People who cannot hold a business name

Key points:

You must confirm that you are eligible to hold a business name when you register it with us. ASIC uses the term ‘disqualified’ to describe people who are not eligible.
You are disqualified from holding a business name if you have been convicted of certain criminal offences.
You must notify ASIC immediately if you or someone involved in managing your business become disqualified.
It is a criminal offence to conduct business under a business name if you have been disqualified.

Disqualified from managing a corporation

You are disqualified from holding a business name if you or someone involved in managing your entity are disqualified from managing a corporation.

This usually happens because you or they have been convicted of certain criminal offences. These are listed in subsection 206B(1) of the Corporations Act 2001.

If you have been disqualified, you will be eligible to hold a business name again 5 years after the day the convicted person was:

convicted, if they did not go to prison.
released from prison.

A person who has not yet been discharged from bankruptcy is able to hold a business name. A person who has entered into a personal insolvency agreement under Part X of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 is also eligible.

What ‘involved in managing your entity’ means

Generally, a person 'involved in the management of an entity' includes someone who is involved in making significant decisions. These are decisions that:

affect the whole or a substantial part of the entity, or
could significantly affect the entity's financial standing.

Who this is depends on what type of business structure you have. The most common examples are:

company or registered body: each director and secretary
partnership: each partner
unincorporated association or other body: each member of the committee of management
trust: each trustee
joint venture: any of the above, depending on the type of entity of the joint venture partner, or any person involved in the management of the joint venture.

People convicted of an offence involving dishonesty

You are disqualified from holding a business name if you or someone involved in managing your entity has been convicted of an offence involving dishonesty that is punishable by 3 months or more in prison. This is the case even if the person does not go to prison, because of an alternative punishment, or a suspended sentence, for example. The conviction can be in Australia or another country.

If you have been disqualified, you will be eligible to hold a business name again 5 years after the day the convicted person was:

convicted, if they did not go to prison.
released from prison.

How to notify ASIC of disqualification

You must tell us immediately if you or someone involved in managing your entity becomes disqualified. Do this through ASIC Connect.

Before you start

To use ASIC Connect

You will need to sign up for an ASIC Connect account and have your business name linked if you haven’t already. Find out how to do this:

ASIC Connect information

Log in to your account

Start transaction

Select the ‘Lodgements and notifications’ tab. This will display all the business names linked to your account.
Select the business name you want to change.
Select the ‘Other notifications’ option from the transactions list.
Select the ‘Go’ button.
Select ‘Business name’ as the business type,
Select the ‘Notice of disqualification’ option.

Make the changes

Enter the required details.

Review and confirm

Check the details are correct. If you need to change something, press the ‘Cancel’ button.

Declare and submit

Read the declaration to make sure you agree with it. If you do, select the ‘Yes’ button.
Select the ‘Submit’ button to submit the form.
You’ll get a message that confirms your request has been submitted.
Select ‘Document acknowledgement’ if you want to download a PDF version of the documents. You can print or save the PDF for your records.