Company Registration in Singapore | Are you looking to register your company in Singapore? This article does a quick overview of the process and shares with you some tips to note when registering your company.
Jack Ma once said “Today is cruel, tomorrow is crueler and the day after tomorrow is beautiful”.
What types of Companies are there in Singapore?
Under the Singapore Companies Act (Cap. 50), there are public companies and private companies.
Public companies are companies with more than 50 shareholders and usually have no restrictions on transfer of shares. There are also public companies limited by guarantee which are usually used for charity and non-profit organisations.
Private companies are companies with less than 50 shareholders and have restrictions on transfer on shares. Under private companies, there are:
- exempt private companies which allow the company to lend money to directors (amongst other things) and has simplified filings required for the annual return; For more details on exempt private companies, click here.
- small companies, which when you qualify, your company can avoid having to file audited accounts to ACRA.
A company qualifies for audit exemption as a “small company” if it has at least 2 of the following:
- Total annual revenue of not more than $10 million
- Total gross assets as at the end of the financial reporting period of not more than $10 million.
- Total number of employees as at the end of the financial year of not more than 50.
Companies who are part of a small group of companies can also qualify if it meet at least two of the following conditions:
- aggregate turnover must be not more than SGD 10 million
- the aggregate balance sheet total must be not more than SGD 10 million at the end of the financial reporting period
- the aggregate average number of employees must be not more than 50 at the end of the financial reporting period
What information you need before you try to register a company in Singapore?
The name of your company. Try to prepare 3 variants of your company name in case ACRA says your name is too close to an existing company’s name.
Full NRIC/Passport details of all your shareholders/directors and all contact details like handphone number, email address and home address as you would need to fill in details like this in the ACRA system.
Full capital structure of the Company. Always spend some time speaking to the founding shareholders what the shareholding split between the founders is. Determine how many ordinary shares each of you will have. You should also consider drafting a founders agreement or a shareholders agreement with a vesting arrangement as that would be useful for you in the future when things go sour between the founders.
Appointment of a company secretary. Every company needs to appoint a company secretary within six months of incorporation. Please note that. Most people will appoint a professional corporate secretary and you can consider appointing us as your corp sec. Do drop us an email if you need our services.
Registered address. Under the Companies Act, every Singapore company needs an official registered address where the corporate secretarial books of the company will be kept. So do prepare a Singapore address for this. We also provide virtual office address services so do enquiry if you would need a CBD virtual office address for your company.
What is a Corppass and why you need it for company registration?
To register a company and later to do filings, you would need to first apply for a Singpass and then after that to apply for a Corp pass for your Singapore company. Then you can use the Corp Pass to log into the ACRA system.
What happens if I am a foreigner?
Under the Singapore Companies Act, there is a requirement for at least 1 Singapore resident director. If you do not have a Singapore resident director, then you would need to appoint a Singapore resident nominee director for your Singapore company.
Figure out if your company requires additional licensing
Before registering your company and to see if you could meet potential delays in your Company Registration application you should always check the Singapore Government Licence portal to see if your type of business is regulated. If so then after you submit your application to ACRA, you should head to the following website to make your licence application.
https://licence1.business.gov.sg/web/frontier/home
“Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn
We hope you have enjoyed reading our article above. We provide corporate secretarial and registration services. Do leave comments for us below if you have any comments on our articles.
About Raffles CPA
Raffles CPA is a leading global professional services firm headquartered in Singapore that serves global clients.
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