What is a company statement for ASIC?

[austini]

ASIC doesn't send you an invoice. You have to remember to do it.
Alex

Hi Alex,

From ASIC's own website:

"Annual statements & solvency resolutions

Within 14 days after your review date (usually the anniversary of your company’s registration date) you'll receive either:
a paper copy of your annual statement through the post either to your Registered Office or contact address or
if you're registered to lodge forms online, an email telling you that your annual statement is now available for viewing online."

So it would seem that unless you nominate to lodge online the statment will be sent to you in the post according to the above!

The following link may be of some use to others here:

http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.ns...tements+and+solvency+resolutions?openDocument

Cheers - Gordon

 

[alexlee]

Sorry, my mistake. I wonder why I always had it in my head that it's easy to forget to lodge the annual return?
Alex

 

[Pushka]

Pushka, do you now have top lodge return every year or was it one off? it would add costs to maintaing Trusts if required each year??

I am hoping it was a once off - we received it around about this time last year I think? or maybe January. It was sent to our old address - the ATO must have lots of different data bases that simply arent linked - so maybe it will go to the wrong address and that will be it? It has now ceased trading so it will be interesting to see what happens, or not

 

[s_t]

Because it is a bill

and they probably send it way before payment is due.

Sorry, my mistake. I wonder why I always had it in my head that it's easy to forget to lodge the annual return?
Alex

 

[letiha]

Just wondering why you haven't got yourself a new accountant yet, it seems obvious that you don't have a good relationship. I would be looking if it was me.

Also if you are a director of your company, I would do a little reading on what your duties are, and what is required by ASIC, will save problems down the track.

 

[acer]

Mry, you were right.....

Acer, I still doubt it. Check with your accountant to see if they applied for a TFN or ABN for the company in its own right. If they have, that's why you are getting a notice. If not, that's really odd.

The request was due to us obtaining TFN and ABN at time of registering company.

Mry, can you advise if the ATO requires trustee companies to have an ABN or TFN or both?? or can they exist and operate as trustee with ACN only?

Acer

 

[Mry]

The request was due to us obtaining TFN and ABN at time of registering company.

Mry, can you advise if the ATO requires trustee companies to have an ABN or TFN or both?? or can they exist and operate as trustee with ACN only?

Acer

A Trustee company requires neither as it does not trade in its own right when it acts as a trustee. It gets an ACN and that's it.

(Well, unless you want to take advantage of ID 2007/144 which allows directors of companies to claim deductions for super contributions for passive investments, which technically a trust cannot do unless it pays a trustee fee to the company which then makes the deduction which would require it to have a TFN to lodge a return etc etc. See your accountant)

When you call your accountant Acer, remind them that since the TFN was obtained erroneously, a tax return is not required as no income was earned.

 

[acer]

Thanks for the info Mry, we are with a large accountancy firm and recently our contact moved on, what a bummer! Now trying to re establish relashionship with our new "bus manager", but this is proving hard as he is either too busy or not interested.

Seriously thinking of moving to small or mid size firm which may provide more stability and better suit our situation.

Thanks again,

Acer

 

[babushka]

Hi Gang,

So if I understand correctly if one wanted to avoid accounting fees for the processing of the annual ASIC return for a typical trustee company then all that need be done is:

1. Nominate your own address as the registered address and have the ASIC annual statement/invoice sent to you directly and simply pay by Bpay etc.
2. Complete the solvency form and file it if solvent.
3. In terms of address changes etc generally these can be done by yourself online at the ASIC site free of charge to the best of my knowledge. ASIC send you a corporate key which is used as an identifier for your company to do such things.

Does this sound correct?

I may be wrong but recently I thought I saw that one particular accountant was charging $150 pa for each company for the annual return/storage and around $110 for things like address changes. If you have multiple trustee companies for disc trusts and SMSF etc then these costs can start to add up.



Cheers - Gordon

I have the same questions and thoughts as Gordon. I am thinking of adopting the same process to minimise the accounting fees on ASIC returns for multiple trustee companies. I will still have the accountant filing the tax returns but not the ASIC returns. Can someone please confirm that Gordon is correct? Thanks

May

 

[ILoveProperty]

Me too. I refuse to pay $200 to my ex accountant for downloading a PDF and forwarding it to me.

I have looked through my ASIC online info and can only see addresses to me. Is there a separate section for the registered agent? Or am I just blind? Because my ex accountant still seems to be in the loop

 

[Sim]

Thanks for the info Mry, we are with a large accountancy firm and recently our contact moved on, what a bummer! Now trying to re establish relashionship with our new "bus manager", but this is proving hard as he is either too busy or not interested.

Seriously thinking of moving to small or mid size firm which may provide more stability and better suit our situation.

I was in exactly the same situation ... I used a small firm in Canberra who gave great service, but then got bought by a large accounting firm and service went downhill rapidly (they didn't seem to care about the little guys).

I moved to a small accounting firm here in Sydney and have been extremely happy with the service!

You need good advisors - and an important part of that is someone who is approachable and able to make time to help you with your business/investing issues.

 

[letiha]

I know someone who's accountant died in the middle of doing their businesses return. The next accountant was bought out by another firm, so we have only just been able to get the last 2 years returns off the.

Was drivng everyone involved crazy, they are looking for a new accountant, it was just to hard to pull it when it was hald done.

 

[Pushka]

I was in exactly the same situation ... I used a small firm in Canberra who gave great service, but then got bought by a large accounting firm and service went downhill rapidly (they didn't seem to care about the little guys).

That is exactly what happened with us when the GST came in - our old Accountant didnt think he could cope without merging.

7 years later, he has finally got out of that relationship and we are back to economical service again!

 

[acer]

I was in exactly the same situation ... I used a small firm in Canberra who gave great service, but then got bought by a large accounting firm and service went downhill rapidly (they didn't seem to care about the little guys).

Almost identical to our situation......our accountant had 4 employees in a smaller firm, he used to sit in each year at all meetings and was available to discuss urgent matters on same day basis. They merged with much larger group, where he became a partner and our file was delegated to a junior. No handover or introduction, just found out when I phoned to speak with accountant.

Interestingly the fees with the new firm have greatly increased, proving service does not always relate to cost.

Acer

 

[Ebbie]

A company statement is not actually something that needs to be lodged, but you should check the details. ASIC sends them to your registered agent, or to your nominated address. All you need to do is pay it. If you don't pay it, ASIC revokes the registered status of your company after about two years and thus the federal government takes control of the company and its assets. Cost to fix - $6000-9,000.

By the way, no one prepares these forms. ASIC generate them. I download the form from ASIC as a pdf, print it and mail it to the client.

I do charge for the annual return when it gets sent out to my clients, but that fee covers the sending of the document, the solvency resolution form that must be signed in conjunction with the document and then company changes that must be made during the year (changes in share ownership, address changes, director and secretary changes) are not separately charged for (ie free). I don't know what other guys do.

I receive the Company Statement from ASIC to my nominated address and pay the fee using Bpay. With it being a trustee company I don't submit an annual tax return. Is there any other paperwork I should be preparing because I've never seen a solvency resolution form? Does this apply to non-trading corporate trustees?

 

[Raddles]

HI there
we just do a minute that we believe the trust company will be able to pay any debts as and when they fall due for the solvency resolution when we are doing our company statement.
thanks

 

[austini]

Hi

Check out this link:
http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/asic.ns...tements+and+solvency+resolutions?openDocument

There really is bugger all to updating ASIC details, paying the annual review fee and preparing a simple Solvency Minute. ASIC makes it all quite easy to do even for non-accountants. If you have multiple trusts the ASIC related stuff charged by accountants (some up to a couple of hundred dollars per trust per year) start to add up. Not to mention that some of the accounting charges for simple discretionary trust tax returns with only an IP or two (even with excellent records/summaries) are rediculous.

However if you have a brilliant accountant who offers amazing service, value adds and promptly responds to you questions then that is a different matter and it is worth paying for. Unfortunately the one that we had who offered this and more retired a couple of years ago.

Cheers - Gordon