Non-Resident ABN Application: The Certified Identity Documents, Exactly (2026)

Overseas businesses rarely fail an ABN application on entitlement. They fail on the envelope.

The whole non-resident identity process comes down to one sentence on the ATO’s website, and it is worth reading slowly: “If we don’t receive and process your supporting documents within 43 days, your application will be refused.”

Two words in there do all the damage. Not posted — received and processed. Not delayed — refused. Miss it and there is nothing to chase up; there is a new application to lodge and another 43 days to run.

Here is the complete package, and what each part has to satisfy.

What you send	The test it has to pass
Two identity documents, certified copies	At least one from the primary list; both current
The certification	By a notary public or Australian consular staff only — or an apostille
An English translation (if needed)	From an approved service, itself certified and stamped
NAT 75272 cover sheet	Carries your ABR reference number; details must exactly match the application
A statement of business activities	Brief, in English, describing what you do in Australia
All of it, at the ATO	*Received and processed* within 43 days**, or the application is refused

(General information for FY 2026–27, not tax advice for your circumstances. Every requirement below was confirmed against abr.gov.au, ato.gov.au and the NAT 75272 form itself on 9 September 2026.)

1. Which certified identity documents does a non-resident ABN application actually need?

Two current documents, certified, and at least one of them must come from the primary list — unless you can put a valid Australian tax file number on the application, in which case the ABR needs no identity documents at all.

That exemption is worth a moment, because it is the cheapest thing in this article. The ABR’s wording: proof of identity documents “aren’t required if a valid tax file number (TFN) is provided on the ABN application. Providing a TFN isn’t required by law, but makes the application process quicker.” If you already have a TFN from a previous Australian dealing, use it and skip the rest of this section. Almost no overseas marketplace seller does, so the two-document path is the normal one.

The primary list (one of these is compulsory):

foreign birth certificate
foreign passport
Australian birth certificate
Australian passport

The secondary list (your second document, if you aren’t using two primaries):

national photo identification card
foreign government identification
marriage certificate
driver’s licence

Two traps live in that second list.

The driver’s licence address. If the licence shows an address, that address must match the home address you put on the ABN application. Sellers who moved and never updated the licence hand the ATO a mismatch, and a mismatch is exactly what the ABR warns about: where the details don’t match, “the application will be delayed, or in some instances, refused.”

The marriage certificate counts once. If you are using it to evidence a change of name, it is not also your second document. You need a different one.

And if your name has changed, that change document — marriage certificate, deed poll, change of name certificate — is an extra document on top of the two, not one of them. The same applies where your documents don’t reflect your preferred gender: the ATO asks for a further document, such as an amended birth certificate or a statement from a registered medical practitioner.

Two rules apply to every document, no exceptions:

Never send originals. Both the ABR and the ATO say plainly that they cannot return them. And certified copies aren’t returned either unless you specifically ask, in writing, and enclose a return postal address.
Digital identity documents are out. The ATO states it twice on the same page: it does not accept certified copies of digital identity documents. A notary certifying a screenshot of a passport held in a phone wallet has certified nothing the ATO will use.

If you’re not applying as an individual

The two-document rule above is the individual rule. It still applies to you personally — as a director, trustee or partner — but the entity itself has to be identified as well.

Entity	To identify the entity	For its associates
Foreign company	ARBN or TFN; or a certified certificate of incorporation/registration from the authority in its home country (where that country has no such certificate, a signed statement saying so, signed by at least two directors); plus listing details if listed	TFN or certified documents for the Australian resident public officer, the Australian resident company secretary, all Australian resident directors, and up to 3 non-resident directors. Any additional non-resident directors need only uncertified documents. Plus the TFN or names of the top 20 shareholders per class of share (private and unlisted public companies)
Foreign trust	The TFN of the trust and of all trustees, or certified documents for all trustees	Individual trustees follow the individual rules; corporate trustees follow the company rules. A closely held trust also gives the TFN or names of its top 20 known beneficiaries
Foreign partnership	TFN of the partnership	TFN or certified documents for all resident partners and for up to 3 non-resident partners; remaining non-resident partners need only uncertified documents

The certified-for-the-first-three, uncertified-after-that split is the single most useful line in that table for a company with a wide board. It is real, it is on both the ABR and ATO pages, and it can remove several rounds of notarisation from a large application.

2. Who is allowed to certify them — and what exactly must the certifier write?

Outside Australia, exactly two kinds of people may certify your documents: a notary public, or staff at an Australian embassy, high commission or consulate — and if your country is in the Hague Apostille Convention, an apostille does the job instead.

That list is closed. Australian rules let a long roster of people certify documents inside Australia — pharmacists, police officers, accountants with certain memberships. None of that applies here. For applicants outside Australia the ATO names notary publics and Australian consular staff, including consulates headed by Austrade honorary consuls, and nobody else. Your own lawyer or accountant certifying a passport copy is a wasted trip.

What the certifier has to physically do

This is where good documents get rejected, so it is worth handing the list to the certifier rather than assuming they know the Australian requirements. The certifier must:

sight the original document and copies of its front and back at the same time — not the original today and the copy tomorrow
stamp (if a stamp is available), sign, and annotate the copy with wording similar to “I have sighted the original document and certify this to be a true and correct copy of the original document sighted”
record all five of: full name, telephone number, qualification, registration number (if relevant), and the date of certification

And where the original runs to more than one page, the certifier must initial or sign the bottom of every page of the copy, front and back, and number the pages if they aren’t numbered already. A certifier who stamps only the first page of a five-page certificate of incorporation has produced a document the ATO will send back. The ATO’s own understatement: “Delays in processing occur where documents you provide to us don’t meet our certification requirements.”

Documents that aren’t in English

You need two things, not one:

a certified copy of the original document, and
a translation into English by an approved translation service — itself certified as a true and correct copy by that service, and displaying an official stamp showing the service’s accreditation.

In Australia, “approved” means NAATI, and you can search their online directory. Overseas, the ATO tells you to ask your nearest Australian embassy, high commission or consulate for an approved translator in your country; DFAT lists those offices by country.

A practical note for applicants in China. A 公证处 (notary public office) will commonly issue a 涉外公证书 in bilingual Chinese–English form, which carries the certified copy and the certified English translation in a single document — one instrument satisfying both requirements above, and the document the foreign affairs office then apostilles. Practice varies from city to city, so ask your 公证处 whether they issue the bilingual version before you pay, rather than discovering afterwards that you also need a separate translation.

The apostille route

If your country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, the ATO will accept a copy certified by way of an apostille issued by the competent authority in your country, instead of the notary and consulate chain.

Two details make this the better route where it is available:

For ABN applications the ATO accepts both paper and electronic documents certified by an apostille. That is unusual, and it matters.
Electronic apostilles — and only electronic apostilles — can be emailed to RegistrationsNonResident@ato.gov.au rather than posted. That takes international post out of the 43-day window entirely.

Australia has been a party since 16 March 1995. China acceded on 8 March 2023 and the Convention entered into force for China on 7 November 2023, so the route is open China-to-Australia and has been for nearly three years. One caution: the apostille sits on top of a notarial certificate — it does not replace the 公证处 step, it replaces the consular legalisation that used to follow it. And whether your issuing authority produces the apostille in electronic form is a question for them, not something to assume.

3. What is the certified identity documents cover sheet, and what happens if I leave it out?

It is NAT 75272, a one-page form called “Non-resident ABN application – certified identity documents”, and its job is to carry the ABR reference number that matches your envelope to your application. Leave it out and, in the ABR’s words, “it can cause delays in processing your application.”

Most people applying without an agent never learn it exists. It isn’t on the application screen; it’s linked from a page about identity documents, and it is downloaded separately from the ATO’s publication ordering site.

It has three sections:

Section A — Application details. The form’s instruction is “Ensure the details in this section exactly match those from your ABN application.” Four fields: entity name; ABR reference number; the family name of one associate (and if that person has only one name, it goes here); other given names.

Section B — Supporting documents. This is where the form restates the deadline in its own words: where supporting documentation is not received and processed within 43 days, the application will be refused.

Section C — Contact details. Given and family name of the contact person, and their email address.

Four operating rules from the form itself:

Apply first. You must have lodged the ABN application at abr.gov.au before completing the cover sheet — the reference number doesn’t exist until you have.
Type the answers in English, then print the completed form and attach it to the documents.
One form per ABN application — but only one copy of each certified document. If you are supporting two applications, that’s two cover sheets, not two sets of notarised passports.
Don’t chase it. The form says: “You don’t need to contact us, we will send correspondence to you at the postal address provided when we have finalised your application.” Which is a good reason to make sure the postal address on the application is one you’ll actually receive post at in a few weeks’ time.

Where it goes:

Australian Taxation Office Attention: Non-resident registrations team PO Box 3373 ALBURY NSW 2640 AUSTRALIA

Note that address carefully. The ATO’s identity-documents page also lists GPO Box 1574, Canberra ACT 2601 — that one is for individual TFN applications, not ABN applications. Documents sent to Canberra for an ABN application are not lost, but they are not in Albury either, and the 43 days keep running.

The statement of business activities

One more item that isn’t a form and is easy to miss. A non-resident supplies either a TFN, or proof of identity documents and a statement of business activities in Australia.

The ABR asks for a brief written statement describing your business activities in Australia, indicating whether they only involve making purchases in Australia, and — if you have a place of business here — its main location and mailing address. In English; and if it has been translated, the translation must be certified by an authorised translation service, same as everything else.

For a marketplace seller this is a short paragraph, not a business plan. But it should describe what you actually do, because it is the document the ABR reads alongside your entitlement claim.

4. Is there a non-resident ABN application form — and how long do I have to send the documents?

There is no separate non-resident paper ABN form. You apply online at abr.gov.au even without a TFN — the ABR says so explicitly — and the only form in the whole process is the NAT 75272 cover sheet. From the moment you submit, you have 43 days.

That surprises people who have been searching for a PDF. There isn’t one. The ABR’s line is “If you don’t have a TFN, you can still apply for an ABN online.” You can also lodge through a registered tax agent, who does it through the same channel.

Record your reference number the moment the application is submitted. The ABR is blunt about what happens otherwise: “You’ll need it when sending documents or contacting us. Without it, you may need to lodge a new application.” It is also a required field on the cover sheet. Screenshot it, email it to yourself, write it on the envelope.

The 43 days, precisely

The clock starts when you submit the application, not when you get around to the notary. Both the ATO’s page and the cover sheet tell you to send the documents as soon as possible after submitting, “to allow sufficient time for processing” — because the test is not when you posted them.

The test is received and processed within 43 days. Not postmarked. Not “in transit”. A courier receipt dated day 40 proves nothing if the documents were still being worked through on day 44.
The consequence is refused, not delayed. There is no ATO officer holding your file open.

Which is why the apostille-by-email route above is worth checking before you commit to international post, and why documents that fail certification are so expensive: a rejected certification doesn’t pause the clock while you go back to the notary.

What a refusal actually costs

Not a fee — the ABR charges nothing to apply. It costs time you may not have:

You lodge again, get a new reference number, and run a new 43 days.
Your GST obligations don’t wait for your ABN. If your GST turnover reaches A$75,000 you may be required to register within 21 days, and the ATO can backdate a registration to the date the obligation arose. The threshold is not indexed, so confirm the current figure — but the point stands whatever the number is: the clock that matters for GST is running on your sales, not on your paperwork.
The import GST stays unclaimed. GST on imported stock is 10% of the customs value plus any duty plus international transport and insurance. Only standard GST registration — which requires an ABN — can claim it back. On every A$100,000 of landed stock, that is over A$10,000. Simplified GST registration is quick and needs no ABN, but it cannot claim credits at all.

One trap if you’re already on simplified GST

If you previously elected to be a limited registration entity and registered for simplified GST, that registration has to be revoked before the ATO can process an ABN and full GST registration. You’ll need to give them your name and ATO reference number (ARN), the effective date of revocation and the reason — by phone, by email to AustraliaGST@ato.gov.au, or with your identity documents. Sellers upgrading from simplified to standard so they can start claiming import GST hit this constantly, and it is much cheaper to send the revocation with the documents than to find out after the application stalls.

And make sure you’re entitled on the right ground

The ABR lists two limbs. A non-resident may be entitled to an ABN if they are carrying on or starting an enterprise in Australia, or if they are making supplies connected with Australia’s indirect tax zone.

Overseas marketplace sellers almost always qualify on the second limb — the supplies are connected with Australia — not the first. It matters because the statement of business activities should describe what is true. An overseas seller who writes that they carry on an enterprise in Australia when they have no presence here has made a claim they can’t support, on the one document the ABR reads for entitlement.

Doing it yourself, or not

All of this is free and public. The application is at abr.gov.au, the cover sheet is a free download, and nobody needs an agent to post an envelope to Albury. If you have a passport, one clean secondary document, a notary you trust and a simple structure, do it yourself.

What an agent is actually worth here is narrow and specific: getting it right on the first pass. The failure modes above — a licence address that doesn’t match, a certifier who stamped page one of five, a digital document, the Canberra PO Box, a missing reference number, a simplified GST registration that had to be revoked first — none of them are exotic, and every one of them costs the same thing: 43 days, and a GST clock that never stopped running. On a company application with several non-resident directors, where the certified-versus-uncertified split alone can save a handful of notary appointments, that is usually the whole argument.

General information only, current for FY 2026–27 and verified against ABR and ATO sources on 9 September 2026. It is not tax advice for your circumstances. The A$75,000 GST registration threshold is not indexed — confirm the current figure before relying on it. Epic Tax is a registered tax agent; if you’d like your ABN and GST registration handled end to end, get in touch before you start the 43-day clock, not after.