I got through to the ATO today, regarding the letter I received about my ABN being cancelled. As I mentioned earlier, having an ABN (or any registered business entity) is required in order to purchase .com.au domain names.

Anyhow, the ATO girl (who sounded about 12 years old) simply ran me through a bunch of questions:

• What is your main business activity?
• Have you set up a trading name yet?
• Have you advertised you business?
• Have you purchased any business equipment / property?
• What else have you done to do with the business?
• When did you start trading?
• Is there other information you think is relevant?

After I answered all of the questions, she basically said I would receive a yay or nay letter within 28 days. I will follow up again when I get word.

I received a letter in the mail from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) recently. It looks like they are “cleaning up” the Australian Business Register (ABR). The letter says that because I haven’t reported any income against my ABN on my tax returns, I must not need it (my ABN, not income). Anyway, I originally applied for an ABN just so I could register .com.au domain names, as per Australian Domain Name Administration regulations.

This is the first financial year I could earn an income from my .au domains, and subsequently income on my ABN. Anyway, I have to call them and tell them why I need it. I will see if the “to register .au domains” is a good enough reason, and whether or not I can keep it on that merit only. Otherwise I’ll tell them that I am “just about to ramp it up”.

The other day I tried to call, I got put on hold but then something else came up so I had to hang up. I called back later and the message said something along the lines of “we are experiencing a high volume of calls and can not take your call right now”. I couldn’t even join the queue! I will let you know as soon as I can get through to them.