Guide
When are your corporation’s reports due?
Within 6 months of the end of your reporting period. Most corporations run a 30 June year end, which makes the deadline 31 December. If your corporation uses a different financial year, the six-month rule runs from your year end.
Checked against ORIC — Annual reporting, .
Work out your date
Almost every page about this assumes a 30 June year end. If yours is different, here is where you actually land.
| Your financial year ends | Reports due by |
|---|---|
| 30 June | 31 December (same year) |
| 31 December | 30 June (following year) |
| 31 March | 30 September (same year) |
| 30 September | 31 March (following year) |
General reports and directors’ reports are lodged 1 July to 31 December each year. Not sure which reports apply to your corporation at all? The checker will tell you.
Working backwards
The deadline is not the date the work starts. This is the timeline boards who lodge on time actually run, counting back from a 31 December deadline:
- July–August — close off the year’s bookkeeping. This is the step that slips, and everything else waits on it.
- September — financial report drafted.
- October — with the auditor, if your corporation needs one. Book them earlier than feels necessary; December is busy for auditors too.
- November — board meets, reviews and approves the reports.
- December — lodge, with room to spare.
Corporations that miss the deadline rarely miss it in December. They miss it in August, by not starting.
If you need more time
The Registrar can grant an exemption, and extending the time in which a report must be lodged is one of the things an exemption can do. It is neither automatic nor a formality.
Applying means:
- In writing, using the form in the Registrar’s online portal.
- With reasons that satisfy the criteria in section 358-5 of the CATSI Act.
- Early. The Registrar expressly considers how timely the application was, so applying after the deadline has passed is a weaker position than applying before it.
In deciding, the Registrar weighs whether the current obligations would make a report misleading, are inappropriate in the circumstances, or would impose an unreasonable burden, along with the cost of complying, the consequences if the corporation stopped providing its services, and whether it is at high risk of insolvency or non-compliance.
Two limits worth knowing before you pin hopes on it:
- Extensions granted are unlikely to exceed 5 months beyond the legislative deadline.
- The Registrar is unlikely to grant an exemption for a general report at all.
And an exemption does not excuse the underlying discipline: a corporation granted one is still required to maintain proper accounts and records.
Checked against ORIC — Corporation reporting guide (June 2020), .
If the date has already passed
That is a different problem with a different answer, and more common than you might think. Start at overdue ORIC reports.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly are ORIC reports due?
Within six months of the end of your corporation’s reporting period. Most corporations run 1 July to 30 June, so their deadline is 31 December. General and directors’ reports are lodged between 1 July and 31 December each year.
Our financial year is not July to June. What is our deadline?
The six-month rule runs from your own year end, not from 30 June. A corporation with a 31 December year end has until 30 June the following year.
Can we get more time?
You can apply to the Registrar for an exemption, which includes extending the time a report must be lodged. It has to be applied for in writing with reasons meeting the criteria in section 358-5, and the Registrar considers how timely the application was. Extensions granted are unlikely to exceed five months beyond the legislative deadline, and the Registrar is unlikely to excuse a general report at all.
If we get an exemption, do we still have to keep proper books?
Yes. A corporation granted an exemption from reporting is still required to maintain proper accounts and records.
What happens if we miss the deadline?
Corporations that have not lodged appear on a public list maintained by the Registrar. It is recoverable, but it does not resolve itself — the practical first step is establishing exactly which years and which reports are outstanding.