How to Apply for a Director ID (Free): Steps for 2026

A director ID is a free, permanent 15-digit number that every company director in Australia must have before they're appointed. To get one, set up myID to at least Standard identity strength, log in to Australian Business Registry Services online and answer two identity questions. It takes about 15 minutes and the number usually appears on screen straight away. No one can apply for you.

What a director ID actually is

A director identification number is a 15-digit number issued by the Commonwealth Registrar through Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS), which sits inside the ATO. It's tied to you as a person, not to any company.

The point of it is to stop illegal phoenix activity, where the same people run a company into the ground, walk away from the debts and start again under a new name, often using false or made-up director identities. Verifying every director once, permanently, makes those people traceable across every company they've directed.

Three things follow from that design:

• You get one number, forever. It doesn't change if you resign, join a new company, change your name or move overseas.
• You apply personally. Your accountant or ASIC agent can't do it for you, because they can't prove your identity for you.
• It's not currently searchable by the public. Treat it like a TFN rather than an ACN: give it to your company's recordkeeper, but don't publish it.

Who needs a director ID

The corporate trustee row catches people out constantly. If your family trust or self-managed super fund uses a company as trustee, you're a director of that company and you need a director ID, even though the company does nothing but hold assets and never trades.

Not sure? ABRS suggests searching ABN Lookup for the entity. If the record shows an ACN or ARBN, check the ASIC companies register for its directors. If your name is there, you need a director ID.

Living overseas doesn't exempt you either. If you direct an Australian company, you need a director ID wherever you live and whatever passport you hold. Foreign directors just have a slower application path.

When you have to apply: before you're appointed

You must have your director ID before you become a director. ABRS lets you apply up to 12 months ahead of your appointment. All the transitional deadlines from the scheme's rollout have long passed.

For a new company, every director needs their number before ASIC registers the company. Sort it out first: before you pay the $636 company registration fee, before you settle on a name, before you sign anything. Our company registration guide lists the director ID as step one.

If you're already a director and never got around to it, you've been in breach since the day you were appointed. Apply now. The offence is ongoing, and applying voluntarily before ASIC contacts you puts you in a far better position.

If you genuinely can't apply by the date you need to, ABRS has an application for an extension of time to apply for a director ID (NAT 75390), which you or someone you authorise can complete.

How to apply for a director ID

There are three ways to obtain a director ID. Online is the fastest and the one ABRS expects most people to use.

Step 1: Set up myID to Standard or Strong identity strength

myID is the Australian Government's Digital ID app (it replaced myGovID). It's not myGov, and a myGov account won't get you there.

Download myID from the App Store or Google Play, enter your details and verify two of these Australian identity documents to reach Standard identity strength:

• Australian passport (current, or expired no more than 3 years)
• Australian driver licence or learner permit
• birth certificate
• citizenship certificate
• Medicare card
• visa, used with your foreign passport
• ImmiCard.

The most reliable pairing for most people is a driver licence plus a Medicare card.

Strong identity strength makes the next step easier. You reach it by verifying an Australian passport, matching your face to the photo, and one other document from the list. A WA driver licence can also be used for the photo check when combined with other documents.

Step 2: Gather what ABRS will ask you

The information must relate to you personally, not the company.

With Strong identity strength, you only need one of: your individual TFN, or your residential address as the ATO holds it.

With Standard identity strength, you need:

• your residential address exactly as the ATO holds it, which isn't necessarily where you live now
• your individual TFN (optional, but it speeds things up)
• details from 2 of these records, which ABRS uses to ask you two questions:

Step 3: Apply through ABRS online

These steps follow ABRS's own guide to applying online.

1. Go to abrs.gov.au, choose to apply for your director ID and select the option to continue with Digital ID.
2. Enter your myID email address.
3. A 4-digit code appears in your browser.
4. Open the myID app on your phone and accept or enter the code.
5. A link-to-ATO screen opens in your browser.
6. Answer the identity questions using the records you gathered, and submit.
7. On the director ID page, select "Apply for a director identification number".
8. Confirm the declarations and submit.
9. Your director ID appears on screen. Save it somewhere you'll find it again; a screenshot in your phone's photos isn't a filing system.
10. Give the number to your company's recordkeeper or ASIC agent.

ABRS recommends Chrome or Firefox for the online application. If you get an error telling you to contact ABRS, log out, refresh the browser and log in again before you call.

It costs nothing, there's no fast track, and no agent can get you one quicker. Some private websites offer paid "director ID" help, but they can't complete the application, because the law requires you to do it yourself.

Apply by phone

If you live in Australia and can't get myID to Standard strength, call ABRS on 13 62 50. Have ready your residential address as held by the ATO, your TFN if you have one, and two Australian identity documents: one primary and one secondary.

• Primary: full Australian birth certificate (not an extract), Australian passport (current or expired within 3 years), Australian citizenship certificate, ImmiCard, or a visa with your foreign passport.
• Secondary: Medicare card, or Australian driver licence or learner permit (including the card number).

If your name on a document doesn't match your ATO record, a marriage certificate, deed poll or some change of name certificates may bridge the gap.

Apply on paper

If you live in Australia and ABRS can't issue the number over the phone, it sends you the paper application for people living in Australia (NAT 75437). You send it with certified copies of either one primary and two secondary identity documents, or two primary and one secondary. Don't send originals; ABRS won't return them.

Approved certifiers include a Justice of the Peace, solicitor or barrister, police officer, registered medical practitioner (not a pharmacist), minister of religion authorised to celebrate marriages, and a bank, building society or credit union officer with at least 5 years of service. A tax, BAS or ASIC agent can't certify your documents. Documents that don't meet the certification rules are the most common cause of delay.

ABRS mails the director ID to the postal address on the form. It asks applicants not to call about status or lodge again while waiting.

Overseas directors

If you're an Australian resident living overseas and have the Australian documents for myID, apply online like anyone else. ABRS says that if you can set up myID at Standard strength, you must apply online.

Otherwise, use the application for people living outside Australia (NAT 75433) with certified copies of either one primary and one secondary document, or two primary documents:

• Primary: foreign birth certificate, foreign passport, full Australian birth certificate, or Australian passport (current or expired within 3 years).
• Secondary: national photo identification card, foreign government identification, driver licence (front and back, with an address matching the application), or a marriage certificate (unless you're using it to show a change of name).

Outside Australia, copies must be certified by a notary public or by staff at an Australian embassy, high commission or consulate. ABRS mails the number to the postal address on the application.

ABRS doesn't publish a processing time for paper applications. Posting certified documents from overseas and receiving a number by mail takes far longer than the online route, so if you're registering a company with an overseas director, start the director ID application well before you plan to register.

Penalties for not having one

Failing to have a director ID is a strict liability offence under section 1272C(1) of the Corporations Act. Strict liability means intent is irrelevant: "I didn't know" and "I thought my accountant was handling it" aren't defences.

Source: ASIC's director ID page and its penalty unit table, as at 18 October 2026.

The penalty is set by the penalty unit value on the date of the offence. A Commonwealth penalty unit rose from $330 to $364 for offences committed on or after 1 July 2026, which is why ASIC's June 2026 media release still cites $19,800 for older conduct.

This is being enforced. ASIC says it has prosecuted 11 directors for failing to comply with director ID requirements, with more than $40,000 in fines. On 19 May 2026, two NSW directors were convicted in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court and fined $10,000 each: one was a director of four companies, the other of 27.

There's a sharper consequence too. From 1 July 2026, ASIC can disqualify a person from managing corporations for up to three years if they fail to apply for a director ID when the Registrar directs them to. The same reforms confirmed ASIC as the sole enforcement agency for the regime and removed the Registrar's infringement notice powers, according to Clayton Utz's summary of the 2026 reforms. ASIC's own director ID page hadn't described the disqualification power when we checked on 18 October 2026.

What changes on 1 July 2027

ASIC says that from 1 July 2027 companies will have to provide directors' IDs to ASIC through company reporting, such as applications to register a company, the annual review and notices of changes to director details. Until then, you don't give your director ID when you register a company.

Law firm summaries of the 2026 reforms say a new director will have to give their number to the company within seven days of appointment, with the company then having 14 days to lodge it with ASIC. ASIC has said it will publish more guidance before 1 July 2027.

The practical effect is that ASIC's company register gets reconciled against the director ID register. Anyone who has quietly skipped this will show up. If you're going to fix it, fix it now.

Don't confuse it with your other numbers

Your director ID doesn't replace any of these, and getting one doesn't register anything. It's purely an identity check on you as a person. If you're still working out whether you need a company at all, start with sole trader vs company and what a company really costs to run before you go anywhere near a director ID.

Common problems and how to fix them

myID won't reach Standard strength. Usually a name or date-of-birth mismatch between documents, or a licence re-issued with a new card number. Check the card number you're entering matches the physical card. If it still won't verify, apply by phone.

Your address doesn't match. ABRS checks the residential address the ATO has on file, which is often an old one. Update it with the ATO through myGov first, then try again.

"Entry not valid" when answering the questions. Check the record meets the limits: a PAYG payment summary from the last 2 years (not an income statement), an APRA fund rather than an SMSF, a dividend reference number with no spaces, or a bank account that received a refund or earned interest in the last 2 years. Choose a different record if one doesn't fit.

You don't have a TFN. You can still apply. A TFN speeds up matching but is optional. Expect identity questions based on other records, and be ready to use the phone or paper route.

You've lost your number. Log back in to ABRS online with myID to view it, or call 13 62 50. Also check with your accountant or ASIC agent, since you should have given it to them.

You think you were appointed without consent. ABRS points to ASIC's process for non-consenting officeholder appointments, which ASIC investigates.

You've somehow got two. Contact ABRS and ask them to cancel the duplicate. Do it promptly: clearing up an honest duplicate is far easier than explaining one later.

Key takeaways

• A director ID is free, permanent, and you get exactly one no matter how many companies you direct.
• You must have it before you're appointed a director, including before ASIC registers a new company; you can apply up to 12 months ahead.
• Apply yourself at abrs.gov.au with myID at Standard or Strong identity strength; it takes about 15 minutes and the number is usually issued on screen.
• No myID? Apply by phone on 13 62 50 or on paper (NAT 75437 in Australia, NAT 75433 overseas) with certified documents.
• Not having one is a strict liability offence with a maximum penalty of $21,840 for offences from 1 July 2026, and ASIC is prosecuting.
• From 1 July 2027, companies must report directors' IDs to ASIC, so any gaps will surface.

Where to get help

• Australian Business Registry Services: the only place to apply, plus guidance on identity documents and the paper forms. Phone 13 62 50. Callers from overseas should use the international number on ABRS's contact page.
• myID: set up your digital identity and check your identity strength before you start.
• ASIC's director ID page: offences, enforcement and the 2027 company reporting obligations.
• Your accountant or ASIC registered agent: they can confirm whether a role you hold makes you a director, and they need your number for the company's records once you have it.
• A lawyer: worth a call if you've been a director without a director ID for a long time, if you're not sure whether you're legally a director of something, or if ASIC has already contacted you.