Budget 2010: $152.2m for business rego

The Australian Government yesterday announced that it will invest $125.2 million over the next four years into a national, online system for registering business names.

(Credit: Colin Ho/ZDNet Australia)

As part of this overhaul, the government will be creating a shared online service known as the Business Licensing Information Service, which it said will "give businesses customised information about their regulatory requirements including licences, registrations and permits".

Further measures include online client accounts that allow businesses to access their registrations, monitor compliance requirements and receive regulatory notifications from all government departments.

The new national system also means that business owners will only need to register their business names once to be able to trade in multiple states and territories. Prior to this, businesses needed to register their names for every state they traded in, and paid multiple fees. Under the new system, only one fee needs to be paid.

According to the release, this will prove especially beneficial to Australian businesses with online websites that trade nationwide.

The administration of business names will now be handled by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission rather than the states and territories.

"These changes will bring an end to the rail-gauge economics of eight different state and territory systems for registering and renewing business names," it wrote in the release.