Jewels

Hello,I am new to Australia, and thinking of starting a website for my hobby.But I have just heard that to get com.au domain name you need to be a registered business!Is this still true? or has rules been relaxed at all?Im not sure what is involved in registering a australian business, and dont want to be bogged down in paperwork and tax yet. As its a hobby and not even sure if it can actually make any money. Anyone know current com.au rules?Any other advice? Should I just stick to .com domain for now?J

MrP

Hi J,Yes you require an ABN to register a .com.au, .net.au and .org.au domain name. The ABN can apply for any of the business types.The domain name must also be in line with the Trading Name of the ABN. This means if the trading name was J's Boat Building, you couldn't have something unrelated. It would have to be something like jboat.com.au or boatbuilding.com.au or the like.You can register for an ABN as a Sole Trader. This will not cost you anything. For more advice, seek the advice of an accountant.Good Luck!