The prohibition extends beyond accounting entities
ACRA directs PAOC not to register an accounting corporation, accounting firm or accounting LLP name identical to an existing accounting entity or any other existing company, firm or LLP. The test is therefore not confined to competitors operating as accounting practices.
Opening articles and legal-form words are disregarded
An opening “The” does not distinguish a name. Neither do Private, Pte, Sendirian, Sdn, Limited, Ltd, Berhad, Bhd, Limited Liability Partnership or LLP. Changing only such wording does not create a distinct core name for this test.
End-of-name expressions normally ignored
At the end of a name, the direction ordinarily disregards company, and company, corporation, accounting corporation, public accounting corporation, PAC, Incorporated, Asia, Asia Pacific, International, Singapore, South Asia, South East Asia and Worldwide. It also disregards expressions PAOC considers intended to represent those terms. Geographic or organisational endings therefore need to be checked rather than assumed to make a name unique.
The related-entity exception has a defined meaning
The direction contains a related-entity exception specifically for those ending expressions and their intended equivalents. Its footnote defines related by reference to section 6 of the Companies Act, regulation 2(2) of the Business Names Registration (Identical Names) Regulations 2015 and regulation 2(2) of the LLP identical-name regulations. A claimed business association is not automatically the statutory relationship, and this exception is not stated for every ignored word.
Plural, styling and ampersands do not provide a distinction
The comparison disregards a plural version, letter type and case, spaces and punctuation. The symbol & is treated as and. For example, a difference based only on capitals, a plural ending or substituting & for and should not be relied on as the distinguishing feature.
Authority and version dates
The direction cites sections 17, 18, 18A and 19 of the Accountants Act and item 4 of the First Schedule to the accounting-entity rules. It was issued on 6 October 2006 and updated as of 1 July 2023. The PDF directs clarification requests to ACRA’s enquiry service.
Official source
This article independently explains the substantive contents of the official PDF, including the relevant conditions, procedures and annexes. The linked document remains the authoritative source for its original wording, and later changes should be checked separately.
Read the official PDF ↗