Singapore legislation

Section 20

of Accountants Act

Section 20

Name of accounting corporation

Amended by37/200037/200037/200037/200037/2000

(1)

The Board shall not approve the name or proposed name, or any proposed change in the name, of an accounting corporation if it is of the opinion that the name or proposed name —

(a)

is misleading or detracts from the dignity of an honourable profession; or

(b)

is so similar to that of an existing accounting corporation or accounting firm as to be likely to cause confusion.

Amended by37/2000

(2)

Notwithstanding section 27 of the Companies Act (Cap. 50), an accounting corporation which is a limited company need not have the word “Limited” or “Berhad” as part of its name and an accounting corporation which is a private company need not have the word “Private” or “Sendirian” as part of its name.

Amended by37/2000

(3)

Every accounting corporation shall have either the words “Public Accounting Corporation” as part of its name or the acronym “PAC” at the end of its name, and no person or firm other than an approved accounting corporation shall have such words or acronym as part of or at the end of its name, as the case may be.

Amended by37/2000

(4)

No name of an accounting corporation may be changed without the prior approval in writing of the Board.

Amended by37/2000

(5)

Notwithstanding anything in this section or section 27 of the Companies Act, where the Board is satisfied that the name of an accounting corporation has been approved (whether through inadvertence or otherwise and whether originally or by change of name) in contravention of subsection (1), the Board may direct the accounting corporation to change its name.

(6)

The accounting corporation shall comply with the direction of the Board under subsection (5) within 6 weeks after the date of the direction or such longer period as the Board may allow.[18B

Amended by37/2000