The latest campaign by the Australian Taxation Office, or the ATO, is to verify the identities of company directors around the country, and close loopholes for potential fraudsters.
Currently, people can sign up or be nominated to become directors of companies with very little verification of their identities.
But by the 30th of November, the Australian Business Registry Services, which operates within the ATO, will require all directors to have a Director Identification Number, or a DIN.
A DIN is a unique identifier that directors can apply for once and keep forever.
Warren Day is the Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, known as ASIC. He says the benefits of having a verified ID are two-fold.
"That Director ID is really important because it will mean the government and us at ASIC, and the Australian Business Registry Service and other government agencies, will have real dependability and faith that the person who says they're the director is the director. At the moment we know there are people operating under false names under the register. But more importantly, it means for business, they have confidence that the person they're dealing with is the director of a company that they're awarding contracts to or doing business with."
Mr Lisk from Flinders University says the requirement for directors will make it a lot easier to look at who operates Australian companies and be able to locate them.
He says it's not just the directors of companies who'll have to provide verified ID.
Charities and not-for-profits are also required to comply.
