How to Check If a Singapore Company Is Registered and Live
Before you sign a contract, accept an invoice or take a job offer from a Singapore company, check two things: that the company is registered with ACRA, and that its status is live rather than struck off, dissolved or in liquidation.
What "live" means
ACRA's register carries many status values. In the ACRA dataset this site uses, the two live values are "Live Company" and "Live". The others include Struck Off, several Dissolved and In Liquidation variants, Amalgamated, Converted To LLP and Ceased Registration. A status such as "Live (Receiver or Receiver and Manager appointed)" is not counted as live on this site. ACRA describes a company that has been struck off in the Final Gazette as removed from its register and no longer legally existing.
This site publishes a page only for a company whose status is "Live Company" or "Live". A company that is no longer live disappears from the search results the next time the data is refreshed, which happens on the 4th and 18th of each month; it is not shown as "not live".
How to check on this site
Search by the company's name or UEN with the box at the top of any page. On its page, the badge next to the name reads "Active" for a live company. Check the "Company data as of" date at the bottom of the page: it is the date ACRA last updated the data we downloaded, and the current status may have changed since then.
How to check with ACRA
For a current status, or for a business that has no page here (sole proprietorships and partnerships are never published), use ACRA's Bizfile. It lets you buy business information about an entity. If this site and Bizfile disagree, Bizfile is right and the page here is waiting for its next refresh.
What "live" does not tell you
A live status means the company is still on ACRA's register. ACRA requires a company to file an annual return each year for as long as it is listed as live, including an inactive or dormant company and one that IRAS has granted a tax waiver. A live company can therefore be dormant. The status does not show that the company is solvent or trading, or that its filings are up to date — seeannual return and financial statement deadlines. Whether a company is worth doing business with is a question for your own due diligence, references and, where appropriate, a credit check.
A quick checklist
- Search the company by name or UEN, here or on Bizfile.
- Confirm the status is live and note the "data as of" date.
- Check the incorporation date against what the company told you.
- Check that the registered activity (SSIC code) fits what the company says it does — see SSIC codes explained.
- For anything time-sensitive or high-value, confirm on Bizfile rather than on a copy of the register, including this site.