Every Australian company pays ASIC an annual review fee to stay registered, and in 2026-27 that fee is $342 for a standard proprietary company, due within two months of the company’s review date. Miss it and the automatic late fees are $102 within one month and $428 beyond one month, turning a routine $342 obligation into a $770 penalty for the sole crime of not diarising a date. This guide sets out the current ASIC fee schedule, why the numbers move every July, the late-fee mechanics, and what a registered agent should reasonably charge to manage all of it. Put the review date on the same calendar as BAS due dates so it cannot hide.
Published: July 2026
ASIC fees are cost-recovery charges, not taxes, and they are indexed to CPI every 1 July. Confirm live amounts on the official ASIC fees schedule. The key figures for the year running 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027:
Annual review fee, standard proprietary company: $342. This is the single largest recurring cost of simply having a company, payable every year on the anniversary of registration for as long as the company exists, dormant or trading.
Annual review fee, special purpose company: $70. Companies restricted by their constitution to one narrow purpose, most commonly corporate trustees of a single SMSF, and not-for-profit companies limited by guarantee, pay roughly a fifth of the standard fee, because they hold no operating assets and impose less regulatory burden. The status must actually apply; a company treated as special purpose after its activities have broadened invites backdated fees.
Annual review fee, public company: $1,583.
Company registration (new Pty Ltd, including SMSF trustee companies): $636, up from $611 in the prior year. Foreign company registration via the relevant form is also $636.
Business names: $47 for one year, $108 for three years.
Late fees: $102 where payment or a required change is up to one month late, $428 where more than one month late. These apply automatically, with no grace period.
All ASIC fees are GST-free, and the annual review fee and late fees are generally deductible as a business expense, though the treatment can depend on the entity and should be confirmed with a tax adviser. Because the schedule re-indexes each 1 July, always check the live ASIC figures before lodging anything close to the year boundary, and note that registering a new company in late June can capture the prior year’s slightly lower fee.
A founder group holds three proprietary companies. One review is paid late by six weeks. Late fee $428 plus the $342 review is $770 for that entity. If the pattern repeats on two entities, the year costs an extra $856 in pure late fees, more than a competent registered agent service fee for the whole group. The arithmetic of diarising is boring and almost always positive.
The annual climb is structural, not arbitrary. Under the Commonwealth cost-recovery guidelines, ASIC recovers the cost of running the corporate register and the regulator, and the government applies the CPI movement to set each year’s uplift, publishing the new schedule in the weeks before 1 July. The practical effect is a small annual increase, a dollar or two on smaller lines, more on the larger ones, that compounds over decades, which is why the fee to register a proprietary company has risen from a few hundred dollars in the late 1990s to $636 in 2026-27. The planning consequence is simple: budget for a modest annual rise rather than a flat fee, and never rely on last year’s number for this year’s payment.
Paying the invoice is only part of the obligation, and treating it as the whole thing is where directors get caught. Around the review date, ASIC issues an annual statement listing every detail it holds, registered office, principal place of business, directors, members and share structure, and the company must check and correct those details. Changes are not supposed to wait for the annual review; the Corporations Act requires them to be notified within 28 days of occurring, and a change disclosed only at review time can attract a late lodgement fee.
Directors of proprietary companies must also pass a solvency resolution within two months of the review date, a formal resolution that the company can pay its debts as they fall due, kept on the company’s own records. It is not lodged with ASIC where positive, but it must exist, and its absence is a governance gap that surfaces at exactly the wrong moments, disputes, sales, insolvency. The annual review, done properly, is therefore three tasks, pay, verify, resolve, not one, and the fee is the least demanding of the three. ASIC’s own company annual review guidance is the primary checklist; company structure versus sole trader context helps when you are deciding whether the entity is still worth the annual cost at all.
If the company still trades or holds assets, pay the review, verify details and pass the solvency resolution on time. If it is dormant with no assets and no liabilities, compare ongoing $342 annual costs against the cost of preparing a voluntary deregistration or members’ voluntary liquidation. If it only exists because nobody cancelled it after a restructure, put wind-up on this quarter’s list rather than paying another decade of reviews by default.
The escalation is unforgiving. The late fees apply automatically, they stack year on year if reviews are repeatedly missed, and continued non-payment triggers a deregistration notice and, ultimately, involuntary deregistration under the Corporations Act. A deregistered company ceases to exist, its assets can vest in ASIC or the Commonwealth, and reinstatement is a costly, slow process, far more expensive than the fees avoided. For a company holding property, contracts or a bank account, involuntary deregistration is not an administrative slip; it is an existential event caused, almost always, by nobody owning the review date.
A property-holding company is deregistered after two ignored reviews. Reinstatement involves legal and ASIC processes that commonly cost several thousand dollars and weeks of delay, during which contracts and banking can be impaired. A registered agent service at a few hundred dollars a year would have paid the $342, confirmed details and kept the solvency resolution on file. The “saving” of ignoring the notice is one of the most expensive savings in Australian SME admin.
A registered agent is the intermediary ASIC deals with for a company’s filings: they receive the annual statement, manage the review, lodge changes to officeholders and share structure, and keep the compliance calendar. Using one is optional but common, because the penalty for missing deadlines dwarfs the cost of delegating them.
Reasonable market pricing separates the ASIC fee, which is fixed and passed through unchanged, from the agent’s service fee. A registered agent should pass the $342 review fee through at cost and charge a service fee on top, commonly a modest annual amount, often in the low hundreds of dollars per company, for managing the review, reminders, solvency resolution documentation and routine changes, with per-lodgement fees for one-off filings such as officeholder or share changes. The signals of a fair arrangement: the ASIC fee shown separately and unmarked-up, a transparent service fee, and no manufactured urgency. The signals of a poor one, or a scam: an inflated bundled figure that hides the real ASIC fee, false or early “deadlines”, official-sounding names mimicking ASIC, and pressure to pay immediately via unfamiliar links, all of which ASIC itself warns about in relation to unsolicited review and business-name notices.
For most SMEs the sensible arrangement is to have the company’s accountant or embedded finance function act as, or coordinate with, the registered agent, so the review date sits on the same compliance calendar as BAS, super and lodgement dates, and the whole thing becomes a diarised routine rather than an annual scramble ending in a $428 penalty. Building that calendar, and owning the dates on it, is exactly the standing discipline that keeps a company registered, solvent-resolved and current for the price of the fee rather than the price of the mistake. Outsourced finance services and the how to register a company guide sit on either side of the lifecycle. For broader admin cost context see accountant versus bookkeeper pricing.
ASIC review $342 passed through at cost. Agent annual service fee $250 including reminders, statement check support and solvency resolution template. Officeholder change lodgement $120 when needed. Total ordinary year: $592. Compare that to one late fee event at $770 all-in, or a scam “urgent renewal” invoice for $890 that bundles nonsense. Transparent separation of ASIC fee and service fee is the tell of a clean arrangement.
How much is the ASIC annual review fee in 2026-27?
$342 for a standard proprietary company, $70 for an eligible special purpose company such as an SMSF corporate trustee, and $1,583 for a public company, for the year from 1 July 2026. The fee is due within two months of the company’s review date.
What are the ASIC late fees?
$102 where payment or a required change is up to one month late, and $428 where more than one month late. They apply automatically with no grace period, so a $342 review paid over a month late becomes $770.
How much does it cost to register a company?
$636 for a new proprietary company from 1 July 2026, up from $611 the previous year, with foreign company registration at the same $636. Registering in late June can capture the prior, slightly lower fee.
Why do ASIC fees increase every year?
They are CPI-indexed cost-recovery charges under the Commonwealth cost-recovery guidelines, re-set each 1 July to recover the cost of running the corporate register. The increases are small annually but compound over time.
What else does the annual review involve besides paying?
Checking and correcting the company details on the annual statement, notifying any changes (which should actually be lodged within 28 days of occurring, not held to review time), and passing a directors’ solvency resolution within two months of the review date. The fee is the simplest of the three tasks.
What happens if I do not pay?
Automatic late fees, stacking year on year if reviews are repeatedly missed, followed by a deregistration notice and ultimately involuntary deregistration, after which the company ceases to exist and reinstatement is costly and slow. For a company holding assets or contracts, this is an existential risk.
What should a registered agent charge?
The ASIC review fee passed through at cost, plus a transparent service fee commonly in the low hundreds of dollars a year per company for managing the review, reminders and routine changes, with per-lodgement fees for one-off filings. Beware bundled figures that hide the real ASIC fee, false deadlines and official-sounding names, which ASIC warns are hallmarks of scams.
Are ASIC fees tax deductible?
Generally the annual review fee and late fees are deductible business expenses, and all ASIC fees are GST-free, though treatment can depend on the entity and should be confirmed with a tax adviser.
Can I change the company’s review date?
The review date is set by registration anniversary mechanics. You work with the date you have by diarising it; you do not casually pick a convenient month without understanding ASIC’s rules for your entity.
What if I receive an email demanding immediate ASIC payment via a strange link?
Treat it as a potential scam. Check official ASIC channels and your registered agent. ASIC regularly warns about unsolicited notices that mimic official branding and invent urgent deadlines.
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We review and check this guide periodically. At the time of writing (July 2026), all information was current. Scale Suite is a registered BAS Agent, not a licensed tax advisor or financial advisor. This content is general information only and does not constitute professional tax, financial, or legal advice. Some details may change over time.
Scale Suite is a Sydney-based provider of outsourced finance and HR services for Australian SMEs. We deliver bookkeeping, financial reporting, payroll processing, fractional CFO support, recruitment, employee onboarding, people and culture support, and fractional HR oversight, all as a fully embedded team that works inside your business.
Employment Hero Gold Partner, CA-qualified, and Xero Certified, we replace fragmented finance and HR processes with one responsive, senior-level function at a fraction of the cost of full-time hires. We serve growing businesses across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, with packages starting from $1,500 per month and no lock-in contracts.
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