Before a Business starts trading with another Business, they should perform a number of checks including:

Ability to Trade as a Business

First and foremost, they should ensure their new Customer or Supplier is legally permitted to trade. A Business is permitted to trade if they have a valid and current Australian Business Number.

Ability to charge GST

Secondly, they should check whether the invoices issued by their new Supplier should include GST, or not. A Business can only charge GST in an invoice if they are registered for GST with the ATO. 

Ability to claim a Donation as deductible

If a Business decides to make a donation to a Non for Profit Organisation, this can only claim as a Tax Deductible Donation if the Not for Profit Organisation is registered as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR).

Dealing with Subcontractors

Businesses that are part of the following industries: Building & Construction, Cleaning, Couriers, Security Providers, Road Freight Transport and Computer System Design must also report the total payments made to their Subcontractors by lodging the Taxable Payments Annual report to the ATO. Prior to lodging this Annual Report, all Subcontractors' ABNs must be checked to ensure:

• The Subcontractor ABN is still valid and current;
• The GST Registration has not changed.

The ABN Lookup Tools

To help Businesses perform these checks, the Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC) provides a range of ABN Lookup tools. These tools provide access to publicly available information of Australian Businesses from the Australian Business Register (ABR). The ABN Lookup tools allow checking of core business details including:

• Registered Business Name;
• ACN and ABN;
• Legal Entity (sole trader, Company etc);
• GST Registration;
• DGR Registration;

There are three ABN Lookup tools:

• The ABN Lookup Tool > https://abr.business.gov.au/
• The ABN Entity Type Lookup Tool > https://abr.business.gov.au/Help/EntityTypeList
  Allows the user to narrow the ABN search to a specific Legal Entity type (i.e. Super Funds)
• The ABN Bulk Lookup Tool

The ABN Lookup and Entity Type Lookup Tools are available online, whereas the ABN bulk tool is an Excel Worksheet available for download from the ABN Lookup website. 

Look up an ABN and Company Details

1. From your web browser go to the ABN Lookup tool at https://abr.business.gov.au/
   
   è  The ABN Lookup tool
   
   
   
2. Type either the Registered Business Name, Australian Business Number (ABN) or Australian Company Number (ACN)
3. Click on the Search icon
   
   è  The Company Details are displayed on the ABN Lookup site
   
   
   
   
4. The page is broken down into two sections: Current Details and Historical Details and each section in the following areas:
   
   è  Current Details - ABN Details > Displays the core Business Details
   
   
   
   è  Current Details - Business Names > Displays any Business Names linked to the Business
   
   
   
   è  Current Details - ASIC Registration > Displays the Business ACN and a link to the ASIC website
   
   
   
   è  Current Details - Deductible Gift Recipient Status > Displays whether the Business is a registered Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR)
   
   
   
   è  Historical Details - ABN Details > Displays an audit trail of any changes of the Business' main location, GST Registration and Legal Entity
   
   
   
   
5. You can download, print or email this form as a PDF document and save it for record-keeping purposes
   
   è  The ABN Lookup Tool
   
   

Download and Use the Bulk Lookup Tool

1. From the ABN Lookup website click on [Tools & resources] > ABN Lookup Tools
   
   è  The ABN Lookup Tools screen opens
   
   
   
   
2. Click on ABN Lookup tool V...(MS Excel)
   
   è  The ABN Bulk Lookup Tools excel file downloads into your download folder
   
   
3. Open the ABN Bulk Lookup Excel Tool
4. Export your Suppliers' Names and ABNs from your Accounting system into an Excel or csv file
5. Open the export file from your Accounting System
   
   è  The Excel/csv export file
   
   
   
   
6. Copy the ABN column from the export file and paste the data into the ABN/ACN column of the ABN Bulk Lookup Tool
   
   è  The ABN Lookup Excel Tool
   
   
   
   
7. Click on [Start Lookup]
   
   è  The ABN Lookup pop up screen opens
   
   
   
   
8. Click on [Lookup ABN details]
   
   è  The ABN Bulk Lookup Tool will perform a bulk check of all ABNs