The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced an additional online service to assist company auditors and Authorised Audit Companies comply with some existing and new reporting obligations, arising from the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004 (CLERP 9).

ASIC’s secure online lodgement portal, located on the ASIC website, can now be used to lodge the new Annual Statement (Form 912), which must be lodged by all registered company auditors, from 1 January 2005.

Form 912 replaces Form 907: Presentation of triennial statement by an auditor, and is also available in paper form on the ASIC website.

An additional benefit of using this new portal is that the fees for lodging an annual statement in an electronic form are considerably less than the cost of the equivalent paper lodgement.

As announced in ASIC’s Information Release [IR 04-58] New online lodgement facilities for auditors & authorised audit companies, ASIC created the online portal to make it simpler and quicker for auditors and Authorised Audit Companies to lodge a number of specific forms, as required under the Corporations Act 2001.

In addition to Form 912, auditors and Authorised Audit Companies can also use the portal to change or update their details online, using Form 905 Notification of ceasing to practise as, or change to details of, an auditor, or Authorised Audit Company.

Auditors and authorised audit companies can apply now for a username and password to access the auditor portal, via the ASIC website. Further information is available from www.asic.gov.au/auditorsportalor by calling ASIC’s Infoline on 1300 300 630.