Nominee (Resident) Director Services

Resident Director

A proprietary company must have at least one director who lives in Australia. As such a foreign company or person looking to establish a company in Australia will often require the services of a resident person willing to take up the position of nominee resident director. Due to the regulations in Australia, a company director is responsible for certain aspects of the business regardless of whether he or she is appointed in a nominee capacity, or as an actual managing director.

Given the responsibilities and fiduciary risks of being a company director in Australia, that person should be experienced in meeting corporate governance and other business registration requirements. We are able to provide an experienced in-house member from our team to meet your needs - so please get in touch to discuss.

Benefits of using our Australian Resident Director Service

There are a number of benefits and reasons why a foreign company may consider the use of a nominee resident director.

• Cost-effective solution – for businesses that are expanding into, or starting a new venture in Australia, it is particularly important to keep expenses to a minimum while you establish your brand and grow your client base. Appointing a resident director to your company will greatly help you to keep your overheads low and will ensure you retain effective managerial control of your business.
• Comply with the Australian Corporations Act 2001 – which requires every company incorporated or registered in Australia to have at all times, at least one personal director who ordinarily resides in Australia. Our nominee resident director will keep you compliant at all times in terms of the residency requirement.
• Maintain your personal privacy – clients are often in a position where it is unwise for their name to appear on the corporate registers of a company, especially where such registers are available to be viewed via a basic company search. We can provide you with a Resident Director as well as a registered office and business address – which will help to protect your reputation, other business interests, current employment, family & associates.
• Suitable name to represent your business – it may be desirable to keep your own name off the company registers. Perhaps your own name sounds undesirable for the type of business you operate. Maybe your name is similar to that of a famous (or infamous) person, or maybe you simply need a name that sounds Australian.

ABNAustralia.com.au is dedicated to gaining an understanding of your current company structure and future needs. Our comprehensive understanding of these aspects will better enable us to tailor a directorship package that will suit your company and budget, while ensuring always, that you remain compliant with Australian director requirements.

What will the nominee director or Shareholder require before agreeing to act?

A nominee director may generally require you to:

• Provide them with an overview of the company’s current and proposed activities;
• Provide your business plan, forecasts and budgets (if available);
• Provide any advice that you have that confirms the activities of the company comply with Australian local laws, (e.g. local licensing requirements, consumer laws, importation laws, tax laws, TGA approvals, etc)
• Provide evidence of your financial standing, or the financial standing of the foreign company holding the shares in the Australian company – to show that the company will remain solvent;
• Confirm that the company has appointed a local accountant and Tax Agent;
• Agree to provide regular financial and operational reports, and to provide them direct access to your local accountant and Tax Agent;
• Agree to their fees and charges for acting as a director; and
• Agree to indemnify the company and the nominee director for any liabilities that the company is not able to meet in Australia, in order to avoid insolvency. This will generally make either you, or the foreign parent company, liable for the debts and obligations of the Australian company.

We will only provide Nominee Director Services on the following conditions:

• We receive the proof of identity documents for the beneficial owners and non-resident directors.
• We will need to know reasons for requiring a Nominee Director
• We will need to know the nature of the business
• The company's registered office should be with us
• We expect to see relevant information on how the business is being conducted. 
• In the case the client wants to dissolve the company, he must inform us. We will terminate ourselves and will not act as a director at the time of dissolution if the company is older than a year.

Note, we aim to keep things as simple as possible for you and will walk you through any specific requirements in plain language and easy to follow steps.