Cancel a Registration – Close Your Alberta Trade Name or Partnership

ACS is a private company. Our CORES-trained agents prepare your filing and submit it through a licensed Alberta registry agent. We are not a government office or a registry agent. CORES is Alberta's Corporate Registry System, and business owners cannot file in it themselves.

A trade name or partnership registration under Alberta's Partnership Act has no periodic renewal, so it stays on the record until it is cancelled. Cancelling it closes the public record, so you are no longer shown as the person behind a business you no longer run. The filing is the Partnership Act cancellation, and it is one line on the list of things to do when a business winds down.

Closing a sole proprietorship in Alberta: what the cancellation does not cover

Cancelling the registration closes the registry record only. Your business number, GST and payroll accounts are registered with CRA, not Corporate Registry, so they are closed with CRA separately. Debts, leases, licences and final tax filings are yours to settle, and the timing of the CRA side is a question for your accountant.

Who this is for

• A sole proprietor closing the business who wants the record closed with it.
• Partners dissolving a partnership and ending the registration together.
• An owner who incorporated and now runs the business through the corporation.
• A corporation that stopped using a secondary brand name.

How it works

1. Order online (about 10 minutes). Enter the registered name, the registration number if you have it, and the date you stopped using the name.
2. We review within about an hour. A trained agent confirms the registration is active and that the person signing is the registered owner or a partner.
3. We prepare and file. We complete the cancellation and submit it through our licensed registry agent partner, [Partner registry agent name]. Complete orders received before 3:00 pm MT are filed the same business day.
4. You receive the confirmation as a PDF by email.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• A personal trade name cancelled before the new corporation has registered the same name, so the company trades under an unregistered name.
• A partnership cancelled when one partner intends to keep trading under the name; that is a change of partners, not a cancellation.
• The wrong registration cancelled when a business has more than one name on file.
• A trade name cancellation ordered when the owner meant to dissolve the corporation itself, which is a different filing.
• Assuming the cancellation closes the CRA accounts too.

What you need before you start

1. The registered name, and the registration number if you have it.
2. The date the business stopped using the name, or will stop.
3. Valid ID for the owner or partner signing.
4. For a partnership, the signatures the form requires.

Requirements in Alberta

• Trade names and partnerships are registered under the Partnership Act and cancelled through a registry agent with valid ID.
• There is no periodic renewal; a registration stays in force until a cancellation is filed.
• The business number, GST and payroll accounts are closed with CRA, not Corporate Registry.
• Cancelling a trade name does not dissolve a corporation that used it. To close the corporation itself, see dissolve an Alberta corporation.
• The government fee is paid on your behalf and included in the price.

Orders received after 3:00 pm MT, or missing a signature, are filed the next business day once complete.