Paying an invoice or filing a return against an unverified Unique Entity Number (UEN) exposes you to fraud and rejected filings. A wrong number on a tax form gets bounced. A fake number on an invoice can mean you are paying a business that does not exist.
This guide shows how to check a UEN free on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) Bizfile portal, read the result, and confirm Goods and Services Tax (GST) registration separately with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).
What Is a UEN (Unique Entity Number)?
A UEN is Singapore’s standard identification number for entities dealing with government, introduced on 1 January 2009. One entity gets one UEN, and it stays permanent for the life of that entity. ACRA issues UENs to most businesses; other agencies issue them to other entity types.
Singapore’s Ministry of Finance launched the UEN on 1 January 2009, with 51 government agencies adopting it at launch and all remaining agencies onboard by 1 July 2009, per the Ministry of Finance newsroom. Businesses and local companies, about 85% of all registered entities at the time, kept their existing ACRA registration number as their UEN, per the same source.
Individuals never receive a UEN. A sole proprietor gets a UEN issued to the registered business only, not to the person. The proprietor’s National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) stays separate, and the business UEN is what appears on invoices and government filings.
Here is what you verify, where, and what each check confirms.
| What you verify | Where to check | What it confirms | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| UEN and registration status | ACRA Bizfile (bizfile.gov.sg) | Entity exists, status, type, registered address | ACRA Bizfile search guide |
| GST registration | IRAS myTax Portal GST search | Whether the entity is GST-registered | IRAS GST Registered Business Search |
A UEN is used for IRAS tax filings, GST, corporate bank accounts, licences, and CorpPass government e-services, all tied to the entity’s UEN.
Why Verify a UEN in Singapore?
Verification confirms a counterparty is a live, registered entity in ACRA’s register before you invoice, pay, or file. A UEN never changes once assigned, so you do not re-verify your own number on a schedule. You verify other parties’ UENs, and you confirm your own once before a filing.
The two real use cases are due diligence on suppliers, customers, and partners, and a one-time confirmation of your own UEN before filings. The strongest driver is fraud prevention: matching a UEN on an invoice to a genuine live entity before paying it. Rejected or delayed filings are the other stake, since IRAS and ACRA systems reject filings quoting an unregistered number.
What Is the UEN Format in Singapore?
There are three official UEN formats. A 9-character format (nnnnnnnnX) covers businesses registered with ACRA, and two 10-character formats cover local companies (yyyynnnnnX) and all other entities (TyyPQnnnnX). The final character in every format is a computed check alphabet.
The table below sets out the three formats, per the official Singapore government UEN scheme published by IMDA.
| Format | Length | Who gets it | Example | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nnnnnnnnX | 9 characters | Businesses (sole proprietorships, partnerships) registered with ACRA | 12345678A | IMDA UEN spec |
| yyyynnnnnX | 10 characters | Local companies registered with ACRA | 199012345X | IMDA UEN spec |
| TyyPQnnnnX | 10 characters | All other entities (LLPs, foreign companies, societies, more) | T08LL1234A (LLP) | IMDA UEN spec |
In the third format, the first letter is a century indicator: T marks entities issued in the 2000s and S marks the 1900s, per IRAS’s filing on Singapore’s Tax Identification Numbers to the OECD. The two characters after the year (PQ) are the entity-type code.
| Code | Entity type | Issuing agency | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| LL | Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) | ACRA | ACRA Special UEN |
| LP | Limited Partnership (LP) | ACRA | ACRA Special UEN |
| PF | Public accounting firm | ACRA | ACRA Special UEN |
| FC | Foreign company branch | ACRA | OECD Singapore TIN |
| SS | Society | Registry of Societies | data.gov.sg UEN collection |
To read a UEN quickly: check positions 4 and 5 of a Tyy-format number. If you see LL, the entity is an LLP. A local company never carries a T-prefix UEN at all, because companies use the yyyynnnnnX format.
What Are Common Typos in UEN Numbers?
Common typos are a missing final check character, a string of the wrong length for its format type, transposed year digits, and a wrong entity-type code. Watch for these:
- Missing the final check alphabet (T08LL1234 instead of T08LL1234A).
- Wrong length (a 9-character string where a 10-character format applies).
- Transposed year digits (T80 instead of T08).
- A wrong entity-type code (LP typed where LL belongs).
How Do You Check a Company Registration Number in Singapore?
Use the free entity search on ACRA’s Bizfile portal at bizfile.gov.sg, enter the UEN or entity name, and confirm the entity shows a live status with a matching name and registered address. In Singapore, the UEN is the company registration number, so this one search verifies both. The free search returns status, entity type, and registered address at no cost, per ACRA’s Bizfile search guide.
Follow these steps:
- Go to bizfile.gov.sg, ACRA’s official portal.
- Enter the UEN, or search by entity name, in the entity search field.
- Run the search and open the matching entity record.
- Confirm the status reads “live,” and that the name and registered address match your records.
The free search confirms registration, status, type, and address. A paid Business Profile adds directors, shareholders, paid-up capital, and filings for deeper due diligence, per the same ACRA guide. For counterparty screening, the free search settles whether an entity is real and live; the paid profile settles who runs it.
Bizfile confirms registration and UEN status only. To confirm GST registration, run a separate check on the IRAS GST-registered business search, covered next.
Is a UEN the Same as a GST Registration Number?
For most locally registered entities, yes: since 1 January 2020 the UEN serves as the GST registration number. The exceptions are foreign entities under the Overseas Vendor Registration (OVR) regime, GST group registrations, and divisional registrations, which carry IRAS-assigned numbers such as an M-prefix (for example, M91234567X), per the IRAS GST Registered Business Search.
Registering for GST is a separate step from getting a UEN. A business must register for GST once taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million, per IRAS GST registration guidance/gst-registration-deregistration/do-i-need-to-register-for-gst). So the verification path splits by situation.
| Entity situation | Number type | Where to verify | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local company or business | UEN doubles as GST number (since 2020) | Bizfile for UEN, IRAS search for GST status | IRAS GST search |
| Foreign OVR vendor, GST group, divisional | IRAS-assigned number (e.g. M-prefix) | IRAS GST Registered Business Search | IRAS GST search |
The IRAS GST Registered Business Search is free, needs no login, and accepts a UEN, GST registration number, business name, or NRIC, per IRAS.
Can You Validate a UEN Checksum Offline?
No, not fully. The final character of every UEN is a computed check alphabet, but Singapore has not published the checksum algorithm, so offline tools can only do format validation, not true verification. The only reliable validation is a lookup against the official register.
The check character is system-generated and cannot be chosen; only the middle digits are ever selectable, through the Special UEN (SUN) scheme, per ACRA’s Special UEN page. Format validation asks whether a string matches one of the three valid patterns, which catches typos. Existence validation asks whether the UEN maps to a live registered entity, which only a Bizfile lookup answers.
What Do UEN Search Results and Errors Mean?
A “live” status means the entity is currently registered. Anything else is a red flag to resolve before you transact. Treat a struck-off entry, a ceased entry, or a “no record found” result as a reason to pause a payment or a contract.
| Result | Likely cause | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| No record found | Typo, or entity not registered | Re-check the string against the three formats; confirm the entity is registered | ACRA Bizfile guide |
| Struck off or ceased | Entity is no longer live | Do not transact; treat as a red flag | ACRA Bizfile guide |
| Name or address mismatch | Wrong UEN for that entity | Confirm the UEN matches the legal name and registered address | ACRA Bizfile guide |
| Newly issued UEN not searchable | Registration still processing | Confirm status directly with ACRA | ACRA Bizfile guide |
ACRA also flags an unreachable registered address as a caution sign when assessing whether a counterparty is genuine.
How Can You Automate UEN Verification at Scale?
Bizfile has no bulk lookup, so finance teams verifying many vendors need automated verification through an API or batch upload. Manual, one-at-a-time lookups stop scaling once you onboard dozens of suppliers, or re-screen a full vendor list before a payment run. That is where programmatic verification against registry data replaces the manual search.
How Commenda Helps With Singapore UEN and Tax Registration Checks
Commenda’s indirect tax platform validates business and tax registration numbers and keeps GST compliance handled across jurisdictions, so due diligence on counterparties runs automatically instead of one Bizfile search at a time. Commenda’s Global Tax ID Verification tool confirms tax IDs across countries in one place, and Commenda connects through 100+ ERP, API, and custom integrations so verification fits the systems your finance team already runs.
Book a demo to see automated UEN and GST registration checks run against your vendor list.
