You will be provided with a hyperlink to a new business name registration service that will replace current state and territory systems (dependent on the passage of legislation through the state parliaments). It will be available on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) website.

Altered functionality

In accordance with new business name legislation, the ABR will no longer collect or maintain trading names. However, existing trading names will continue to appear in ABN Lookup until mid-2013.

Functionality temporarily unavailable

ABR online functions, temporarily unavailable on the new platform until late 2012, include:

• goods and services tax (GST) and pay as you go (PAYG) withholding registrations - use the Tax Agent Portal to register clients
• fuel tax credits registrations - phone us to register your clients
• saving Australian business number (ABN) applications to resume at a later time. The ABR will keep you informed of future changes to the ABR including reinstatement of online GST and PAYG registrations.

More information

With implementation of any new system, temporary issues such as slow system response times can occur. We will investigate all issues as a matter of priority and keep you informed via our System maintenance and issues page or visit our website at www.ato.gov.au and search '50846'.

For more information, refer to Changes to the Australian Business Register or visit our website at www.ato.gov.au and search '00259788'