Starting a Business · Australia
Starting a business in Australia: foreigner's guide (2026)
Australia shaded by its starting a business status
Australia offers a streamlined, largely online company-formation process with no minimum paid-up capital and broad openness to foreign ownership, so for most small businesses setup is fast and inexpensive. The principal complications for a foreigner are the mandatory requirement that at least one director ordinarily reside in Australia, the need for a Director Identification Number, and—above high monetary thresholds or in sensitive/national-security sectors—prior FIRB approval. Overall the regime is open but carries foreigner-specific procedural hurdles, making it moderate rather than frictionless.
Key points
A foreigner typically forms an Australian proprietary company (Pty Ltd): choose an available company name, obtain a Director Identification Number for each director, register the company with ASIC to receive a 9-digit ACN, then obtain an 11-digit ABN and relevant tax registrations (e.g., GST) — all available through the single Business Registration Service.
Under s201A of the Corporations Act, a proprietary company must have at least one director who ordinarily resides in Australia (public companies need at least two). This cannot be waived, so a foreign founder usually must appoint a local resident director.
Anyone who becomes a company director, including foreign residents, must verify their identity and obtain a Director ID from the Australian Business Registry Services before being appointed.
There is no general cap on foreign ownership of an Australian company, but foreign investors must notify and obtain FIRB/Treasurer approval before acquiring interests in businesses above monetary thresholds (most business investments at $347 million from 1 January 2026, higher for certain free-trade-agreement investors), and prior approval is required for starting or acquiring a national security business regardless of value.
There is no minimum share-capital requirement to register a proprietary company (it can be incorporated with nominal capital, e.g., one $1 share), but the company must maintain a registered office in Australia.
Alternatively, an existing overseas company can register as a foreign company in Australia with ASIC using Form 402 (lodging certified incorporation documents and appointing a local agent), and must keep a registered office in Australia.
Timeline - major decisions & events
Standard proprietary company registration fee rose to $611 and the annual review fee to $329 under ASIC's annual CPI fee indexation, marginally raising the cost of incorporating and maintaining a company.
ASIC ↗The federal Budget committed significant funding to ASIC's RegistryConnect program to stabilise and uplift the company and business-name registers after the failed modernisation effort, the key step in returning registry administration to ASIC.
ASIC ↗Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones cancelled the MBR program after an independent review found costs could reach $2.8 billion (over five times the original estimate); registry functions are to return from the ATO to a new ASIC division, reshaping who administers business registration.
Australian Taxation Office ↗All directors appointed on or before 31 October 2021 had to obtain a director identification number by this date; the ABRS applied a pragmatic compliance approach to applications lodged by 14 December 2022, with over 1.8 million directors registered.
Australian Taxation Office ↗The new director ID requirement launched via the Australian Business Registry Services, requiring every company director to verify their identity once and hold a lifelong unique identifier to combat illegal phoenixing and fraudulent directorships.
Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS) ↗The Treasury Laws Amendment (Registries Modernisation and Other Measures) Act 2020 authorised consolidating the ABR and 31 ASIC registers onto a single ATO-run platform (ABRS) and created director IDs, aiming to streamline business registration.
Australian Taxation Office ↗Under the Business Names Registration Act 2011, ASIC replaced eight separate state and territory business-name registers with a single national online register and fee, automatically transferring existing compliant registrations.
AustLII / Commonwealth legislation ↗Following a referral of powers from the states, these Acts established the uniform national corporate-law framework still governing company formation, directors' duties and ASIC's role as the single national company registrar.
Federal Register of Legislation ↗The A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999 introduced the 11-digit ABN as a single business identifier alongside the new GST, replacing multiple agency-specific numbers and establishing the ATO-run Australian Business Register.
AustLII / Explanatory Memorandum ↗The corporate regulator was renamed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and given expanded consumer-protection responsibilities, consolidating its role overseeing company registration nationally.
ASIC ↗Australia - other topics
Last verified 5/23/2026 · Orientation, not legal advice - verify against the primary sources linked above. Explore the full world map →