Since June of this year every director of a company in Australia is required to have a DIN that is used to identify them as the consented director of the company. The director is expected to apply for the DIN once and retain it. This implementation was passed to be able to track the relationship of the directors across various companies thereby preventing fraud or conflict of interests. With the DIN, any director who gets involved in questionable deals will be easily identified and prosecuted.

All company directors are expected to apply for the DIN as stated in the Corporations Act by November 2021. The Corporations Act also covers any foreign directors and alternate directors of any corporate body. Individual directors should also ensure that they have applied for the DIN on the Australian Business Registry services site. When applying for the DIN, the following details are needed: your tax file number, residential address, and identification documents such as your bank account details, dividend statement, or PAYG summary.

Directors who were appointed as company directors on 31st October 2021 should have applied for a DIN by 1st November to 30th November 2022. Those appointed between 1st November 2021 and 4th April 2022 should have applied for a DIN before 28 days elapse from the day of their appointment. Finally, all directors appointed after the 5th of April 2022 should have applied for DIN before their appointment has been recorded on the ASIC register.

Directors who fail to honor the application dates of the DIN can be considered criminal or civil offenders and will attract a penalty.