This does concern a legal matter currently going through a tribunal but my question is basically whether trading names are still valid (without a business name) and whether there's any way to check whether a company lodges BAS statements, income tax returns, etc. through ASIC, in other words, whether I can search for proof that a particular company is still operating a going concern under that particular ABN.
The background is that there is a bad debt dispute between us, the supplier, and the debtor. The debtor is claiming that a previous lessee of the property is responsible for our invoices, not the owner. However, I've found through ABN Lookup and ASIC that the owners have set up 2 trust funds and both of these have the property listed as a trading name, but not a business name and these are active. These 2 entities aren't listed on ASIC.
The company also lists the property as a business name and this is registered with ASIC and also current. So basically the same family has 3 separate entities (with 3 separate ABNs) for the same business property, 1 is a business name and registered, the other 2 are trading names and not registered, but the ABN is current for all 3. Previous business names were ended for the trading name entities (but all of these were the same property as well).
What does "current" actually refer to on ABN Lookup? Does this mean that this entity is still lodging BAS statements and income tax? Is there any way to search another company's lodgement of these?
I understand that trading names are now obsolete, since 2012. ASIC advises companies change from the trading name to the business name. Is it possible legally to continue to run a business with just a trading name and without ASIC registration?
We'd like to prove that the debtor was in fact still the legal owner of the business during the dispute period.
I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.
The background is that there is a bad debt dispute between us, the supplier, and the debtor. The debtor is claiming that a previous lessee of the property is responsible for our invoices, not the owner. However, I've found through ABN Lookup and ASIC that the owners have set up 2 trust funds and both of these have the property listed as a trading name, but not a business name and these are active. These 2 entities aren't listed on ASIC.
The company also lists the property as a business name and this is registered with ASIC and also current. So basically the same family has 3 separate entities (with 3 separate ABNs) for the same business property, 1 is a business name and registered, the other 2 are trading names and not registered, but the ABN is current for all 3. Previous business names were ended for the trading name entities (but all of these were the same property as well).
What does "current" actually refer to on ABN Lookup? Does this mean that this entity is still lodging BAS statements and income tax? Is there any way to search another company's lodgement of these?
I understand that trading names are now obsolete, since 2012. ASIC advises companies change from the trading name to the business name. Is it possible legally to continue to run a business with just a trading name and without ASIC registration?
We'd like to prove that the debtor was in fact still the legal owner of the business during the dispute period.
I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.