Third-party notices frustrating accountants

In what ASIC has labelled “unsolicited business name renewal and company review notices”, the regulator accepted the materials may confuse business owners who may believe these notices are sent or authorised by ASIC, despite being from a third party.

The regulator said some of these third parties may be ASIC-registered to act on behalf of a company or assist with ASIC-related tasks, such as lodging documents and keeping company details up to date. 

Despite this, some business owners have allegedly fallen victim to these notices, which may appear to be invoices.

Businesses may believe they are required to pay a fee to a third party posing as ASIC for business renewals and annual company reviews, Griffith told the masthead.

Business renewal and company annual review services are provided free of charge by accountants or for a small fee by ASIC.

“This is again pushing more responsibility and hustle down onto accountants and bookkeepers … This is just more time wasting, it's a huge frustration within the profession.” 

He added that third-party agents send these notices well before ASIC issues business renewal and annual review notices to business owners.

“[These third-parties] are acting like the middle man and giving [business owners] the impression that there’s no other alternative … There’s no indication [on these notices] that ASIC provides this service free of charge at a later date … that in itself is predatory.”

“[The third-parties] solicit [accountants’] clients from underneath [accountants], and then the accountant needs to rectify the position, and explain to [clients] that ‘you have just paid a third party; we would have done that automatically for you’.”

“This has been pissing off accountants and bookkeepers for years … ASIC’s put a warning up — it’s a start — but no one is actually shutting them down.”

ASIC said unsolicited correspondence from these third parties may look like invoices, refer to a registration renewal that is not yet due, use urgent language or short payment time frames – sometimes with an associated ‘discount’ – quote a fee that does not differentiate between the service fee and the fee charged by ASIC, and use publicly available information from ASIC business registers.

The regulator added that these agents may charge an extra fee for these services in addition to the fees charged by ASIC. The regulator said company and business name holders can do annual company reviews and business name renewals directly with ASIC or through their existing registered agent.

According to the regulator, it sends companies an annual statement to a single address, and business name renewal reminders to the address linked to the business name registration or the registered agent.

However, the regulator said business owners could opt to use the services of these third-party providers to complete their annual company review or renew business name registration if they are comfortable with the additional fees.

“If you receive a suspicious communication claiming to be from ASIC, do not take any action until you are sure it is legitimate,” ASIC said in its statement.