Speaking in a recent podcast, Colonial First State senior technical manager Julie Fox said the time frame in which directors need to apply for a director ID would depend on when they became a director.

“If you were a director before the 31st of October last year, you need to apply by the 30th of November 2022. If you were appointed as a director between the first of November last year and 4 April 2022, then you have 28 days from being appointed to be able to apply for your director ID,” she explained.

“Then from the 5 April this year, if you’re planning to be appointed as a director, you’ll have to actually apply before you’re appointed. So some really important time frames to keep in mind there,” she said.

Ms Fox said it was important to keep in mind that it was an online process and that clients would need a MyGov ID in order to do it.

“This is different from having a MyGov account online, it’s the government’s ID system and you have to have certain identity documents scanned and uploaded. So it is a bit of a process and takes a bit of organisation and patience to get the MyGov ID set up before you apply for your director identification number,” she said.

Given the hundreds of thousands of trustee directors of SMSFs and other corporate directors applying for their numbers and using an online system, SMSF professionals should be encouraging clients to do it sooner rather than later, she said.

“You don’t want to be doing it at the last minute. That thing’s going to be crashing for sure. So get in there now while there’s plenty of time and there’s time to get those extra documents that you didn’t know you needed,” she cautioned.