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ARTICLE · 14 JULY 2006

Banking & Finance Update – June 2006

Gadens Lawyers
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Should legal agreements contain a company’s ACN or ABN? Surprisingly, the choice can have quite wide ranging consequences.

AustraliaCorporate/Commercial Law

Contents
  • ACN v ABN
  • The Lo Doc / No Doc Roller Coaster

ACN v ABN

Should legal agreements contain a company’s ACN or ABN? Surprisingly, the choice can have quite wide ranging consequences.

Background

First, a bit of history.

ACNs or Australian Company Numbers were introduced to the Corporations Act many years ago. The purpose was to give a unique identifier number to each company. A company can even simply have as its name its ACN.

ABNs or Australian Business Numbers came along with the introduction of GST on 1 July 2000. The ABN for most companies is the ACN plus a two digit prefix.

A single company could have more than one ABN. A separate ABN may be held in respect of the enterprises it conducts, such as:

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