| In Australia: You need to register either as a sole trader (get an ABN) or register a company (PTY LTD, with an ACN). The first is free, but you can't have employees and you have no personal protection from anything that happens to your business. The latter costs around $1,000 to set up ($4-500 if you do it yourself, the forms etc), and you will have a proper company where you will be the Director, and it can have it's own bank account, it's own everything. Find a local accountant who has experience setting up companies and running the books (it's a bit more complicated than your usual personal tax returns) and they can usually handle it all for you, that's what i've personally done. Yes you can run multiple companies. Yes you can have a parent company. It's all just a matter of how you set it all up with ASIC. There's lots and lots of information on how to set up and run a business in Australia at: http://www.business.gov.au http://www.abr.gov.au |
I think I might go for the solo ABN approach for now and move to a company approach once things improve.
Don't people recommend an 'incorporate' company as well? Thanks.