Sole trader vs company (Pty Ltd) in Australia
Sole trader or company? Pick your structure
| Aspect | Sole Trader | Company (Pty Ltd) |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | You are the business, legally. | A separate legal entity that you own and run. |
| Setup | Just an ABN (free). Simplest thing going. | Register with ASIC (a fee), get an ACN, then an ABN. |
| Cost & Admin | Low; personal tax return | Higher; annual ASIC fees, company tax return, extensive record-keeping |
| Liability | Personal; personal assets at risk | Limited; company bears the risk |
| Tax | Personal income tax rates | Company tax rate; greater flexibility at scale |
The honest advice: start as a sole trader for testing ideas with low risk, then transition to a company structure "when the liability matters" or when tax benefits justify the additional administration. Switching structures later is feasible and common.
"Do it yourself, or hand it over. We'll help you choose, then handle the registration end to end."
CTAs: Have us do it → · Back to the playbook
Next: register your business.
NOTE ON FIDELITY: WebFetch's underlying tool passes fetched HTML through a small AI model, so exact verbatim wording could not be 100% guaranteed for this page across two extraction passes (wording of a few connective sentences may be paraphrased rather than character-exact quotes). Structure, headings, table content and CTAs are captured faithfully; flagging here per the glass-house honesty rule.