To lodge ASIC Form 388, you attach your signed financial report, directors’ report, directors’ declaration, and (if required) auditor’s report to the form, then submit everything through one of ASIC’s three online portals within three or four months of your financial year-end. Most entities pay no lodgment fee. Miss the deadline and ASIC applies an automatic late fee of $98 or $411.
Check Whether You Need to Lodge
Form 388 is for entities that must lodge annual financial reports under section 292 of the Corporations Act 2001. That covers disclosing entities, all public companies, companies limited by guarantee (other than small ones), large proprietary companies, registered schemes and registrable superannuation entities, foreign-controlled small proprietary companies, and small proprietary companies with crowd-sourced funding shareholders.1Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Lodgement of Financial Reports
A proprietary company is “large” for the year if it meets at least two of three tests on a consolidated basis: revenue of $50 million or more, gross assets of $25 million or more, or 100 or more employees at year-end. Those thresholds apply to financial years starting on or after 1 July 2019.2Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Are You a Large or Small Proprietary Company If your proprietary company fails at least two of the tests and is not foreign-controlled or crowd-sourced funded, you generally don’t lodge at all.
Know Your Deadline
Disclosing entities and registered managed investment schemes lodge within three months of the end of the financial year. Everyone else with a lodgment obligation — public companies, large proprietary companies, and foreign-controlled small proprietary companies — has four months.
For a standard 30 June year-end, that puts the deadline at 30 September or 31 October. If your balance date is different, count forward from your actual year-end. There is no grace period. Late fees apply automatically the day after the deadline passes.
Prepare and Sign the Attachments First
The form is a cover sheet. The substance sits in the attachments, and they must be finalised and signed before you begin lodging. Section 295 requires your financial report to include the profit and loss statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, the notes to those statements, and a directors’ declaration stating that the accounts comply with accounting standards and give a true and fair view.
You also need a directors’ report describing operations, results, and any significant changes during the year. If your entity is required to be audited — this covers large proprietary companies, public companies, and disclosing entities — the auditor’s report attaches too. An unsigned declaration or a missing auditor’s report will hold up the filing.
Fill In the Form Fields
Once the attachments are ready, the form itself is quick. You’ll enter:
- The full legal company or scheme name exactly as registered with ASIC.
- Your ACN, ARBN, or ARSN — company number, registered body number, or registered scheme number, whichever applies.
- The start and end dates of the financial year, which must match the dates on the attached reports.
- The entity type checkbox, which selects the correct Form 388 variant (for example, 388A for public companies, 388H for large proprietary companies).
- The signature of a director or company secretary.
The lodgments that get bounced back tend to fail on the same handful of errors: wrong ACN, wrong entity type checkbox, financial year dates that don’t match the attached reports, and unsigned forms.
Lodge Through the Right Portal
ASIC provides three online portals, and which one you use depends on your role:
- The company officeholder portal, for directors and secretaries lodging for their own company.
- The registered agent portal, for accountants and corporate service providers acting as registered ASIC agents.
- The auditor portal, for registered auditors.
You need to register for portal access before you can lodge, so set that up in advance. Registration is a one-time step. Inside the portal, you complete the form fields, upload the financial report and other attachments as PDFs, review, and submit. The portal issues a lodgment receipt on successful submission. Save it — that receipt is your proof of compliance.
Paper Lodgment
If online lodgment isn’t practical, you can print and complete the form, attach the signed reports, and mail everything to Australian Securities and Investments Commission, PO Box 4000, Gippsland Mail Centre VIC 3841.3Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Form 388 – Copy of Financial Statements and Reports The lodgment date is the date ASIC receives the documents, not the date you post them, so allow time for delivery.
Fees and Late Penalties
Lodgment is free for public companies, disclosing entities, large proprietary companies, foreign-controlled small proprietary companies, registered schemes, and companies limited by guarantee. The only variant with a lodgment fee is Form 388K for trusts that are disclosing entities, at $1,521.4Australian Securities and Investments Commission. 388 Copy of Financial Statements and Reports
Late fees are automatic. Up to one month late costs $98. More than one month late costs $411.5Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Late Fees Persistent failure to lodge can lead to enforcement action against the company and its officers.
If You’re a Foreign-Controlled Small Proprietary Company
Small proprietary companies controlled by a foreign company have several ways to reduce or avoid the lodgment obligation:
- If the company is not part of a “large group,” directors can resolve to rely on ASIC Corporations (Foreign-Controlled Company Reports) Instrument 2017/204, in which case no auditor is appointed and no financial report is prepared or lodged. Directors instead lodge Form 384 within the deadlines set by that instrument.
- If the foreign parent (which must be an Australian company or registered foreign company) has already lodged consolidated statements that cover the small proprietary company, no separate lodgment is required.
- If the company has not been audited in any financial year since 1993, it may qualify for audit relief under ASIC Corporations (Audit Relief) Instrument 2016/784. The report still lodges but without an audit.
If ASIC directs a small proprietary company that is not foreign-controlled to prepare a financial report, that report only needs to be audited if ASIC specifically requires it under section 294(1).
Fixing Errors After You Lodge
ASIC processes the lodgment and adds the financial statements to the publicly searchable company register. Keep your receipt and copies of everything you submitted for future due diligence or ASIC queries. If you later find an error in the reports, you can correct the record by lodging a supplementary Form 388C for companies or Form 388D for registered schemes.