Choose a Special UEN (SUN) for Your New Business!

You can now choose a Special UEN (SUN) for your new business!

ACRA now provides Singapore business owners with the option to choose a preferred Unique Entity Number (known as a Special UEN, or “SUN”) for their new Company, LLP or business, at the point of registration or when converting a business to a new entity type.

The UEN serves to give assurance to the public (including your clients, suppliers, partners, associates) that your Singapore business is a legitimate and legally recognized business/corporate entity registered with Singapore’s Companies Registry, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

The UEN is also used as an identifying entity number when transacting with government bodies – such as filing your corporate tax return or applying for an import and export permit.

Have you ever wondered why some folk pay good money for personalized or auspicious vehicle number plates, telephone numbers and apartment numbers?

A number(!) of people believe that every number is significant, and that a ‘lucky’ business registration number (UEN) might bring them success – in a similar way to how one’s energies and fate might be influenced by the numerology of their name and birthdate.  Some may call it superstitious but, interestingly, each one of us usually has a favourite number that we value and hope will bring us good luck.

Typically, when setting up a new business/LLP/Company, you will be issued with a system-generated UEN. However, for a fee you can now choose a Special UEN (SUN) from a list of reserved UENs that ACRA has specially curated and released in advance for their memorability or cultural value (i.e. they might include number combinations that are easier to remember or have culturally auspicious numerical sequencing).

Based the anticipated value that consumers might place on a SUN’s unique numerical arrangement, ACRA has categorized these SUNs into two categories: Tier 1 – for $3,000, and Tier 2 – for $1,000, i.e. some SUNs might be seen as luckier (more ‘heng’) – particularly in Chinese culture – than others, and therefore demand a higher price.

The two categories of SUNs are described below:

1. Tier 1 numbers – are defined as numbers which include consecutive identical numbers, 4 or 5 times in a row (i.e. 99999) (after the entity type code), or any number combination involving the number ‘8’;
2. Tier 2 numbers – are defined as numbers that have a repetitive pattern (excluding the number ‘8’), or end with a triple identical number (such as ‘222’, ‘666’, ‘777’).

Don’t get stuck with a shady UEN by chance, choose your own SUN now while stocks last!

If you want one of these Special UEN’s – you need to act quickly! SUN’s are almost (but not quite) as rare as hen’s teeth. For example, on 19 February 2018, you could choose from only 717 SUNs for sole proprietor/business entities, 700 SUNs for private limited companies, 227 SUNs for Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP), and 227 SUNs for Limited Partnerships.

Please contact us if you are interested in setting up a new Company, LLP, or business with a Special UEN. We will help you to reserve your preferred SUN* and incorporate your new entity. We charge only a small administration fee on top of our usual service fee for reserving the SUN.

*Subject to availability. SUNs are sold on a “first in-first served” basis, and can be reserved for only a short period of time (30 minutes) at the point of incorporation/entity conversion.

Source: ACRA, bizFile