In January 2022, we provided a submission to Treasury sharing our feedback on modernising registry fees. The scope of the consultation related to fees currently associated with ASIC’s business registers. Feedback from the consultation will help to shape Government consideration of future fees which will apply to the Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS).

The ABRS forms part of the Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program. The MBR program is being implemented in stages through to 2024.

In our submission we noted our continued support of the MBR and our belief that it is an integral piece of economic infrastructure that can reduce compliance costs for both business and governments whilst simultaneously improving the transparency of information. Modernising registry fees represents an opportunity to reduce compliance costs to support business as well as simplify and streamline interaction with Government.

Our key points from the submission:

• We support the removal of search fees for retail and wholesale users to assist in greater data transparency. Any fees charged should be minimal and for non-automated services. 
• We do not support the proposed infrastructure fee. If imposed, we consider any infrastructure fee should be modelled on historical user search data to identify trends. 
• We strongly support the simplification of late fees.