Starting a Business in Queensland: The Complete Legal Checklist

Key Takeaways

• Your business structure (sole trader, partnership, company or trust) determines your personal liability, tax rate and ongoing compliance obligations. A company limits your liability to company assets; a sole trader exposes your house, car and savings.
• ASIC company registration costs $611 (2025–26). Add legal costs for a constitution and shareholder agreement ($2,000–$6,000) and you are looking at approximately $2,500–$7,000 total to set up a company properly.
• The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) small business exemption ($3M turnover) currently remains in place. Removal has been proposed as part of the ongoing Privacy Act reforms but has not yet been enacted. Health service providers, businesses trading in personal information and certain other categories already have privacy obligations regardless of turnover.
• Workers' compensation insurance is compulsory in Queensland via WorkCover. Register before your first employee starts. Superannuation is 12% from 1 July 2025.
• A shareholder or partnership agreement is the single most important document for any business with more than one owner. Without one, you default to legislation that was not designed for your specific situation.

1. 1.Step 1: Choose Your Business Structure
2. 2.Step 2: Register Your Business
3. 3.Step 3: Essential Legal Documents
4. 4.Step 4: Employment Obligations
5. 5.Step 5: Insurance
6. 6.Step 6: Premises and Commercial Leasing
7. 7.Step 7: Local Council Licensing and Approvals
8. 8.Step 8: Intellectual Property
9. 9.Step 9: Regulatory Compliance
10. 10.Frequently Asked Questions

Starting a business in Queensland involves more than registering an ABN and printing business cards. The legal foundations you set in the first weeks determine your personal liability exposure, your tax position, your ability to raise capital and your protection if things go wrong with a co-founder, employee or customer. Getting this right from the start costs a fraction of fixing it later.

This checklist covers every legal step you need to take, with current figures and specific legislation references. Many founders also retain an outsourced GC for new businesses to cover these steps on a fixed monthly fee.

Step 1: Choose Your Business Structure

This is the most consequential decision you will make at the outset. Each structure has different implications for tax, asset protection, ongoing compliance costs and exit strategy.

Structure	Liability	Tax Rate	Cost to Set Up	Best For
Sole Trader	Unlimited personal liability	Individual marginal rates (up to 45% + Medicare)	Free (just ABN)	Freelancers, sole operators
Partnership	Unlimited personal (joint and several) under Partnership Act 1891 (Qld)	Individual rates (pass-through)	$500–$2,000 for agreement	Professional practices, co-founders
Company (Pty Ltd)	Limited to company assets (directors have personal liability only in specific circumstances under Corporations Act 2001)	25% (base rate entity, aggregated turnover under $50M) or 30%	$2,500–$8,000 (registration + constitution + shareholder agreement)	Growth businesses, investor-ready
Trust	Depends on structure (trustee liability)	Distributed to beneficiaries at their marginal rates	$2,500–$6,000	Asset protection, family businesses

Queensland partnerships are still governed by the Partnership Act 1891 (Qld), one of the oldest statutes still in force in the state.

For trusts, note that Queensland extended the maximum trust lifespan to 125 years under the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld), which commenced on 1 August 2025. The Trusts Act 2025 (Qld) commenced on 28 April 2026 and now governs every Queensland trust, imposing minimum trustee duties that cannot be excluded by the deed. If you are setting up a trading trust, the deed needs to be drafted against the new Act: see our complete guide to the Trusts Act 2025.

Every structure has trade-offs. We recommend seeking both legal and accounting advice before choosing. The cost of restructuring later is significant (stamp duty, CGT, re-executing contracts with all counterparties).

Step 2: Register Your Business

• ABN: free, via abr.business.gov.au. Takes five minutes online.
• ACN (if company): via ASIC. The registration fee is $611 for 2025–26, and it changes each year. Done online through ASIC Connect.
• Business name registration: ASIC, $45 a year or $104 for three years. You need this if you trade under any name other than your own.
• GST registration: mandatory once your annual turnover reaches $75,000 ($150,000 for non-profits). Register through the ATO or your accountant.
• State and territory licences: check the business.gov.au licence finder for your industry. Some industries, such as building, real estate, financial services and food, need a licence before you can operate.

Step 3: Essential Legal Documents

Shareholder or Partnership Agreement

The single most important document for any business with more than one owner. It governs decision-making, profit distribution, exit mechanisms and dispute resolution. Without one, you default to the Corporations Act 2001 (for companies) or the Partnership Act 1891 (for partnerships), neither of which is designed for your specific situation. See our article on shareholder agreements for more detail.

Employment Contracts

Use from day one with every employee. See our guide on employment law mistakes for employers. A good employment contract costs $500–$1,500 and protects your IP, confidential information and client relationships.

Terms and Conditions

Your contract with your customers. Essential for managing liability, payment terms, dispute resolution and limiting your exposure. Every business selling goods or services needs these.

Privacy Policy

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) currently exempts most businesses with annual turnover under $3 million from the Australian Privacy Principles. That exemption does not apply if you are a health service provider, trade in personal information, are a credit reporting body or credit provider or fall within other categories set out in the Act, in which case you are covered regardless of turnover. Removal of the small business exemption has been proposed as part of the ongoing Privacy Act reforms, but as at the date of this article it has not been enacted. Even if you are exempt, it is worth having a privacy policy, both as good practice and because many of the businesses you deal with now expect one. See our article on Privacy Act compliance.

Other Documents

• Website terms of use
• Independent contractor agreements, which matter if you use contractors and want to steer clear of sham contracting
• Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) for commercial discussions, partnerships and investor conversations

Step 4: Employment Obligations

If you are hiring employees, you have significant legal obligations from day one:

• National Employment Standards (NES): 11 minimum entitlements that apply to every employee regardless of what the contract says.
• Modern awards: use the Fair Work award finder to identify the right award for your industry and roles. Getting this wrong is one of the most common ways employers come unstuck.
• Superannuation: 12% from 1 July 2025, up from 11.5% in 2024–25. It is paid on ordinary time earnings and due quarterly.
• Workers' compensation insurance: compulsory in Queensland through WorkCover. The average premium rate is about $1.343 per $100 of wages (2024–25). Register before your first employee starts.
• PAYG withholding: register with the ATO before you pay anyone.
• Single Touch Payroll (STP Phase 2): mandatory. Your payroll software reports to the ATO each pay run.

Step 5: Insurance

• Public liability: essential for any business that deals with the public or works from premises. Cover is usually $5–$20M.
• Professional indemnity: mandatory for some professions, including lawyers, accountants, engineers, financial advisers and real estate agents. Worth having for any business that gives advice or provides services.
• Workers' compensation: compulsory in Queensland if you have employees, as above.
• Product liability: if you manufacture, import or sell products.
• Cyber insurance: increasingly important as privacy obligations tighten. It covers data breach response, notification costs and regulatory fines.
• Management liability and directors and officers (D&O) cover: protects directors' personal assets against claims. Important if you sit on a company board.

Step 6: Premises and Commercial Leasing

For most new businesses the lease is the biggest financial commitment after wages, and it is signed at the moment of maximum optimism and minimum leverage. Before you sign anything (including a "non-binding" heads of agreement, which has a habit of setting the terms in practice):

• Know which regime you are in. Retail premises (shops in retail shopping centres and premises used wholly or predominantly for retail business) are covered by the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld), which gives tenants mandatory protections: a disclosure statement at least 7 days before signing, restrictions on ratchet clauses and land tax recovery and a compulsory mediation process for disputes. A standard commercial or industrial lease has almost none of these protections - the document is the deal.
• Negotiate the commercial terms as a package. Rent, rent-free or fitout contribution, review mechanism (CPI, fixed percentage or market), option terms and the make-good obligation at the end. Make-good is the sleeper cost: "return to base building condition" on a fitted-out tenancy can be a six-figure obligation.
• Watch the personal guarantee. Landlords routinely ask directors to personally guarantee the company tenant's obligations, which puts your house behind a lease the company signed. Negotiate a cap (for example, a fixed number of months' rent), a bank guarantee in lieu or a release once the company has a payment track record.
• Check use and approvals before you commit. Confirm the premises' lawful use under the local planning scheme actually covers your business, and that you can get any fitout, signage and food business approvals you need. A lease for premises you cannot lawfully operate from is still a lease you must pay for.

Step 7: Local Council Licensing and Approvals

Council-level compliance is the layer founders most often miss, because it varies by local government area. In Brisbane and most Queensland councils, check:

• Food business licences under the Food Act 2006 (Qld): required before you sell or prepare food, with fitout plans usually needing council approval before construction. Budget weeks, not days, for approval.
• Home-based business approvals: most planning schemes allow low-impact home businesses as of right, but client visits, signage, staff or noise can push you into needing a development approval.
• Signage and footpath use permits: external signs, A-frames and footpath dining generally need council permits, and body corporate consent if you are in a strata building.
• Health, beauty and skin penetration licences: hairdressing, beauty therapy, tattooing and similar personal services carry their own council and Queensland Health requirements.
• Trade waste and environmental approvals: anything from a cafe grease trap to light manufacturing may need a trade waste agreement or environmentally relevant activity registration.

None of these are expensive individually. All of them are expensive when discovered after you have signed a lease and ordered a fitout.

Step 8: Intellectual Property

• Trade mark registration: through IP Australia. A standard application is $250 per class, or about $330 per class through TM Headstart ($200 up front plus $130 to proceed). Protection lasts ten years and is renewable. Register your business name, logo and key brand elements early. Spending $250 now is far cheaper than fighting someone who registers your mark first, which can run to $20,000 or more in legal fees.
• Copyright: automatic in Australia under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), with no registration required. Just make sure your employment and contractor agreements assign the IP to the company, because otherwise the person who created it owns it by default.
• Patents: for a genuinely novel invention. They are expensive and slow ($10,000–$30,000 and up), but essential if your business depends on a technical innovation. Get specialist IP advice.
• Domain names: register the .com.au, .com and any obvious variations of your business name early.

Step 9: Regulatory Compliance

• Industry-specific licences: building (QBCC), real estate (OFT), food (your local council under the Food Act 2006 (Qld), as covered in Step 7), financial services (an AFSL from ASIC) and labour hire (under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld)).
• Australian Consumer Law: the consumer guarantees apply no matter what your terms say. You cannot contract out of the ACL.
• Privacy Act: as above, the $3 million small business exemption still stands, but it does not cover health service providers, businesses trading in personal information or certain other categories. Reforms to remove the exemption have been proposed but not enacted.
• Anti-money laundering: relevant if you operate in a reporting entity sector such as financial services, gambling or bullion dealing. The Tranche 2 reforms extend the regime to lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and other professions, with obligations starting on 1 July 2026. See our article on AML compliance.
• Queensland payroll tax: the threshold is $1.3 million in annual Australian taxable wages. If your total wages go above that, you must register with the Queensland Revenue Office. The rate is 4.75%.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a lawyer to start a business in Queensland?

Not for the registration steps themselves (ABN, ACN, business name). But if you are setting up a company or trust, or you have partners or shareholders, getting the structure and the agreements right from the start matters. Fixing a bad structure later usually costs five to ten times what it would have to set it up properly in the first place.

How much does it cost to set up a company in Australia?

The ASIC registration fee is $611 (2025–26). Add legal costs for a constitution and shareholder agreement, usually $2,000 to $6,000, and you are looking at roughly $2,500 to $7,000 all up, depending on complexity. There are also ongoing costs to keep the company running: the annual review fee, the ASIC annual statement, a registered office and proper company records.

What's the difference between a sole trader and a company?

The key difference is liability. A sole trader carries unlimited personal liability, so if the business is sued, your personal assets such as your house, car and savings are exposed. A company is a separate legal entity, so liability is generally limited to the company's assets. Companies also tend to carry more credibility with larger clients and are better set up for growth and investment.

Do I need to register for GST?

Only once your annual turnover reaches $75,000 ($150,000 for non-profits). Below that, registering is optional, though some businesses sign up voluntarily so they can claim GST credits on their purchases.

What insurance do I legally need?

Workers' compensation is compulsory in Queensland if you have employees. Professional indemnity is mandatory for certain professions. Beyond that, public liability and cyber insurance are strongly recommended for all businesses. Your industry may have specific insurance requirements.

Starting a business? Get the legal foundations right from day one. Speak with Astris Law on (07) 3519 5616. See our commercial law and regulatory compliance services.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied on as such. While we take reasonable care to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, we make no representations or warranties as to its completeness, currency or reliability. We accept no liability for any loss or damage arising directly or indirectly from the use of, or reliance on, this website's content. You should always seek professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances before acting on any information in this article. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.