This article was written by Nancy Wang Principal Solicitor at W & G Lawyers.
If you are a director of an Australian company, you almost certainly already have a director identification number — the 15-digit “director ID” that has been compulsory for new directors since 2021. Until now, that number has mostly sat quietly with the Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS), disconnected from the day-to-day life of your company.
That is about to change. From 1 July 2027, new laws will require companies to hand their directors’ IDs to ASIC as part of routine company reporting — and, over time, the public companies register will show whether a company has done so. For most directors this is straightforward housekeeping. For a minority who never obtained an ID, let their details fall out of date, or sit behind messy corporate records, it is a problem worth fixing now rather than in 2027.
This article explains what is changing, why, and the short list of things worth checking before the new rules take effect.
What is actually changing
The director ID regime itself is not new. What is new is that the number is being plugged into the ASIC companies register so it travels with each director across every company they are involved in.
The change comes from the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Act 2026, which passed Parliament on 30 June 2026 and amends the Corporations Act 2001. From 1 July 2027, companies (and registrable Australian bodies and foreign companies) will need to provide each director’s ID to ASIC through the reporting they already do — when registering a company, appointing or removing a director, updating director details, and at the annual review.
Because every company has an annual review at some point in the year, the practical effect is that all companies will need to have supplied their directors’ IDs by around 30 June 2028. Progressively, the register will begin to display whether a company has provided IDs for its directors.
Why the government is doing this
The stated purpose is transparency, and in particular making illegal “phoenix” activity harder. A director ID is a unique identifier that stays with a person for life. Linking it to the register lets anyone — a supplier deciding whether to extend credit, a bank making a lending decision, a regulator investigating misconduct — trace a director across the different companies they have been involved in, and makes it far harder for someone to disappear behind a chain of corporate entities or to reappear under a slightly different name.
More than three million directors already hold an ID. The 2027 change is the point at which those numbers start doing real work on the public record.
What this means for you
For the overwhelming majority of directors, nothing dramatic. If you already hold a director ID and your details are current and consistent across ASIC and ABRS, the transition should be seamless — your company (or its registered agent) will simply include your ID in its ordinary reporting from 2027 onwards.
The directors who should pay attention are those in one of these situations:
You never obtained a director ID. Since April 2022 a director ID has had to be obtained before appointment. If you were appointed and never applied — or you are an alternate or recently appointed director who slipped through — this needs fixing now. ASIC moved from issuing reminders to taking enforcement action against directors without an ID during 2026, so this is no longer a future problem. Failing to hold an ID when required is an offence in its own right, quite apart from the 2027 reporting rules.
Your personal details have changed. If you have changed your name, moved house, or your recorded date of birth or contact details are wrong or out of date, now is the time to correct them. Mismatches between what ASIC holds and what ABRS holds are exactly the kind of thing that will cause friction once the two are linked. You can update your details with ABRS and download a PDF copy of your director ID record through the “Manage your director ID” function on the ABRS website.
Your company records are incomplete. If your company’s officeholder records, share registry or secretarial systems do not currently capture directors’ IDs, they will need to before 2027. It is worth building ID capture into your appointment process now, as a condition of appointment rather than an afterthought.
New obligations and new penalties
The 2026 amendments also tighten the mechanics of appointing directors, and introduce consequences for getting it wrong:
Directors will be required to give their ID to their company within seven days of appointment. Where a newly appointed director does not yet hold an ID, a limited grace period applies — the director has seven days from receiving the number, and the company then has a short further period to lodge it with ASIC.
A new offence will apply to companies that fail to provide director ID information when notifying ASIC of an appointment or a change of details. This sits alongside the existing offences of failing to apply for an ID, deliberately applying for more than one, or misrepresenting an ID. Some of these are strict liability, meaning the prosecution does not need to prove any intention to do the wrong thing.
None of this should alarm a well-run company. But it does mean that what used to be treated as minor administrative box-ticking now carries real regulatory weight.
A short checklist before 2027
If you want to get ahead of the change, four things are worth doing now rather than later:
Confirm that every current director of your company — including alternates and anyone recently appointed — actually holds a valid director ID. Check that each director’s details on the ASIC register match the details recorded with ABRS, and correct any discrepancies. Update any personal details that have changed since the director ID was first obtained. And review your company’s onboarding and record-keeping so that a director’s ID is captured as a matter of course when they are appointed.
The bottom line
The 1 July 2027 change is not a reason for most directors to panic, but it is a good reason to tidy up. Once director IDs are linked to the register, gaps and inconsistencies that were previously invisible will become visible — and, in some cases, enforceable. The directors who deal with a missing ID or an out-of-date record now will find the transition a non-event. Those who leave it until the reporting obligations bite may not.
How can W & G Lawyers assist?
As registered agents and advisers to company clients, we can:
- confirm that all current directors of your company hold a valid director ID;
- check your company and director details on the ASIC register against the records held by ABRS, and correct any inconsistencies;
- assist directors to obtain a director ID, or update their details, where needed;
- review your appointment and company-secretarial processes so that director ID capture and reporting are built in ahead of the 2027 changes; and
- advise on your obligations and potential exposure under the strengthened director ID regime.
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Disclaimer
This article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice under Australian law. For advice specific to your situation, please contact W & G Lawyers. For further details, please click here to view our disclaimer.