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When registering an Ontario sole proprietorship the statute that you need to review would be the Business Names Act (Ontario). Frequently an Ontario sole proprietorship is called an Ontario trade name. A responsible business person will read the statute to ensure that he or she follows the legal requirements of the statute.

The legislation indicates that a person must not carry on business under another name other than his or her own name or identify his or her business to the public under a name other than his or her own name unless the business name has been registered by that individual. You do not have to do a registration if you are carrying on business under your own name.

You are not required to provide an Ontario Nuans name search report to register an Ontario sole proprietorship. The Business Names Act (Ontario) has no requirement for an Ontario trade name / Ontario sole proprietorship name to be unique. Any company, sole proprietorship or partnership can register the same Ontario business name at the same time. This does not mean that you should just go ahead and register any name you wish. It is important that you make all attempts to have a distinct name for an Ontario Business Registration that is very different from all names out there.

The best way to ensure this is to do a preliminary name search for the proposed name for your Ontario sole proprietorship. A search house can perform this for you. Some search houses charge a small fee for this and others will do this for free when you purchase a sole proprietorship registration service from them. You really need the help of a search house for clearing the name. You cannot clear you name on your own just by going through the phone book. As well you need to consider that you should not have a name that is even close to another name registered across all of Canada. It could cause problems since many businesses today conduct business right across Canada.

Five years is the period of time in which the Ontario sole proprietorship will be in place. The Ontario government issues a Master Business Licence for the Ontario sole proprietorship and this comes in the form of a pdf document when you place an order with an Ontario service provider online. The expiry date on the Master Business License will be shown at the bottom. The onus is on you to ensure you renew your business just prior to that date. The Ontario government does not send out reminder notices.

It should be noted that no Ontario company can have the same name. It is only Ontario business names, Ontario sole proprietorships and Ontario partnerships that have no protection for the name.

If any information on the Ontario sole proprietorship changes you must file an amendment within fifteen days. You cannot amend the name of an Ontario sole proprietorship. If you wish to change the name you must register a new Ontario trade name.

In order to cancel your Ontario sole proprietorship you will need to file a dissolution with the Ontario government.

An Ontario sole proprietorship is not perpetual. It will expiry in five years and that expiry date will be clearly shown on the Master Business Licence. You must set up a tickler to ensure that you renew your business name prior to the five years being up. It is a good idea to re-register a few days before the Ontario sole proprietorship registration expires.

Resources for Canadian Business Owners handles legal and government registrations and can assist you with an Ontario Trade Name and Ontario Nuans Name Searches

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