What is UEN?
UEN is the standard identification number of an entity. UEN shall be for registered entities as NRIC is for Singapore citizens. The UEN uniquely identifies the entity.
From 1 January 2009, all entities that are registered in Singapore, such as businesses, local companies, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), societies, representative offices, healthcare institutions and trade unions, will have a Unique Entity Number (UEN) as its identification number.
The UEN shall be used for your interaction with government agencies.
UEN shall replace all other identification numbers issued to you by different government agencies.
What is my UEN?
If you are a business or local company registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), there will be no change for you. Your existing ACRA registration number will be retained as your UEN.
If you are not a business or local company (e.g. limited liability partnership or society), a new UEN will be issued to you by the government agency that registers or oversees you (known as UEN Issuance Agency).
The table below describes the three UEN formats.
A |
Businesses registered with ACRA1 |
nnnnnnnnX
(9 digits) |
“n” = a number
“P” = a alphabetical letter
“Q” = an alpha-numeric digit
“PQ” = Entity-type 2
“Tyy” / “Syy” / “yyyy”= year of issuance 3
“X” = a check alphabet
For example, the UEN for a limited liability partnership (LLP) formed on 1 January 2009 could be “T09LL0001B”. |
B |
Local companies registered with ACRA1 |
yyyynnnnnX
(10 digits) |
C |
All other entities which will be issued new UEN |
TyyPQnnnnX
(10 digits) |
1 No change from existing ACRA Registration Number
2 E.g. ‘LL’ = ‘Limited Liability Partnership’
3 ‘T’ represents ‘20’, ‘S’ represents ‘19’ and ‘R’ represents ‘18’. E.g. T08 means year 2008, S99 means year 1999 and R00 means year 1800
How does UEN benefit me?
Your UEN is your one number for convenient interaction with government agencies. Whether it is filing your corporate tax returns or applying for import and export permit, you will no longer need to use different numbers to interact with different government agencies. Your UEN will be all that you need.
Who will get UEN?
UEN will be issued to entities (such as businesses, local companies, LLPs, societies and representative offices) that
- have multiple interactions with government agencies
- are recognised by a UEN Issuance Agency (e.g. ACRA, ROS)
A list of entity-types that will be issued with UEN and their corresponding UEN Issuance Agencies is available here.
UEN will NOT be issued to:
- Individuals
• They will interact with government agencies using their NRIC numbers
- Entities that have no or only one-off interactions with just one government agency
• E.g. overseas company that sells products to government agencies on a one-off basis
- Sub-entities such as branches and divisions of an entity
However, some government agencies may choose to add sub-entity codes to UEN in their systems if they need to identify and interact with branches and divisions.
|