Any business owner in Australia needs an ABN (Australian Business Number) to operate legally. However, if you are considering canceling your ABN, then there are a few things that you should know first. This blog post will provide information about what is required and outline how to cancel my ABN in Australia.
The Process To Cancel ABN: Is It Easy?
Canceling an ABN in Australia is not as simple as canceling a telephone number. Many steps need to be followed.
The first step is determining whether or not continuing your business activity would require you to hold onto the ABN for tax purposes, even if you were no longer operating under the name of your business.
If this situation applies to you, then there may still be legal reasons why you must retain your current ABN number—for example, because one of the owners has left, and they have taken their share of money with them.
In this case, keeping an unused ABN would allow for continued use should any issues arise where employees are being paid payroll services, for example. If you are no longer using your ABN, then it is possible to cancel an Australian ABN.
What To Ensure Before Canceling Your ABN?
On a side note, if any of the owners have not left and they are still able to continue business operations under their own names, then this situation would mean that canceling an Australian ABN may be unnecessary as long as all other requirements are met—it’s ultimately up to each individual owner whether or not they want to keep their current number active.
Before canceling an existing ABN in Australia, businesses must ensure that there will be no future usage of the numbers associated with them. This process should include updating records held within government departments (such as Medicare) about where employees are located.
Businesses must also ensure that they are not holding onto any ABN-related liabilities such as unpaid superannuation, which you can check by contacting the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
How Long Can It Take?
Once all of these steps have been completed, the next step is to wait for confirmation from the Australian Business Registrar (ABR).
This can take up to six months, so please be aware that you will need to monitor your ABN status through their website to ensure that it has been successfully canceled.
If you are looking into canceling an existing ABN, consider whether or not this business activity would require a new registration number—this may work out better in some cases when accounting and other government-related documents must still remain with your company name of personal names if required by law.
Key Take-Away
In conclusion, there are three things to remember when canceling your ABN.
- You have the right to cancel your business registration for any reason at all that is not prohibited by law.
- Before actually canceling an entity’s ABN number, you need to check with ASIC and then do it in writing within 28 days of receiving written notice from them regarding their decision.
- Suppose a company fails to advise its creditors about its cancellation or simply closes down without doing so. In that case, those same creditors may make claims against the directors personally and against companies that still exist but no longer hold an active ABN.
We hope that this was helpful!
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