How to Change the Name of Your Singapore Company

Last updated on September 7, 2018

Even after you have chosen a name for your Singapore-registered company, you may decide to change the name of your company for the following possible reasons:

You want to re-name your company as part of a rebranding exercise; or
Perhaps your business has evolved and you want to choose a name that is more representative of your company.

Read on to find out how you can change the name of your company.

1. Choose an Appropriate Name

The new name of your company must be appropriate. According to the Companies Act, the new name of your company cannot be:

Undesirable;
Identical to the name of any other company and/or registered business;
Identical to a name reserved by another company and/or registered business; or
Prohibited by order of the Minister of Finance.

For more details, please read our article about restrictions on the names of businesses here.

2. Apply for Approval of New Name with ACRA

After deciding on your new company name, you will need to submit a “Change in Company Information” application to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) for approval of the proposed company name.

Submitting the application online will require you to log into the BizFile+ website with CorpPass, which has replaced SingPass for businesses transacting with ACRA as of September 2018.

A step-by-step eGuide on how to navigate BizFile+ and change your company name is available here.

Please note that a filing fee of $15 is applicable.

3. Prepare and Pass a Special Resolution for the Change of Company Name

If ACRA approves the proposed new company name, you will need to pass a special resolution to change the company name. The following steps are required in order to pass such a special resolution:

Prepare the written resolution to change the company name.
Decide on a date for a general meeting. Then, inform all shareholders of the date of the meeting, as well as the proposal to pass the resolution to change the company name
- For a private company, 14 days’ written notice must be given for the meeting. However, the meeting can be held at shorter notice if members holding at least 95% of the voting rights agree to do so.
At the meeting, members who collectively hold at least 75% of the voting rights must agree to the resolution to change the company name.
A copy of the resolution has to be submitted to ACRA within 14 days of its passing. This may be done online through BizFile+ (“Notice of Resolution” transaction).

Your company name change will be updated after the resolution has been filed with ACRA. You will be issued a notice of incorporation under your company’s new name and the change of name will be effective upon the issue of that notice.

In order to check whether your company’s name has been changed, you can check your company’s name online on BizFile+.

4. You’re done! What’s next?

After you have changed your company name, you should make sure that the new name replaces your former company name in your company’s:

Website
Letterhead
Social media accounts
Signage
Brochures

You should change your company’s rubber stamp to reflect the change in your company’s name.

If you have registered the old name of your company as a trade mark, you may wish to register a new trade mark for your company’s new name.

For the purpose of tax assessment, there is no need to separately inform the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) about the change in your company name as IRAS will update its records based on ACRA’s records automatically.

However, if you are expecting correspondence from IRAS within 2 weeks of filing the change of company name with ACRA, you may wish to notify IRAS via MyTax Mail. For more information, please visit IRAS’ guide here.

Finally, please note that changing the name of your company does not change any of the company’s rights or obligations. For example, any debts owed by the company will still have to be paid notwithstanding the change in company name.