A company which carries on business under its corporate name does not need to register that business name [i] with ACRA.
However, if you are going to carry on business under a business name that isn’t the same as your corporate name, you have to register that separate business name with ACRA.[ii]
Let’s illustrate this with an example. Suppose you’re a company called “Vader’s Noodles Pte Ltd”, and you run a famous ramen noodle business. Your ramen shop is however, called “Empire Ramen”, and your company calls itself Empire Ramen on all of its documents – on its letterheads, on its invoices, on your storefront signboard, etc. In such a scenario, it’s probably safer to register “Empire Ramen” as a business name.
Conversely, if you had just stuck to carrying on your ramen noodle business as “Vader’s Noodles Pte Ltd”, you probably don’t have to do anything.
[i] Section 4(1)(m), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014). The same also applies for foreign companies carrying on business in Singapore which are registered under the Companies Act (Cap.50) and carry on business under their registered name (Section 4(1)(l), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014))
[ii] Section 5(2), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014)
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