When ASIC cancels a business name

Reasons we may cancel your business name

The most common reason we cancel a business name is that the registration was not renewed by the due date.

Other common reasons include:

• the business name holder is a company that has been deregistered
• we become aware of something after we registered the business name that means we would not have registered it in the first place
• we become aware that the entity is disqualified from holding a business name
• we are satisfied the entity is not carrying on a business under the business name, and hasn’t been for the last 3 months
• the entity does not notify us of a change in information in the required time
• the entity does not respond to our request for information.

We will notify you by email if we intend to cancel your business name. If you have not registered your email address, we will notify you by post at your service of documents address. We’ll also send the notice to the residential addresses of all business name holders linked to the business name.

To make sure you get notices from ASIC, update your business name details. You must do this within 28 days from when they change.

If you do not want to keep your business name

If you receive our notice of cancellation and you no longer want your business name, you do not have to do anything. We will cancel your business name 2 months after sending the notice that we intend to cancel it. We will write to you to confirm when the business name has been cancelled.

Stop a business name cancellation

You can only stop a business name cancellation if the reason we cancelled it was because you did not renew it in time.

You can only do this within 2 months of receiving the notice that we intend to cancel your business name.

Use the business name renewal portal and pay your renewal fee.

Restore your business name

You can ask to restore your business name if the reason we cancelled it was because you did not renew it in time. You can only restore your business name within 6 months of cancellation.

Your business name cannot be registered by anyone else for at least 6 months after your business name has been cancelled.

If it is within 6 months and you want to restore your business name, contact ASIC. You must tell us:

• the business name
• your name
• your Australian Business Number (ABN)
• your email address
• a contact phone number.

If you’re not the business name holder, you will also need to provide written proof that you are authorised to act on their behalf. This must include:

• the business name and that you wish to restore it
• a statement that the business name holder has authorised you to act on their behalf
• the business name holder’s signature, and
• the email address where we should the restoration details.

Re-register a cancelled business name

If more than 6 months have passed since we cancelled your business name registration, you cannot restore it, but you may be able to register it again. You first need to check if the business name is available by searching the business names register. If the name is available, you can once again register your business name.