Singapore company incorporation consultants

Why Singapore

Singapore company incorporation consultants – This article will set out a quick overview of the qualities that you would want for your Singapore company incorporation consultant and then go onto how to incorporate a company in Singapore.

Singapore is well known globally as the one of the most economically competitive countries in the world and has worked to expand its network of double taxation agreements globally.  This means that when choosing to incorporate a company in Singapore, you have both tax benefits and also ease of doing business as a good reason to incorporate your company in Singapore. 

1. Choosing a good incorporation consultant;

1. Registered filing agent with ACRA;

A Singapore company incorporation consultant needs to be registered with ACRA as a registered filing agent and fulfill legal requirements under the Companies Act (Cap. 50).

• Be present in Singapore so can liaise with ACRA;

Your company secretary should be present in Singapore so if need be, can head down to ACRA to solve any issues that your company may face.

• Professional background so well trained in ACRA/Companies Act requirements;

There are many corporate secretaries that just learnt what they did on the job and do not know how to interpret the Companies Act.  You should try if possible to hire a company secretary who has a professional background (i.e. either legal or accounting or ISCA) so that if there are issues arising from your company, they can resolve it with ACRA.

• Have handled many much more complex transactions that your incorporation so that can troubleshoot and deal with issues that may crop up.

There are many smaller company incorporation consultants that have only handled small company matters so as your company grows, they will not be able to handle your corporate secretarial matters.  You want to find someone who has dealt with complex transactions to tap on their years of experience.

• KYC/AML;

In recent years, the requirement for know –your-client and anti-money laundering has become more and more strict in Singapore and all company secretary will need to carry out such compliance checks on all companies in Singapore. 

• Registrar of controller;

Another thing that you need to know is that arising out of the 1MDB issue, ACRA has imposed the requirement on company secretaries to fill up a registrar of controllers for all companies in Singapore.  So if someone is a nominee director for a shareholder, the register needs to state clearly that this arrangement is so.

• Choosing a good name;
• Three names;

When thinking of your company name, you would want to prepare 3 names and also search online to see if your domain is taken or if there is another company in Singapore with a similar name.

• Cannot choose banned names

When thinking of your company name, please note that you cannot choose a name with Singapore in the front or Temasek in the name.

• Company Registration Process

Once you have registered your company, you can reserve the name for up to 60 days or you need to apply for an extension of time.  Please make sure in the interim, please spend time thinking through your list of shareholders and directors and also the number of shares and share capital that each of the shareholders will pay at subscription. 

There is a whole list of information that you would need to register your shareholders and directors so if you want to do this yourself, it would be best if you get everyone together in front of your computer.          

• Singapore business licensing

In Singapore there are companies that need to be licensed, for example, Financial advisory firms (under the Financial Advisers Act), Banks, Insurance firms etc.  So you may want to check whether your line of business requires specific licensing so you can prepare.

• Domain registration

As mentioned above, domain registration is important today and you would want to choose a company or business name that you can register as a domain which is not already taken.

Choosing the right Singapore company incorporation consultants for your business is key and you should always choose the best and also find someone who can guide you along your journey to starting your new Singapore Company.

About Raffles CPA

Raffles CPA is a niche professional firm headquartered in Singapore with a relentless dedication to help global and local clients in solving their complex business problems in areas of corporate services, accounting, capital market, legal and compliance.

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