. You will need this number to deal with ASIC.

Sign up for the registered agent portal

Once you are registered, you can sign up for the registered agent portal. This will allow you to make lodgements online:

Registered agent portal access

If you make frequent lodgements, you might want to consider third-party software that integrates with ASIC’s systems.

Becoming a company’s registered agent

A company can appoint you as a registered agent by completing Form 362. The form must be signed by a company officeholder.

Form 362 Notification by a company to nominate or cease a registered agent or contact address

The form can be lodged using either the company officeholder portal or Registered agent portal.

Stop being a company’s registered agent

If you stop being a company’s registered agent, this is called ‘ceasing’.

If your premises are the registered office for the company, you must change this before you cease as the company’s registered agent. Do one of the following:

• Lodge a change in the registered office using the registered agent portal, with authorisation from the company.
• Notify ASIC in writing that you withdraw consent for your premises to be the registered office.

After you have done this, or if you did not need to, you must notify ASIC that you have ceased as the company’s registered agent.

If you have authorisation from the company to cease, complete Form 362:

Form 362 Notification by a company to nominate or cease a registered agent or contact address

If you do not have authorisation from the company, complete Form 361:

Form 361 Notification of a registered agent ceasing to act for a company

You can lodge these forms using the registered agent portal.

Update your registration details

You must let us know within 14 days if any of your own registration details change, including your:

• postal address
• physical business address
• email address
• phone number.

To update your details, complete Form RA01:

Form RA01 Notification to register, change details of or cease as an agent

Email the completed form to agent.registration@asic.gov.au.

Cancel your registration

To cancel your registration, you must first go through the steps to cease as a registered agent for every company that has appointed you.

Then complete Form RA01:

Form RA01 Notification to register, change details of or cease as an agent

Email the completed form to agent.registration@asic.gov.au.

ASIC may cancel your registration

ASIC may cancel your registration as a registered agent if you no longer meet the eligibility criteria, or if you have not complied with your obligations.

For example, your registration may be cancelled if you:

• breached any of the terms and conditions
• have not lodged any documents with us for more than 12 months
• became bankrupt or entered liquidation
• gave us inaccurate or misleading information
• caused significant harm to our systems or processes.

For more information, see the ASIC registered agent terms and conditions (PDF 280 KB)

If we cancel your registration, you will not be able to access ASIC’s online services via the registered agent portal or third-party software. We will contact all companies you act for to advise them your registration has been cancelled.