What the licence is there to protect
All customs brokers in Australia are licensed under Division 3 of Part XI of the Customs Act. The ABF gives the licensing scheme two purposes. The first is the Commonwealth’s revenue: the department “cannot conduct a 100% check of every entry”, so it needs confidence that a broker will act “to ensure that the duty properly payable on goods is in fact paid – no more, but no less”. The second is the community’s: among the interests the ABF lists, clients who engage a broker “should be able to rely on their expertise to provide the services they offer in a professional and ethical manner”. Another is that, in a self-assessment context, brokers should take responsible steps to establish the identity of their clients.
The three kinds of broker licence
A licence can be issued only to a natural person, a company or a partnership, never to another kind of entity such as a trust. The ABF sorts licences into three categories:
- Corporate
- A company or partnership licensed to act for the owners of imported goods. It lodges customs declarations through nominee customs brokers, whom it must employ.
- Sole trader
- A sole proprietor working in its own right rather than through a company, partnership or trust. It may employ one or more nominees and may be affiliated with businesses such as freight forwarders, but cannot be employed by a corporate customs broker.
- Nominee
- A natural person licensed as a customs broker who acts only as an employee of a corporate or sole trader brokerage, and who may work for more than one of them at once.
So a corporate broker lodges declarations through the nominee brokers it employs. The Act ties the two together: a corporate broker’s licence names a place only if it also names a nominee at that place.
How a licence is granted
The Comptroller-General of Customs grants or refuses a licence in writing, and the licence names the place or places where the broker may act. Every application first goes to a Committee for a report, and the Comptroller-General cannot decide it until that report has been received and considered.
The Act then sets two tests. A licence must not be granted if, in the Comptroller-General’s opinion, the applicant (for a company, a director, and for a partnership, a partner), or a person who would take part in the broker’s work, “is not a fit and proper person”, or if a company applying is not a fit and proper company to hold a licence. And an applicant is “qualified to be a customs broker if, and only if” they have completed an approved course of study or instruction (unless exempted for their experience or training) and have acquired experience that fits them to be one (s 183CC(2), compilation of 19 September 2026). Among the matters the Comptroller-General must have regard to are any conviction for a prescribed offence committed in the 10 years before the application was made, and whether the person is an undischarged bankrupt.
A licence comes with conditions. Some are set by the Act, and the Comptroller-General may impose others. One condition requires the holder to report, in writing, within 30 days, events such as a conviction for a prescribed offence or the holder becoming bankrupt.
What a licence covers, and for how long
- Australia only. A licensed broker may operate anywhere in Australia, or at the places the licence names, but the licence does not let a broker operate or lodge entries from a place outside Australia.
- Up to three years. A licence is granted for up to three years and can be renewed on payment of a prescribed fee. All licences expire on 30 June, at intervals of three years, and the ABF sends the renewal application to the licensee’s last known address.
- The Act’s own clock. Section 183CH sets the expiry days: the first was 31 December 2000, the next 30 June 2003, and later ones fall every three years after the last.
- A personal licence ends with the person. A licence granted to a natural person ceases to have effect when that person dies.
The ABF’s import declarations page notes that it maintains a list of customs brokers.
What a broker does not take off your hands
A broker can lodge the declaration, but the ABF’s page keeps some duties with the importer. The ABF says that once an Import Declaration is made, whether by you or by a customs broker on your behalf, you must keep all relevant documents for five years. Importers may face financial penalties or legal action if the correct duties and taxes are not paid. And a long format SAC declaration can be lodged only by the importer or a licensed customs broker.
The guide to import declarations explains the N10 and the three kinds of SAC a broker lodges. If a trade agreement could lower the duty, see free trade agreements and rules of origin; for goods heading out, export permits for controlled goods.