For BAS agents
Entity setup and registered-address services: AML/CTF for BAS agents
Entity administration can contain several distinct professional designated services. A BAS practice may advise on business systems, help create a company or express trust, implement a restructure that changes the legal form of a body corporate or legal arrangement, arrange a nominee officer or trustee, and let a client use the practice's address. Each activity has its own table 6 test. Charging one monthly administration fee does not merge them, and providing an address without a separate charge does not automatically take it outside scope. The practice should break the package into active steps, identify the customer for each captured service and complete the required program and CDD controls before delivery.
See the bas agents AML/CTF workspaceSeparate advice from creation and legal-form restructuring
General advice about possible business structures may influence the client without directly advancing creation. The position changes when the practice accepts an instruction and takes preparatory or execution steps needed to create a body corporate or express trust. Drafting or reviewing formation documents, preparing a trust deed or corporate-trustee package, coordinating signatories and lodging a registration application can directly advance the creation.
For item 6, restructuring means changing the legal form of a body corporate or legal arrangement, including altering its legal structure through a merger or demerger. A change to accounting records, ownership, control, share capital, trustees or internal governance is not item 6 merely because it is commercially described as a restructure; it must change legal form. Staffing, IT and business-operation changes are outside this definition. AUSTRAC also excludes small-business debt restructuring under the Corporations Act 2001 from item 6, although item 4 may separately apply if its entity-financing conditions are met. Record the legal-form change, instruments, filings, role and implementation start point before captured work begins.
Identify the creation-service customer population
The person giving instructions is not necessarily the only customer. For company creation, table 6 identifies the instructing person and the proposed directors and beneficial owners. For creation of an express trust, the service can identify the instructing person and the proposed trustee, settlor and beneficiaries. Map the proposed roles early so the CDD workflow does not stop with the existing bookkeeping contact.
Establish anyone acting for a customer and verify their authority. For entities, collect and verify the applicable legal and registration information, understand ownership and control, identify relevant beneficial owners and record the service's purpose. Layered companies, corporate trustees, overseas controllers or unexplained role changes may require further information and risk-based enhanced measures under the practice's program.
Treat nominee and acting arrangements as separate services
Table 6 includes acting, or arranging for another person to act, in specified roles for a customer. These include director or secretary of a body corporate, partner of a partnership, and trustee of an express trust, where the statutory conditions are met. A genuine officeholder service should not be hidden under company secretarial support or an introduction fee.
Distinguish ordinary referrals and administrative help from arranging the appointment. Record who proposed the person, what the practice did to secure or implement the role, who receives the service and whether the appointee is expected to act on instructions from another person. Nominee arrangements can obscure control, so ownership, purpose, authority and risk should be clear before the role is supplied or arranged.
Review every registered-office and principal-address offer
Allowing another person to use an address as the registered office or principal place of business of a body corporate or legal arrangement is a listed professional service when the statutory conditions are met. It can apply even where the address is provided without an additional fee. The question is whether the address is supplied in the course of the practice's business for the specified official use, not whether mail is occasionally collected as a courtesy.
Inventory clients who use the practice, associated office or service address in an official register. Record the entity, address, start and end dates, service agreement, mail-handling authority, responsible staff and any forwarding arrangements. Prevent an address from being offered informally before the customer and risk controls are complete, and define how the practice updates registers and handles mail when the service ends.
Maintain separate evidence and change controls
For each service, retain its scope analysis, instructions, customer mapping, CDD, authority records, ownership and control analysis, screening, risk assessment, documents prepared or lodged, address records and approvals. A single customer file can contain the evidence, but it should still show which controls were completed for creation, legal-form restructuring, acting or address services and at what time.
Reassess when a new director, trustee, beneficial owner, controller, jurisdiction, address or service is introduced. Unexpected requests to use the address without a credible business presence, reluctance to identify controllers, unexplained rapid entity changes or pressure to appoint a nominee without a commercial rationale are risk indicators, not automatic proof of crime. Apply the program's inquiry, enhanced CDD, escalation and reporting procedures.
Official sources
Use these primary AUSTRAC pages to confirm the current rules and apply them to your circumstances.
Frequently asked questions
Is giving a client the practice address free of charge outside scope?
Not automatically. AUSTRAC's guidance explains that the registered-office or principal-place-of-business service can be designated even without a separate fee. Assess the official use of the address, the business context and the complete statutory conditions.
Is advice about choosing a company or trust captured?
General advice may not directly advance creation. Preparatory or execution steps such as preparing formation documents, coordinating parties or lodging an application can cross into a creation service. Record when the engagement changes from options to implementation.
Does introducing a director always mean arranging a nominee?
No. The facts matter. Assess the practice's role in securing or implementing the appointment, who receives the service and the statutory conditions. A simple referral may differ from arranging for the person to act, but the conclusion should be documented.
Put it into practice
Cassandra AML turns these obligations into a working system: designated-service decisions, customer due diligence, screening, monitoring and reporting records — hosted in Sydney, free to start.
This guide is general information for Australian professionals. It is not legal advice and does not replace the AML/CTF Act, the AML/CTF Rules or AUSTRAC guidance. Confirm your specific obligations with AUSTRAC or a qualified legal adviser. See our editorial and correction standards.