Are you a director of a company, a registered Australian body, a registered foreign company, or an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation? If the answer’s yes, then you now need to have a Director Identification Number (Director ID). This unique identifier is required by the Australian Business Registry Service (ABRS), a government service established to bring together the Australian Business Register (ABR) and more than 30 Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) registers in one place. What’s Behind This? The aim of the Director ID is to help prevent the use of false or fraudulent director identities. It is also expected to make it easier for external administrators and regulators to trace directors’ relationships with companies over time, and to identify and eliminate director involvement in unlawful activity, such as illegal phoenix activity. How Do you Get One? It’s free to apply for a Director ID and once you have yours, it will be with you for life, regardless of where your career takes you. Good to know is that the law doesn’t currently authorise the ABRS to disclose Director IDs to the public without the director’s consent, so for now, your ID will not be searchable by the public. When to Get Started You’ll need to apply for your ID within the following time-frame, which is dependent on when you became a director: Date you became a director Date you must apply On or before 31 October 2021 By 30 November 2022 Between 1 November 2021 and 4 April 2022 Within 28 days of the appointment From 5 April 2022 Before appointment If you like to be organised, and you’re about to become a director, you can apply for a Director ID right now, before you’re appointed. The most convenient way to get your Director id is to use the myGovID app. Find out more here. You can use the same app to manage your director ID. Once you receive your 15-digit Director ID, you’ll need to pass the details to the record-holder in your company or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation. Find out more here. Unsure of what to do next? Maintaining compliance is incredibly time-consuming, especially when you’d rather be focused on looking after your clients and growing your wealth. That’s why, at The Ayers Group, we’ve got experts on hand who can advise you on all the steps you need to take to meet your obligations to the government. We can also help you with payroll, contractor management, migration solutions and more. Talk to us today.