The Australian Business Register (ABR) receives around 80,000 ABN registrations applications a month. Around 91% of these applications result in registrations being issued on the spot, and the main reason ABNs are not issued for the others is a failure to establish the identity of the people behind the business.
The amount of monthly ABN registrations is high and we want to ensure they are being issued when there is an entitlement.
We have worked with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to pick a representative sample of around 1,400 recently issued ABNs so that we can review their ABN entitlement. These reviews will inform future focus areas to reduce the number of people applying for and receiving ABNs when they are not entitled.
The reviews will focus on ABNs issued for individuals, partnerships and trusts in August and October 2016. If you applied for an ABN for your client during this period, you may be contacted and required to provide evidence that your client is running a business or taken steps to start a business.
