ASIC Form 581 Sets Requirements for Reinstating Deregistered Australian Companies

Key Takeaways

• ASIC's Form 581 and accompanying guide set out how directors, secretaries, members, or third parties may apply for administrative reinstatement of a deregistered company under section 601AH of the Corporations Act 2001.
• The form is dated 22 March 2018 even though the item is listed under a 2026-09-16 date, so it appears to be a republished or re-surfaced existing form rather than a new rule.
• Compliance teams should treat it as a procedural reference for entity lifecycle management, counterparty due diligence, and legacy-entity remediation.

Deep Dive

ASIC's Form 581 and accompanying guide set out how directors, secretaries, members, or third parties may apply for administrative reinstatement of a deregistered company under section 601AH of the Corporations Act 2001. The form is dated 22 March 2018 even though the item is listed under a 2026-09-16 date, so it appears to be a republished or re-surfaced existing form rather than a new rule. Compliance teams should treat it as a procedural reference for entity lifecycle management, counterparty due diligence, and legacy-entity remediation.

Several limits and conditions matter for compliance teams. ASIC will not administratively reinstate companies wound up by a liquidator before deregistration, companies dissolved under the 1981 Companies Codes or earlier legislation, companies that would not meet minimum officeholder requirements on reinstatement, or companies where officeholders dispute reinstatement. Those cases require a court application. Directors and secretaries must declare that the company can pay its debts as and when they fall due, confirm that all former directors were notified (or explain why not), and confirm they are not disqualified from managing corporations. They must also acknowledge the obligation to lodge changes to company details within 14 days of reinstatement. Applicants must pay the application fee plus outstanding review fees, levies, penalties, and fines, based on an ASIC reinstatement estimate. If the company name is no longer available, the company is reinstated under its ACN plus the legal elements. Third parties must also supply court-filed documents proving that legal proceedings were underway at the time of deregistration.

The only timeline is the 14-day post-reinstatement notification requirement. There is no lodgement deadline, since the form is lodged "when required." Applications are sent by post to the Gippsland Mail Centre, and annexures must meet formal requirements: A4 paper, 10mm margins, company name and ACN or ARBN, consecutively numbered pages, block lettering, identifying marks, an endorsement, and signature by the same person who signed the form.

Recommended actions include:
- Reviewing the corporate registers of group entities for any that were deregistered in error or that hold residual assets or liabilities.
- Confirming that counterparty and KYC records account for the possibility of reinstatement, since a reinstated company is treated as if it had never been deregistered.
- Preparing the evidence file (bank statements, title documents, invoices, court records) and confirming director disqualification status before applying.
- Ensuring that the declarations are accurate, as providing false or misleading information to ASIC is an offence.
- Checking current fees and RG 83 for any updates, since this version of the form is dated 2018.

Risk implications are moderate and mostly operational and legal. Reinstatement can revive dormant liabilities, litigation exposure, and officeholder duties, including automatic resumption of office for directors and secretaries. Inaccurate declarations carry penalties. Entities relying on a company's deregistration to close out exposures should recognize that reinstatement may reopen those exposures.

Source: Australian Securities and Investments Commission