What your ABN has to do with the 31 October tax deadline

If you lodge your own tax return, it is usually due on 31 October. Using a registered tax agent can give you a later date, so check with your agent. For a sole trader, that return includes the business, and the ABN is part of how it ties together.

A sole trader is not a separate entity for tax. Business income and expenses go into your own personal return, and the ABN identifies the business in it, linking the income to the business that earned it. The ABN is an identifier. It does not put you on a different tax rate, and it is not a separate tax account. GST registration and the BAS are separate again from both the ABN and the tax return, and lodging one never stands in for another.

This is general information. Your accountant or tax agent can tell you what applies to you.

Your invoices and your registrations

While you are going back through the year's income, look at the invoices you sent. The name and ABN on them should match your registrations.

If you trade under a business name, the invoice should show that registered name and the ABN it is linked to. If you trade under your own name, use it the way it appears on the ABN record. A mismatch confuses your clients' bookkeepers, and if the ABN you quote does not check out, a payer may withhold tax. Started using a new trading name partway through the year? It needs to be registered as a business name. With us you search the name to see if it is available, give the holder's details (the ABN is needed first), pay, and we lodge the registration with ASIC for a one or three year term. A name you already hold is renewed the same way: search it in our renewal box, pick one or three years and pay, with the ASIC fee included in our price.

If you stopped trading during the year, the ABN should be cancelled.

The ATO can cancel an ABN too, for example when it believes you are no longer carrying on an enterprise. Some people only learn about it when a client says their ABN shows as cancelled. That is a real problem, because invoicing under a cancelled ABN can lead to clients withholding tax from what they pay you.

Check your ABN entry

Tax time is a good moment to look yourself up on ABN Lookup. The status should say active, the entity name should be right, any business names you trade under should be listed against it, and the GST status should be what you expect. If you would rather not wade through it, our team can check it for you on 1300 070 000, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Melbourne time.

If something is wrong, fix it before a client queries it on an invoice. And if your ABN turns out to have been cancelled while you are still trading, it can usually be reinstated rather than replaced. We reactivate cancelled ABNs, and apply for new ones for sole traders and companies, through our ABN registration page. You give us your old ABN and your identity details, exactly as the ATO has them, and we put the request in for you. Once it is active again, the same number goes back on your invoices.