Differences Between A Business Name And A Trading Name

by Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions | 10 May 2021 | Corporate Secretarial, Rules and Regulations

Introduction

Choosing between a business name and a trading name can be a daunting task. If you’re new to doing business in Singapore, you’re probably wondering which is cheaper or more effective for your brand.

Well, it depends. Both business names and trading names have benefits and drawbacks, so each is suited to specific scenarios, as we shall learn in this article.

What Is A Business Name?

A business name is your enterprise’s legal name. It’s the official designation of the entity or individual that owns the company. It’s also the name you’ll put on government forms and business paperwork.

A business’s legal name may differ depending on its business structure. If the business entity is registered as a sole proprietorship, you may use the owner’s full name, i.e. Alan Khoo & Co. However, you can also use creative names like 8Eight8 Advisory Services, and so on.

Under a general partnership, an amalgam of the partners’ last names in the business’s legal name is quite common in Singapore. Private limited and exempt private limited companies usually have the suffix “Private Limited” or “Pte Ltd” in their legal names during the name application.

Unlike the other business entities, most legal names for corporations and limited liability companies do not include the names of their shareholders (or members). However, some countries will require these companies to include the term “Corporation” or “LLC” in their legal name, like New Technologies LLC.

Choosing and registering a business name

Your name is one of the first things prospective clients or customers will notice about your organization. It connects your prospects to your products and services. A good business name may not be all that’s required to make your business profitable, but it is a critical first step in that direction.

All companies incorporated in Singapore must have their names approved by ACRA. The process is a relatively simple online procedure that takes less than an hour on the Bizfile portal, provided that the applicant follows all relevant rules and regulations.

The Bizfile service will check your chosen name against its database to ensure that it hasn’t been taken. If it doesn’t find any matches, it will let you move on to the next step in the registration process – choosing a suffix.

Your suffix denotes your business structure, for example, PTE means you’re registering a Private Limited company; LLP means it’s a Limited Liability Partnership, and so on. You will need to choose the option that best suits your enterprise.

Note: Your preferred business name may be referred to the separate government agency for verification if it contains regulated business designations like legal, finance, school, or broker. This may extend the approval process to a few weeks.

If you’re planning on registering a company in Singapore, Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions is here to help. Besides checking and reserving a company name for you, we will prepare all other critical documents needed to register your business.

What Is A Trading Name?

If you prefer to operate under a different identification from your company’s legal name, you may use a trading name instead.

A trading name does not require additional legal phrases or words (like LLC, Corp, and so on). For instance, a business’ trading name is Pinehurst, but their legal business name is Pinehurst LLC. An enterprise may choose to have their business name and trading name be the same.

Trading names are seldom displayed together with the business legal names since they are the names that the public sees but legal names are still required to be printed on majority of the documents for statutory purposes. Usually, business owners use trading names instead of their legal business names to assist in product branding that may help in attracting more customers.

Another common reason that businesses use trading names if they’re part of larger companies. A corporation may own several different companies that are independently managed. The corporation is registered under a formal business name, each sub-company gets a unique trading name to set it apart from the others.

The rules for registering a trading name vary between different countries. Some will require separate fees and applications for each trade name that are registered. You might want to check with your jurisdiction for more information regarding the trade name registration.

There are no filing requirements for trading names in Singapore. However, the applicants are required to disclose the underlying business registered name and unique entity number.

Using A Business Name Vs. A Trading Name

In most cases, a business will have both a legal name and trading name. The legal one, as described above, must appear on all government forms and legal documents. The trading name usually appears on signages and advertisements. Whether you choose to use a trading name instead of a legal name is up to the business owner or the board of directors. Using a trading name comes with both disadvantages and disadvantages, as described below.

Benefits of using a trade name

It can be inexpensive to register a trade name. (In fact, there are hardly any requirements for it in Singapore).
It may give your enterprise more credibility
It enables you to differentiate your products

Disadvantages of using a trading name

You won’t have the exclusive rights to the name if you don’t apply for a trademark.
Your trademark will only be recognized in the jurisdiction where you registered.

Choosing Between A Legal Business Name And A Trading Name

Choosing between business name or trading name is an important decision, as it will affect your company in several ways. If you’re considering using a trading name instead of your business name, there are several factors that you will need to consider.

Your customers

Adopting a trading name after starting a business for a few years could be a wise choice, but it will likely confuse your existing customers. Be ready to address questions about why you’re using trade names and clearly communicate that your business will remain the same despite the change in name.

Your reputation

As a business owner, you have probably put a lot of effort into building a strong, reputable brand. If your customers can no longer recognize your brand due to a name change, adopting a trading name could diminish any rapport you’ve established over the years. Consequently, you should carefully assess whether the benefits of taking on a trade name are worth the potential disadvantages.

The cost

Before you start trading under a different name, you’ll need to ensure you have the resources to have it displayed everywhere it needs to be. This might require getting new signage, stationery, and/or editing your website and social media pages to show your new name. These changes come aren’t free, and the costs could be high.

You’ll need to carefully evaluate if you can afford to invest the money and time required to implement these changes. If your business is struggling to cover bills and other expenses, it may be unwise to invest in name changes until your revenues are more stable.

Legal protection

Once you register a trade name, other companies won’t be able to use it. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s fully legally protected. To do that, you will need a trademark. It allows you to:

Prosecute anyone legally who uses your name without your consent
Use the trademark symbol
License and sell your name

Conclusion

Trading names and business names are suited to specific situations. If your company has several product lines, adopting trading names will help you differentiate your offerings in the eyes of your customers. On the other hand, if you’re offering a single product/service and have already built a reputation, adopting a trading name may hurt your brand.

Sole Proprietorship And Private Limited Company

by Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions | 20 Nov 2018 | Business Tips, Corporate Secretarial

Sole Proprietorship is the simplest business structure that can be formed easily with minimal cost and legal formalities. A single person operates this form of business and the owner is responsible for all the business obligations and losses. Owner has the entire hold on the business and can run it according to the desired plans without being answerable to anyone. Owner, being the sole decision maker, is responsible for every decision that may affect the business in both positive and negative manner. There is no boundary between personal assets and business liabilities. If owner fails to pay the business debts, the creditor may recover it by consuming the personal assets of the owner, hence leading to unlimited liability. Owner may face difficulties in raising the capital in such form of business. There is no difference between the owner and the business because Sole Proprietorship is not a separate legal entity. Therefore, the business gains are added together with the owner’s income from other sources and taxed at progressive individual income tax rates, with the current highest personal income tax rate at 22%.

Private Limited Company is another business structure that a single entrepreneur can also opt for. The form of business that can be established with minimum 1 shareholder. Unlike Sole Proprietorship, it follows the concept of limited liability that restricts the contribution of shareholders, in paying the business debts, to the investment of the shareholder. Contrary to the Sole Proprietorship, this form of business offers ease of raising capital by adding a new shareholder or issuing shares to the existing shareholders that allows the inflow of capital for business expansion. Corporate tax is levied at a fixed rate (currently, 17%) on the profits earned, resulting in reduced personal income tax rates. Dividends distributed, to the shareholders, from the profits (net of taxes) are not taxable in their individual income tax returns. Certain government incentives or claims, available for Private Limited Company, are not applicable in Sole Proprietorship. Private Limited Company has statutory responsibilities, including but not limited to maintain registers of company officers, conduct annual meetings with minutes and financial statements prepared for submission to statutory bodies. Unlike Sole Proprietorship, there is no single authority to make final decisions for the business. Every shareholder has the right to vote in the decision making during the general meetings.

Might Glory Corporate Solutions is one of the leading Corporate Service Provider companies in Singapore. We specialise in company incorporation, corporate secretarial, nominee directorship, accounting and bookkeeping, corporate and individual tax services, financial reporting, and administrative support services. Contact us today for any clarification between Sole Proprietroship and Private Limited Company matters or any related to your business needs.

Singapore New Audit Exemption For Financial Periods Starting On Or After 1 July 2015

by Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions | 10 Oct 2016 | Corporate Secretarial, News and Case Studies, Rules and Regulations

The amendments to the Companies Act include Singapore Audit Exemptions for smaller companies with financial periods on or after 1 July 2015. Let’s find out more.

With accordance to the legislative amendments introduced by the Companies (Amendment) Act 2014, the first phase of the legislative amendments has taken effect on 1 July 2015. Amongst the list of proposed amendments, one of the most significant changes would be the new audit exemption for “small companies” concept. In prior to the amendments, a company is exempted from having its accounts audited if it is an exempt private company (EPC) with annual revenue of $5 million or lower.

The amendments have been modified to include a broader set of criteria that defines those entities eligible for audit exemption, reflecting that audit is more of value to broader groups of stakeholders like suppliers, employees and customers than shareholders. This newly introduced concept allows more corporations to opt for audit exemption. This would in turn reduce compliance costs and responsibilities.

Thirteenth Schedule (Section 205C) of the Companies Act states that a company is considered a “small company” if:

It is a private corporation throughout the financial period in question; and
It satisfies any two of the three criteria below for each of the two preceding consecutive financial years:

The annual revenue does not exceed $10 million.
The value of total assets does not exceed $10 million as at the end of the financial year,
There are no more than 50 employees at the end of the financial year

The qualifying factors are consistent with Singapore Financial Reporting Standards for Small Entities approach, but are slightly different by incorporating additional requirements that the “small company” status to be determined through reference of a two-year period. There is limitation in revealing the reason behind this requirement but there has been justifications made to further justify the criteria, namely to safeguard against manipulation in order to achieve the audit-exemption status and to assess the eligibility on a longer term basis so that the impact of abnormal earnings are reduced and the company will not lose its exemption status due to a sudden yet short-lived increase in their earnings.

As the amendments are scheduled to take effect only for financial periods commencing on or after 1 July 2015, there have been transitional arrangements made for corporations that are formed before the day that the “small company” criteria starts. Companies, which are formed before the effective date, will still be qualified as a small company from the first or second financial period on or after the effective date, on the condition that it is a private company throughout the concerned financial period and meet the quantitative criteria for that financial period.

Once audit-exemption status has been granted to a company, the status shall remain valid until it is no longer a small company when:

The Quantitative Criteria is not being satisfied for two immediately preceding financial years; or
It ceases to be a private company during a financial year.

Do you have further questions regarding the New Audit Exemption in Singapore? or any concerns on your accounting and tax works? Please do not hesitate to ask Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions. We would gladly answer your questions and provide solutions to your business needs.

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