AFS licensees - lodging annual accounts as foreign company using form 405
Who lodges?
Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that are a foreign company must lodge with ASIC their profit and loss statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement and audit report.
When to lodge
Under ASIC Corporations (Foreign Licensees and ADIs) Instrument 2016/186, foreign companies that hold an AFS licence are exempted from some of the accounting and audit obligations in the Corporations Act.
To comply with the relief provided by the instrument, foreign companies must lodge their annual accounts at least once in every calendar year and at intervals of not more than 15 months.
What to lodge
All registered foreign companies must lodge annual accounts under section 601CK of the Corporations Act. The relief provided by the above class orders means they do not have to lodge a second set of annual accounts if they hold an AFS licence.
Lodgement of the accounts under section 601CK with Form 405 will satisfy the class orders if the accounts are audited and accompanied by a copy of the audit report.
How to lodge
Lodging by mail
Mail your form to:
Australian Securities & Investments Commission
PO Box 4000
Gippsland Mail Centre VIC 3841
Lodging via SBR enabled accounting software
Local agents or officers of foreign companies who lodge Forms 405 using Standard Business Reporting (SBR) enabled accounting software should:
-
Complete and lodge the Form 405 in SBR enabled accounting software and attach:
-
electronic copies of their financial accounts and reports in PDF format (mandatory attachments). File attachments must not contain any active or encrypted content and must be less than 10 MB in size. Up to five attachments are allowed; and
-
XBRL copies of their financial accounts and reports (optional attachment).
More information regarding SBR, SBR enabled accounting software and XBRL can be found at www.sbr.gov.au and www.asic.gov.au/sbr.
What if you need an extension of time?
If you need to apply for an extension of time to lodge your annual accounts as a foreign company, you need to ensure your application is received by ASIC on or before the lodgement deadline. ASIC cannot grant an extension if the lodgement date has passed. To apply for an extension, applications should be submitted through the ASIC Regulatory Portal using the ‘Apply for an exemption, declaration or order’ transaction. Fees will apply to an application and details about payment options are provided in the portal. For more information, see how you apply for relief.
A fee of $3,487 must accompany the application. If you are granted an extension, you must also pay the relevant lodgement fee when you lodge your documents. You won’t need to pay a late fee as long as you lodge by the extension date.