Gazetted to Be Struck Off by ACRA? How to Object or Restore a Singapore Company (2026)

By Lucas Seah, Founder of Excellence Singapore Group | Last Updated: October 2026

“Gazetted to be Struck Off” means ACRA has published your company’s name in the Government Gazette as a company it intends to strike off the register. The company still exists, and you can still object on Bizfile: send evidence that the company is in business, and file any overdue annual returns. A common reason ACRA starts the process is that a company has stopped filing its annual returns. If nobody objects, or ACRA refuses the objection, ACRA can strike the company off once the 60 days in the Gazette notice have passed, and the company is then dissolved.

From 20 October 2026, the window is shorter. For ACRA letters dated on or after that day, you have 15 days, not 30, to object before ACRA can publish the Gazette notice. Adding the 60 days in the notice, a company can now be struck off roughly 75 days after the date on the letter at the earliest.

Already struck off? You have 6 years to apply to restore the company. If ACRA struck it off, a former director or shareholder can apply to ACRA, which charges no fee. Any person affected by the strike-off can apply to the Court instead, including where the company applied to be struck off itself.

Short on time? Jump to the first 48 hours, how to object, what happens after strike-off or how to restore a company.

Key Takeaways

• “Gazetted to be Struck Off” is not the end. The company still exists, and you can object on Bizfile until ACRA strikes it off, which can happen 60 days after the Gazette notice.
• From 20 October 2026, you have 15 days to object to ACRA’s letter, down from 30. For letters dated on or after that day, a company can be struck off roughly 75 days after the date on the letter at the earliest.
• File the overdue annual returns. Unfiled returns are a common reason ACRA starts a strike-off, and ACRA says filing them promptly may help your objection.
• Being struck off does not end your responsibilities. The liabilities of directors, other officers and shareholders continue, and a director of 3 or more companies struck off by ACRA within 5 years is disqualified for 3 years.
• There are two ways back. If ACRA struck the company off, a former director or shareholder can apply to ACRA (within 6 years, no ACRA fee, up to 60 days to process). Anyone affected by the strike-off can apply to the Court (within 6 years), including where the company was struck off at its own request.

What does “Gazetted to be Struck Off” mean?

It is the status Bizfile shows once ACRA has published the company’s name in the First Gazette notification, its formal notice that it plans to strike the company off. A strike-off that ACRA starts moves through three stages, and what you can do changes at each one.

Sources: ACRA, Penalties and enforcement action: late annual return filing (updated 14 October 2026); Companies Act section 344 as amended from 20 October 2026. Read October 2026.

The Gazette notice gives 60 days before ACRA can strike the company off, unless someone shows a good reason why it should not (Companies Act, section 344). From 20 October 2026, ACRA can publish that notice as early as 15 days after its letter.

You can check a company’s status on Bizfile, or search ACRA’s First Gazette and Final Gazette notifications.

What should you do in the first 48 hours?

1. Note the dates on ACRA’s letter or the Gazette notice, and check the company’s status on Bizfile.
2. Object within the window, even if the overdue accounts are not ready. Start them at the same time.
3. Collect recent proof of trading, such as invoices, bank statements, a lease or current contracts.
4. Check who can log in. A director can object with Singpass; without Singpass, a corporate service provider can object for the company. Our Corppass guide for foreigners explains how foreign directors get access.
5. Get the records back if your corporate secretary has stopped replying: the registers, past accounts and Corppass access.

Why does ACRA strike off a company?

ACRA can start the process when it has reasonable cause to believe that a company is not carrying on business or is not in operation. ACRA says a common reason is failing to file annual returns. To the register, a company that has filed nothing for years looks like one that has stopped.

ACRA says it stepped up strike-offs of defunct companies from the last quarter of 2025. In March 2026, 9,503 business entities ceased, against 3,901 to 5,890 in each of the other months from January to September 2026.

Why some owners never see the letter

ACRA’s letter to the company can be sent to its registered office. Many small companies use their corporate secretary’s office as their registered office. If that provider has closed or stopped replying, the letter can sit unopened while the deadlines run. Mail to the registered office coming back undelivered is itself one of the circumstances ACRA may take into account (Companies Regulations, regulation 89B). The letter also goes to the directors, secretaries and shareholders, but only to the addresses ACRA holds for them.

If that sounds like your company, our guide on what to do when your corporate secretary is not responding covers taking back the company’s records, address and filings.

How do you object to ACRA striking off your company?

You object on Bizfile, and you must do it before the company’s status becomes “Struck off”. ACRA lets any interested person object. For your own company, a director can object with Singpass, or a corporate service provider can object for the company. The company’s own Corppass login may not work once it is gazetted: ACRA says an entity objecting through Corppass must have a “Live” status.

1. Open the eService. Log in to Bizfile, choose Deregister, then Local company, then Submit/Clear objection against striking off.
2. Give the reason. If the company is still trading, say so plainly.
3. Upload recent evidence. ACRA’s examples include invoices or purchase orders, bank statements, a lease or utility bill, an IRAS Notice of Assessment, CPF contribution records and current contracts. You can upload up to two PDF files of no more than 3MB each, and ACRA says objections without supporting documents may be rejected.
4. File the overdue annual returns as soon as you can. ACRA says doing so promptly “may facilitate a favourable outcome” to the objection.

ACRA charges no fee to object, and its stated approval time is up to 20 working days.

What filing the overdue returns involves

Unless the company is exempt, its annual return is filed with that year’s financial statements, so the overdue accounts usually have to be prepared first, and each year’s AGM requirement met. Our AGM guide and our post on ACRA’s removal of the grace period cover the deadlines. Each late return carries a late lodgment penalty of S$300, or S$600 if it is more than three months late, and our posts on ACRA late filing penalties and court summons explain what can follow.

If the company really has stopped

If the business has ended, an objection may not be the right move, but letting ACRA strike the company off has a cost: only strike-offs that ACRA starts count towards the director disqualification rule explained below (section 155A), not one the company applies for itself. A voluntary strike-off has its own conditions, such as owning nothing, owing nothing and having no unresolved issues with any government agency; our strike-off guide covers them.

What happens when a company is struck off?

Once ACRA strikes the company off, its status becomes “Struck off”, and ACRA then publishes the date and time of the strike-off in the Final Gazette. ACRA says the company has been removed from the register and no longer legally exists. Three things carry on.

• Liability. The liability of every officer and shareholder continues and can be enforced as if the company had not been dissolved (section 344). The Court can also still wind the company up.
• Records. Anyone who was an officer, such as a director or the company secretary, just before the company was dissolved must keep its books and papers for at least 5 years, or face a fine of up to S$2,000 (section 344H).
• The directors’ record. A person who was a director of 3 or more companies struck off by ACRA within 5 years is disqualified for 3 years, or 5 years for a repeat (section 155A). While disqualified, they cannot act as a director of, or take part in managing, any company, unless the Registrar or the Court gives permission. Our guide to changing or removing directors covers what the company must file when a director stops qualifying.

How do you restore a struck-off company in Singapore?

There are two routes. Which one you can use depends on how the company was struck off and who is applying. From 20 October 2026, both ACRA and the Court must refuse to restore a company if they have reason to believe it is likely to be used for an unlawful purpose or against public peace, welfare or good order in Singapore, or that restoring it would be contrary to national security or interest (section 344E and section 344CA).

Sources: ACRA, Applying to restore a business entity (28 April 2026); Companies Act section 344D and section 344CA (from 20 October 2026). Read October 2026.

Administrative restoration through ACRA

This route is only available if nobody has applied to the Court (section 344D). On Bizfile, open Apply to restore business entity and choose administrative restoration. You give the reasons, upload supporting documents and make three declarations: on the company’s property, on lodging its outstanding documents and on paying its outstanding fees. Any property the company still owned when it was dissolved passes to the Official Receiver, a government officer (Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018, section 213). If any has, the application must include the Official Receiver’s written consent. If your Corppass access for the company has lapsed, ACRA says individuals can log in with Singpass instead.

Those declarations cover the company’s outstanding filings and fees, so plan the catch-up before you apply. If ACRA refuses the application, the applicant or anyone else aggrieved by the decision can appeal to the Court (section 344E).

Restoration by Court order

This route also covers a company that was struck off at its own request. Any person aggrieved by the strike-off, meaning anyone whose interests it has affected, can apply within 6 years (section 344CA). The Court can order the restoration if it is satisfied that the company was carrying on business or in operation when it was struck off, or that restoring it is just. The application is usually made through lawyers, and once the order is lodged on Bizfile, ACRA takes up to 15 working days to process it.

What restoration does

A restored company is treated as having continued in existence as if it had never been struck off (section 344G). The company and its directors are not penalised for financial statements whose filing deadline fell while the company was struck off, but the backlog of filings still has to be cleared. If the strike-off was ACRA’s own mistake, ACRA can restore the company itself.

What should you do after restoration?

1. Clear the backlog. File the overdue annual returns with their financial statements, and pay the late penalties. Our XBRL guide covers the format for filing accounts with ACRA.
2. Check the officers. A company needs a company secretary and at least one director who is ordinarily resident in Singapore; if no director lives here, a nominee director is one option. Changes, such as replacing the company secretary, go to ACRA within 14 days.
3. Fix the registered office if it was a provider’s address that no longer works, and file the change with ACRA within 14 days. A registered office address service is one option.
4. Catch up with IRAS. Corporate tax returns are separate from ACRA filings. Our post on tax filing for dormant companies explains what IRAS expects even when there was no income.

How Excellence Singapore Group can help

Our corporate secretarial team works with companies at every stage of this process:

• Objections. We prepare the objection with the evidence ACRA looks for, lodge it as the company’s corporate service provider, and follow it up with ACRA until it decides.
• The backlog. Our accounting team prepares the overdue financial statements, and we hold the AGMs and file the annual returns.
• Restoration. We prepare administrative restoration applications for former directors and shareholders, and for Court applications we prepare the company records and filings the application needs.
• Afterwards. We act as company secretary and provide the registered office, so ACRA’s letters reach someone who acts on them.

Fees are quoted after we review the company’s filing history on Bizfile.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does gazetted to be struck off mean?

It means ACRA has published the company’s name in the First Gazette notification as a company it intends to strike off the register. The company still exists and you can still object on Bizfile. If nobody objects, or ACRA refuses the objection, ACRA can strike the company off once the 60 days in the notice have passed, and the company is then dissolved.

How do I stop a First Gazette notice for strike-off?

Object on Bizfile before the company’s status becomes Struck off: choose Deregister, then Local company, then Submit/Clear objection against striking off. Give the reason, upload evidence that the company is in business, such as invoices, bank statements or contracts, and file any overdue annual returns, which ACRA says may help. ACRA charges no fee, and its stated approval time for an objection is up to 20 working days.

What happens to directors if a company is struck off?

Their liability, and every shareholder’s, continues as if the company had not been dissolved. Anyone who was an officer just before the company was dissolved must keep its books and papers for at least 5 years after the dissolution. A person who was a director of 3 or more companies struck off by ACRA within 5 years is disqualified for 3 years, or 5 years for a repeat, unless the Registrar or the Court gives permission.

How long before a gazetted company is struck off?

The Gazette notice gives 60 days, after which ACRA can strike the company off unless someone shows a good reason not to. For ACRA letters dated on or after 20 October 2026, you have 15 days to object before ACRA can publish that notice, so, adding the two periods, a company can now be struck off roughly 75 days after the date on the letter at the earliest.

Can I still object after the 15 days have passed?

Yes. Missing the 15 days lets ACRA publish the First Gazette notice, but it does not end your right to object. ACRA says you can still object once the company shows Gazetted to be Struck Off, and Bizfile accepts objections until the status becomes Struck off, which can happen 60 days after the notice. Upload recent documents showing the company is in business, and file any overdue annual returns promptly.

How long does it take to restore a struck-off company?

You have 6 years to apply. If ACRA struck the company off, a former director or shareholder can apply to ACRA, which charges no fee and takes up to 60 days, depending on the case and the documents needed. Any affected person can also apply to the Court; the Court decides first, and ACRA then takes up to 15 working days to process the order. Allow time for preparing the overdue accounts and annual returns.

Received ACRA’s letter? The window is now 15 days

If your company shows “Gazetted to be Struck Off” on Bizfile, or a striking-off letter has just arrived, every day counts: a company can now be struck off roughly 75 days after ACRA’s letter at the earliest. Talk to us with the company’s name, the date on the letter or Gazette notice and when its last annual return was filed, and we will tell you what can still be done.