Tips for Avoiding ASIC Late Fees

ASIC makes a lot of money from late fees, and I mean a lot of money. Over $100 million a year is needlessly wasted by company directors on ASIC late fees. What I hear you ask can be done to reduce or avoid these late fees? Well there are in fact a few avenues that can help company directors reduce and/or avoid these late fees.

Schedule your payment: As soon as your ASIC invoice arrives make sure you schedule payment of it at least 3 days before it is due to allow for processing time.

Reminders: Use a reminder service or a calendar reminder. Hopefully your Accountant or ASIC Agent (if you have one) is good enough to send you reminders as your payment becomes closer to being due. If not consider using one that does reminders as it can save you hundreds of dollars in lates.

Change your Annual Review date: Sadly many company directors don’t know that this is even an option (many accountants don’t know it either). As an example, if you started a company in late October then your ASIC Annual Review payment will fall due in late December (often when your business might be closed for the Xmas period). Nobody enjoys returning from a nice Xmas break to find they have an ASIC late fee. In this example it is possible to change the Annual Review date so that all future ASIC Annual Reviews will fall in a more appropriate time.

Prepay your ASIC Fees: Again many company directors and even accountants are not aware that it is possible to prepay your ASIC Annual Fees in advance. Advance payment is for 10 years and can also save money on the fees as well as avoiding late fees. More information can be found at ASIC here.

Use an ASIC Agent: If you aren’t currently using an ASIC Agent can I strongly suggest you use one. Not only will a good one help you avoid late fees but also help with other compliance requirements.

If you have had ASIC late fees in the past and you want to avoid them in the future you should make a change. Implement as many of the above tips as possible will go a long way in helping you reduce future late fees.