How to check an ACN, and how to find your own

An ACN check is free on ABN Lookup at abr.business.gov.au and on ASIC Connect, and neither needs a login. Search the nine-digit number, a company name or an ABN. ABN Lookup returns the registered entity name, its type, whether the ABN is active and whether it is registered for GST.

The one-minute version

1. 1
   Go to abr.business.gov.au — ABN Lookup, run by the Australian Business Register.Its search box takes an ABN, an ACN or a name. No login, no cost, and it is the public register your own customers see when they check you.
2. 2
   Type the nine-digit ACN, the eleven-digit ABN, or the company or trading name.Names match loosely, so a common one returns several entities. Yours is the one with the right state and entity type. A number returns exactly one record or none.
3. 3
   Read the record: entity name and type, ABN status and the date it has been active from, GST registration, main business location, and the ACN under the ASIC registration heading.The ACN on that record links straight through to the company's own ASIC entry.

What each register tells you, and what it does not

There are two registers and they answer different halves of the question, which is why a thorough check uses both. ABN Lookup is the tax side: it is maintained by the Australian Business Register and it covers every business structure, so a sole trader with no company behind them appears there and nowhere else. ASIC's company and organisation register is the corporate side: it covers companies only, and it is the one that says whether the company itself is registered and who is behind it. ASIC gives the free information on that register through ASIC Connect and through its newer public beta search; extracts and lodged documents are the paid part.

Neither register tells you whether a business is solvent, whether it pays on time, or whether it is any good. What they tell you is whether the entity you have been named actually exists, under that name, with that number, today — which is the question worth asking before money moves, and the one that takes a minute.

Where your own ACN already is, because the law puts it there

If you are looking for your own number rather than somebody else's, you almost certainly have it in a drawer. ASIC requires a company to display its full name and its ACN on a specific list of documents, and footnotes the requirement to section 153 of the Corporations Act 2001. The list is the useful part, because it tells you exactly which of your own papers to open:

• invoices and statements of account
• receipts, unless they are machine-produced
• orders for goods and services
• business letterhead
• official company notices
• everything lodged with ASIC
• documents required to be signed, issued or published under the law
• documents signed or issued for a particular transaction or dealing
• letters of credit, and cheques, promissory notes and bills of exchange

Where it is required, the company's full name and ACN go on the first page of the document, and must be clear and readable. If more than one company is named, each number goes next to its own company's name. You may label it 'Australian Company Number', 'ACN' or 'A.C.N.'. A common seal, where a company still uses one, carries the name, the words 'Australian Company Number' and the number itself.

The reverse list is worth knowing too, because it is where people expect to find a number and do not. ASIC does not require the ACN on business cards, envelopes, vehicles, packing and labelling, machine-generated receipts, or television advertisements. A company car with no ACN on the door is complying with the rules, not breaking them.

Your ABN is usually your ACN with two digits in front

This is the single fact that collapses most of the confusion. ASIC's own guidance is that a company's ABN is often the same as its ACN with two extra numbers at the beginning — its worked example is ACN 123 456 789 and ABN 36 123 456 789 — and that where this holds, the company may display its ABN anywhere it would otherwise have to display its ACN.

Ours is a live example of it, and you can check it rather than take our word: HomeSec Business Finance Pty Ltd, ABN 50 150 013 513, ACN 150 013 513. The same nine digits, with 50 in front. So if a company has given you an eleven-digit ABN and a form is asking for an ACN, drop the first two digits and you usually have it — then confirm it on the record rather than assuming, because the rule is "often", not "always".

ABN, ACN and TFN, and why they get confused

A sole trader's ABN is unrelated to any other number and sits alongside their personal TFN. The TFN is the one to be careful with: an ABN and an ACN are published identifiers that belong on your invoices, and a TFN never is.

Checking the company behind a lender

The same minute's work is worth spending on anyone asking you to sign something. Ask for the legal entity name and the ABN or ACN, look it up on both registers, and see whether the entity named on the paperwork is the entity that exists. ABN Lookup's own disclaimer is the reason it is more than a formality: where you rely on it for taxation purposes and the information turns out to be wrong, in certain circumstances you are protected from liability. Its warning statement adds that anyone offering financial or investment products should be checked against the licensed registers as well.

Do it to us. The link above goes straight to our record, and the secured lending page sets out what else is worth asking a lender before you apply.

If your ABN has been cancelled

The Registrar cancels ABNs that appear inactive — no activity statements lodged, no business income in a tax return, no sign of trading. If you are still in business, apply to reinstate it through the ABR, and do it before the next invoice: a customer paying an invoice with no valid ABN on it is required to withhold tax at the top rate, and your GST registration goes with the ABN. Cancelling an ABN does not cancel an ACN — the company remains registered with ASIC until it is deregistered there, so the nine digits stay valid while the eleven do not. A cancelled ABN is also, in practice, a flag that lodgements have fallen behind, and the ATO's next letter is usually about that. What to do when returns are behind and when the debt is already there are covered on their own pages. What a cancelled ABN actually stops has the longer answer.

What a lender needs from you

At HomeSec, an active ABN and a genuine business purpose are two of the four things we ask for — the other two are Australian real property with enough equity in it and a credible way the loan is repaid. We do not ask for financial statements, tax returns or BAS, so an ABN that is active and a purpose that is real are most of the eligibility conversation.

Reviewed by Catriona Anderson, General Manager