Business name renewals and what happens if you miss one

A business name is registered for one year or three, whichever you picked, and at the end of that period it has to be renewed. Before the expiry date, ASIC sends a renewal notice to the contact email address recorded on the registration.

Most people who lose a business name never saw that email.

The address on file is often years old. It might belong to a bookkeeper who has moved on, a web developer who set things up long ago, or an internet provider account that was closed. It might be a perfectly good inbox that nobody opens. ASIC sends the notice to whatever address it has, and if that address is dead, so is the reminder.

Watch out for scam letters and emails as well. Some look official and ask you to pay to renew a name, often for more than you would expect or for a service you never asked for. If one arrives and you are unsure, ring whoever you last renewed with before paying anything.

If the renewal is missed

If the renewal is not paid, the registration can be cancelled. Once that happens the name is no longer yours, and it can become available for anyone to register.

There is no guarantee you get it back. If someone else registers it first, you trade under something else. If nobody does, registering it again is a fresh registration, not a renewal.

The knock-on effects are what hurt. A .com.au domain registered on the strength of that business name relies on your connection to it. Your van, your shopfront, your invoices and your website all carry a name you may no longer be registered to use. Sorting that out takes a lot longer than paying a renewal on time ever would.

Renewing before it is due

You do not have to wait for the deadline. A business name can be renewed before it expires, and the new period runs on from the current expiry date, so renewing early does not cut any time off what you have already paid for.

The Easter long weekend is close, and April is a busy month for small businesses, with school holidays running into it and the end of the financial year not far behind. If your renewal falls due in the next few weeks, doing it before the break gets one more thing off your desk.

If you hold more than one business name, look at each renewal date separately. They often fall at different times of year, especially when names were registered as the business grew. A calendar reminder a month ahead of each date does no harm either, in case the notice lands in spam.

Renewing with us is short. On our business names page you type the name into the renewal box, choose one year or three, and pay. The renewal fee that goes to ASIC is built into our price, so there is one payment and nothing extra to send ASIC separately. We take care of the ASIC side from there.

Three years means one fewer notice to keep track of, which helps if your inbox is the weak point. If the business also has a .com.au domain or hosting with us, those renewals sit in the same Registry dashboard, so you can see everything that falls due in one place. If you are not sure when your name is due, or you think a reminder went to an old address, our team can look it up for you on 1300 070 000, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Melbourne time.