What you need to tell the Tax Office when your business ceases

A downloadable version of this fact sheet is available.

This fact sheet provides information on what you need to tell the Tax Office when your business ceases.

You must tell us if you have registered for an Australian business number (ABN) and your business has ceased or you have never traded. Informing us of changes to your circumstances and keeping your details up-to-date will ensure that any correspondence we send you reflects your current situation.

Before cancelling an ABN you need to ensure:

• all outstanding activity statements are lodged
• pay as you go (PAYG) withholding obligations are lodged, and
• any liability is met.

Activity statements need to be lodged even if there is ‘nil’ to report because you have not traded during the tax period.

You need to cancel your ABN if: you registered to operate a business but never traded you have ceased trading, or your business has been sold. The above is not an exhaustive definition of ceasing business. If you have queries about your circumstances, please phone us on 13 28 66 for further advice.

Cancelling your ABN will cancel any goods and services tax (GST), luxury car tax (LCT), wine equalisation tax (WET), fuel tax credits (FTC) and ATO digital certificate registrations. Once your digital certificate is cancelled, you should delete the certificate software from your computer.

Important points to remember:

• If your business is registered for GST, you must apply for the cancellation of registration within 21 days of the day on which you ceased trading.
• If you have an ABN, you need to notify us within 28 days of ceasing business to ensure changes are made to the details shown on the Australian Business Register (ABR).
• If a change in your business structure creates a new entity, you need to apply for a new ABN. If your previous business structure is no longer operating an enterprise, you must cancel the ABN.
• If your business starts to trade again in the future or you start a new business and your business structure remains the same, you can apply to have your ABN reactivated.

Penalties

There are penalties for failing to:

• lodge activity statements on time. (In addition, the general interest charge accrues on any outstanding balance until the entire amount has been paid.)
• notify the Registrar of changes to your circumstances within 28 days.

More information You can tell us you are no longer in business: if you have an ATO digital certificate, you may cancel your ABN online at www.abr.gov.au by phoning 13 28 66 between 8.00am and 6.00pm, Monday to Friday – you must be recorded by the Tax Office as an authorised contact for the entity by contacting your tax agent, or by completing the form Application to cancel registration (NAT 2955). You can order this form directly: through online ordering, or by phoning 1300 720 092. Payment options and methods Activity statement essentials

If you do not speak English well and want to talk to a tax officer, phone the Translating and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50 for help with your call.

If you have a hearing or speech impairment and have access to appropriate TTY or modem equipment, phone 13 36 77. If you do not have access to TTY or modem equipment, phone the Speech to Speech Relay Service on 1300 555 727.

Our commitment to you

We are committed to providing you with advice and guidance you can rely on, so we make every effort to ensure that our publications are correct.

If you follow our guidance in this publication and it turns out to be incorrect, or it is misleading and you make a mistake as a result, we must still apply the law correctly. If that means you owe us money, we must ask you to pay it but we will not charge you a penalty. Also, if you acted reasonably and in good faith we will not charge you interest.

If you make an honest mistake in trying to follow our advice and guidance in this publication and you owe us money as a result, we will not charge you a penalty. However, we will ask you to pay the money, and we may also charge you interest.

If correcting the mistake means we owe you money, we will pay it to you. We will also pay you any interest you are entitled to.

You are protected under GST law if you rely on any GST advice in this publication. If you rely on this advice and it later changes, you will not have to pay any extra GST for the period up to the date of the change.

If you feel that this publication does not fully cover your circumstances, or you are unsure how it applies to you, you can seek further assistance from us.

We regularly revise our publications to take account of any changes to the law, so make sure that you have the latest information. If you are unsure, you can check for a more recent version on our website or contact us.

This publication was current at April 2008.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 27 May 2008