ASIC annual review fee 2026–27: what a Pty Ltd pays, when, and what lateness costs

Every Australian proprietary company pays ASIC an annual review fee once a year. For reviews falling on or after 1 July 2026, the fee is $342 for an ordinary Pty Ltd, up from $329. It is normally due two months after the company's review date, and late payment adds a flat $102 or $428 on top.

Below is the full fee picture for 2026–27, how the due date works, what lateness actually costs, and the 10-year prepayment option that most foreign owners have never heard of.

The 2026–27 fee table

ASIC indexes its fees every 1 July in line with the March-quarter CPI, as business.gov.au's list of 1 July 2026 changes explains. The amounts below come from ASIC's own fee schedule, published on its fees for commonly lodged documents page.

"Special purpose company" is a narrow category in the review-fee rules. Almost no foreign-owned trading subsidiary or holding company falls into it, so budget for the $342 unless your accountant confirms otherwise.

The fee applies to the company, not to each director or shareholder. A group with three Australian subsidiaries pays three fees.

When the fee falls due

Your review date is the anniversary of the date the company was registered. Soon after that date each year, ASIC sends an annual statement, which includes the invoice. The fee is due by the date printed on the statement, which is usually two months after the review date.

Say a Pty Ltd was registered on 14 March 2025. Its review date is 14 March every year, the 2027 statement arrives shortly after 14 March 2027, and the fee is due around 14 May 2027. That review falls after 1 July 2026, so the $342 rate applies.

The statement goes to the company's registered office. For a foreign-owned company, that address is often a provider's or an accountant's office, and this is where invoices go missing. If no statement has arrived 15 business days after your review date, ASIC asks you to contact it. Don't wait for a reminder that may never come. Our guide to the registered office address covers who should be receiving ASIC mail.

The fee is one of three jobs in the annual cycle. The other two, checking the company details on the statement and passing the directors' solvency resolution, are covered in the annual statement and solvency resolution guide.

What late payment costs

ASIC's late annual review fee page sets out two tiers. The 2026–27 amounts are:

The same two amounts apply to a separate lodgement offence: failing to correct wrong details on the annual statement within 28 days. A company that ignores its statement entirely can therefore pick up a payment late fee and a lodgement late fee in the same year.

Run the numbers. Paying four weeks late turns a $342 bill into $444. Paying six weeks late turns it into $770, more than double the original fee. Those figures are for one company; a group that misses the date for several subsidiaries multiplies the cost.

Can a late fee be waived?

Sometimes. ASIC says that if the lateness came from circumstances beyond your control, you can ask it to review the late fee, and it may cancel it. "Our overseas finance team was on leave" won't usually qualify. A documented ASIC system outage, or a statement sent to an address the company had already validly changed, has a much better chance. Pay the base fee first so the problem doesn't grow while the review is pending.

When lateness becomes a deregistration risk

If the fee stays unpaid, ASIC sends further notices and then a final letter of non-compliance to each director's residential address. For a foreign-owned company, that may be an address in Tokyo or Toronto that nobody in Australia checks.

The serious threshold is 12 months. ASIC's most common ground for starting deregistration itself is an annual review fee that hasn't been paid in full for at least 12 months after the due date. If your company is already at that stage, read our page on rescuing a company from ASIC deregistration.

Paying 10 years in advance

ASIC lets a company prepay its annual review fee for 10 years. For a Pty Ltd, the 2026–27 prepayment is $2,538. At today's $342 rate, ten annual payments would cost $3,420, so the upfront saving is $882 before indexation. Because fees rise every July, the real saving over the decade is larger. ASIC's 10-year advance payment page also says you avoid future fee increases during the period.

The conditions matter:

• No refunds, even if the company closes. If you deregister in year three, the other seven years are lost.
• The prepayment does not show as a credit on the company's ASIC account, and it can't be used to pay any other ASIC amount.
• You still have the other annual obligations: checking the statement details, notifying changes within 28 days, and passing the solvency resolution where one is required.
• You pay by completing ASIC's remittance advice form (linked from the same page), paying, and sending the form to ASIC finance. It is not a button in the online portal.

Who it suits: long-life holding companies, IP-holding entities, and subsidiaries the group is confident will run for a decade. Who should skip it: project vehicles, companies set up for a single contract, and anything with a planned sale or restructure inside ten years. The breakeven is a little over seven years at current rates, so if you can't see the company lasting that long, pay annually.

Moving the review date

A group that owns several Australian companies can end up with review dates scattered across the year. ASIC lets an officeholder apply to change a review date using Form 488, for a fee of $52 per company, if the companies share an ultimate holding company or officeholder, or in exceptional circumstances. ASIC's change of review date page says the company only pays the annual review fee once when the date moves. It does not get billed twice in the changeover year.

Aligning review dates is worth it once you have three or more entities, because one payment run is far harder to miss than three.

Practical checklist for foreign-owned companies

1. Diarise the review date for every Australian entity, plus the due date two months later. The compliance calendar tool builds this from a review date.
2. Confirm who receives the annual statement. If it goes to your registered office provider, agree in writing that they forward it the same day.
3. Decide who pays. Many overseas finance teams can't pay BPAY. ASIC's invoices also offer card payment, so agree on the method before the first statement arrives.
4. Budget for indexation. The fee rises every 1 July, so last year's amount is a guide only.
5. Consider the 10-year option for entities you plan to keep long term.
6. Pay before the due date, not on it. A payment that clears a day late still attracts the $102 fee.

Who pays when you use a resident director service

The review fee is a government charge owed by the company. Providers handle it in one of two ways: they invoice you for it on top of their fee, or they pay it and recharge it. Check that it is passed through at cost. ASIC fees carry no GST, so a GST line on a recharged review fee is a mistake worth querying.

On our Resident Director + Compliance package, we run the annual calendar, chase the statement and track the payment, while the fee itself is passed through to the company at cost. Package prices are on our pricing page, and the cost calculator shows a first-year estimate including government fees. We don't give tax or accounting advice, so questions about how the fee is treated in your accounts belong with your accountant.

This is general information, current as at 27 October 2026, and not legal, tax or financial advice.

General information about Australian law and practice, not legal or tax advice for your circumstances. Check the official sources, or ask your adviser, before you act.