Business Names – Individuals, Professionals, and Hawkers etc.
In an earlier post, we discussed how businesses can be exempted from registration if they carried on their business under the corporate name. Here we’re going to talk about some more exemptions from registration applicable to individuals.
- The “individual name” exception
If you do business using your full name, you don’t need to register with ACRA[i].
Similarly, if you and your partner[ii] are using your full names to do business, you don’t need to register with ACRA either.
If you are a self-employed freelancer (like a tuition teacher, photographer, writer or artist), you have to be careful with this “full name” exception. This has to be your full name as stated either on your Singapore NRIC[iii] or your passport[iv](if e.g. you’re a foreigner and you don’t have an NRIC).
Going back to our tuition centre example, our math tutor Lao Shi should register his business name with ACRA if he’s running it as “Lao Shi Tuition Centre”.
- The “professionals” exemption
There is a provision in the law which may exempt “professionals” from having to register with ACRA, if they carry on business and they are:
“ any individual or firm of 2 or more individuals carrying on any business consisting solely of the exercise of any profession which, under the provisions of any written law, can be exercised only by those who possess certain qualifications prescribed by the written law and whose names are registered or otherwise recorded in the manner prescribed by any written law” [v]
This exception may apply to professionals such as medical doctors[vi]. But not all professionals – this exception does not apply to lawyers (under the pre 3 January 2016 law)[vii]. Also, if you are working under some business name (e.g. if it says “Clinic” at the end of it), it is unlikely that the exemption will apply.
It is well worth checking what exemptions from registration are in place[viii] when the new Business Names Registration Act comes into force on 3 January 2016.
- The “hawkers etc.” exemption
If you carry on any of the businesses below as of 2 January 2016, and you are alive and continue to carry on the same business on and after 3 January 2016[ix], you don’t need to register with ACRA.
- Any business of a licensed hawker, whether itinerant or otherwise, who sells or exposes for sale any food, drink, goods, wares or merchandise of any kind, or who offers for hire his skill in handicraft or craftsmanship.
- Any business of a craftsman who —
- exercises his craft on his own domestic premises;
- does not display the products of his craftsmanship for sale in public; and
- does not employ any person other than members of his immediate family for the purpose of his business.
- Any business of —
- a taxi driver;
- a trishaw rider;
- a sampan man plying his sampan for hire; or
- a farmer, a fish pond keeper or a prawn pond keeper who —
- does not employ any person other than members of his immediate family;
- does not own the land on which his farm or pond stands; and
- does not charge members of the public any fee for admission.
(Don’t you think that the references to “sampan men” and family farms tell you something about Singapore in 1974, when these regulations were first enacted? I’d be curious to know if there are any more “sampan men” or qualifying fish or prawn farmers exempt from registration left in Singapore myself!)
[i] Section 4(1)(a), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014)
[ii] Section 4(1)(b), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014)
[iii] Section 4(5)(b)(i), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014)
[iv] Section 4(5)(b)(ii), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014)
[v] Section 4(1)(c), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014)
[vi] Section 13 and Part IV, Medical Registration Act (Cap 174)
[vii] Business Registration (Application of Act to Exercise of Profession) Regulations 2009
[viii] Section (4)(2), Section 43, Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014). Check the subsidiary legislation tab for changes, if any.
[ix] Section 4(1)(q), Business Names Registration Act 2014 (No. 29 of 2014), First Schedule Business Registration Act (Cap 32).
Candoer Pte Ltd helps businesses with their marketing, productivity, compliance and cost savings strategies.
We also work closely with our partners at Wrike to implement collaboration solutions suitable for your needs.
For further enquiries, please email us at:
jiekai.candoer@gmail.com or weekiang.candoer@gmail.com
