Australian Business Numbers were introduced as an initiative of the Australian Taxation Office in 2000 as a way for various government agencies to reference businesses using a single publicly available identification number. While ABNs are primarily used to facilitate business tax reporting, energy credits, and other government agency interactions, they also serve as a way to verify that a company is actively registered, and to confirm some basic company details and history.
As an example, one could SA Liquor Distributors, of Torrensville, South Australia, on the web at http://www.sald.com.au. Searching for "SA Liquor" in the ABN lookup brings up the company's ABN records at the top of the search results. These records allow the user to confirm when and where the company was registered with the Australian government. In this case everything looks active, and the company's online contact details match the postal code registered with the Australian Taxation Office.
Further details on the company are cross-referenced here as well. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission maintains an index of corporate and business names, complete with former names that the company has used, (KARANA WHOLESALE LIQUOR DISTRIBUTORS LIMITED), and changes in filing documentation such as business structure and company officeholders.
While the ABN lookup is a way to double-check that a business is officially registered with the Australian government, is certainly not meant as a explicit method of verifying that a business is legitimate. Having and active ABN obviously doesn't reveal if a company is honest or even noncriminal. One should also keep in mind that not all companies are required to have an ABN. If the annual turnover of a company is $75,000 or more ($150,000 for a non-profit), the company must register for goods and services tax credits, and an ABN is required for that application. Any company that is registered as a tax-exempt charity or to receive deductible gifts must have an ABN.
The ABN lookup could also be used as a free, albeit haphazard and scattered, market research tool. To relate back to the earlier example of SA Liquor Distributors, one could use the ABN advanced search option and search for "liquor" within the Australian state of South Australia. This search yields some 80 listings, some active and some canceled, all in Southern Australia and relating to liquor in some way. Results include liquor stores, various liquor industry councils and groups, as well as other wholesale liquor merchants. Playing around with these searches and resulting information could certainly be useful depending on your research and business objectives.
Compared with other online business directories, the Australian ABN lookup is easy to use, highly functional, and capable of producing useful and accurate results.
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