Choosing the Right Name for Your Company
Starting a company is an important choice and not to be made lightly: it is necessary to consider many factors, from the type of business you have in mind, to the partner with whom you will share the risks and profits, including the prevention of future negotiations or sale to third parties. Once you have considered all the possibilities and think that opening a company is the best solution, we will help you in all the practical steps necessary, after having carefully evaluated the best company form for your business project.
As clear from the categories to which the shareholders belong and from the way in which company assets are used, the company can be classified into joint-stock companies limited by shares or limited liability companies, or general partnerships, or simple companies. The decision to set up a company is a form of business partnership where shareholders agree to organize a company to pursue a collective economic interest.
The company plays a fundamental role in the national economy, not only because it is a model with a remarkable level of efficiency in the organization of production, but thanks to its structure and functionality, it becomes the ideal interlocutor for financial and credit institutions.
Understanding the Incorporation Process in Singapore
Actually, Singapore new company Incorporation is not a difficult task. Singapore’s government focuses on attracting entrepreneurs and has integrated several of the company’s direct investments and companies to make more profits and stay long. Thus, establishing a Singapore company is a simple and easy process. It allows the company to quickly have a legal entity and begin doing business. The most favorable thing is: it can be 100% foreign-owned and even a regional office is allowed to employ a foreign specialist. As the official approval takes only one to two business days, the companies can thus enjoy the flexibility of doing business. Besides, Singapore is keen to welcome foreign talents as there are limited natural resources only. Singapore company registration for foreigners can be accomplished in less than 24 hours, remember! To start your business in Singapore, you need to register your company with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).
Singapore has always been a popular place for business to be conducted in. There are underlying reasons for the city-state to achieve this highly acclaimed status. This island is located next to the most populous nation, China, and it’s only a 5-hour flight away from the major emerging markets, such as Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai. This is a major advantage over other countries. Besides that, a vibrant business environment is available here where entrepreneurs can find resources to kick-start their business dreams and beautiful climate all year round. Such gains have given a sense of belonging for the business community to come to Singapore to find an avenue where they can grow their dreams, together with a warm and hospitable culture for them to start with.
Gathering the Necessary Documents
Next up is hiring of company secretary. All Singapore registered companies by law must have a company secretary within the six months of incorporation. The company secretary also must be a ‘natural’ person, so either a Singapore resident or a holder of an EntrePass or Employment Pass in Singapore. You must hold the first board meeting soon. Non-compliance may attract penalties under the Companies Act. After that, open a corporate bank account. Additional Articles of Association authorize company directors to open a corporate bank account. Normally, banks in Singapore need at least one director to be present. Lastly, apply for any business licenses if necessary. Some businesses require specific business licenses before incorporating a company. Your packaging company may require a General License before proceeding to packaging business. Always consider this step before you proceed.
In gathering the essential documents for company registration in Singapore, you will need company name approval, a company constitution, and a profile report. For company name approval, you will have to submit a completed application for that. However, it would be prudent to check for business/process the name and then request a company name through BizFile using your SingPass. For the company constitution, you must submit it and the Notification of Nomination at the visit to the ACRA. For the profile report, you can do so using ACRA’s BizFile+ by 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Registering Your Company with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA)
The entire incorporation process usually takes between 15 minutes and an hour. Depending on who files the necessary documents, the process could be completed within an hour (if you personally file the documents) or within a day (if you engage a professional filing agent to file the documents). A unique entity number (UEN) will be issued and the company registration information will be made available for public inspection once the company is successfully incorporated. The company incorporation fee is $300, and the business profile will cost $50. In addition, you might have to pay other fees and charges depending on the circumstances of the business that you are setting up. For example, you may be required to apply for a business license or permit before commencing your business operations. Depending on the choice of company name, there may be additional charges; for instance, the registrar can decide to seek approval from the relevant external authority (for example, the Building and Construction Authority or the Health Sciences Authority) before approving the proposed company name.
To incorporate a new company in Singapore, you can engage a professional filing agent (for example, a law firm, accounting firm, or corporate secretarial firm) to do the filing for you via the online filing portal BizFile+, or you can do it yourself. If you choose to do it yourself, you will need to have a valid SingPass, a CorpPass, or a file number to log in to BizFile+. You will also have to meet the following requirements before you proceed with the incorporation: have at least one subscriber, who must be a natural person (a company is not valid for this purpose), substantiate the identity of at least one shareholder (which includes the subscriber), at least one director who is either a Singaporean resident or holds the required employment pass/entrepreneur/work pass/dependant pass, and a Singapore resident company secretary.
Complying with Legal Requirements and Regulations
To enhance your chances of successfully incorporating in Singapore without any problems, you must work with a licensed registration agent. Filing for the company incorporation by the competent registration board in your name without the knowledge or design of the persons listed on the board in the name will enable you to file, select one or more persons to designate as filing agents to sign any documentation and similar to which the approximately registered agent and all the other such persons are registrant to obtain a copy of. Once you are ready to start making income tax credits, you must select a Singapore registrar. File your company’s personal productive company tax rates for the year and submit your company’s financial annual report summary.
If you are not a Singapore resident, or if you do not keep current Singapore business filings and requirements, you would be required to appoint a firm to serve as your licensed filing agent. A useful statutory filing agent is approved by the firms that are generally required to register or register. Filing for some business incorporation in Singapore includes account, their market passes. Except for sale of customers, knowledge, and trust of their company, it is individual and identifiable enough to make a permanent impression. Your previous success in Singapore is a measure of the global success of your company.
Execute your company incorporation with our Incorporation Package. When you are ready to start a new company or expand into new markets, a reputable business and reputable public authorities could contribute substantially to your business success. Your company’s partial proprietorship or its reputation is your reverse subjective and objective risk. Apart from the pros and cons of specifically company incorporation in Singapore, you need to think about what to expect from the company registration and registration process via your helper.
Appointing a Local Director
It should be noted that a foreign individual who has been working for a company overseas but is required to relocate to Singapore to assume the position of Resident Director of a newly incorporated company is, for all intents and purposes, not the equivalent of a local director required by the Singapore Companies Act. Therefore, in the event that the foreign individual is required to serve as the local director of the newly incorporated company, he or she will also be employed by the new company on the Employment Pass. On the other hand, wherein the foreign director is a shareholder in the company and has a work pass type such as Employment Pass or Entrepreneur Pass, the new company can apply for a Dependant’s Pass or Long-Term Visitor’s Pass (LTVP) for their family members. Given the aforementioned rules and regulations, Cekindo’s business consultants have prepared a summary of the common types of work passes in Singapore available to foreign individuals.
All locally incorporated companies in Singapore are required to have a certain number of local directors on their board. Under the Singapore Companies Act, all companies are required to appoint a minimum of one local director, i.e. a director who is either a Singapore citizen, Permanent Resident or Employment Pass holder. As a result of this law, it is common for foreign individuals, who form the majority of the shareholders and directors in a private limited company, to find it difficult to adhere to this statutory requirement at the time of incorporation. Nonetheless, given the said difficulty, foreign individuals with every intention of setting up and operating a business in Singapore are often left with no other alternative but to comply with this requirement. To begin with, it should be noted that the local director should be at least 18 years old and not be bankrupt or have committed any malpractice with regards to the responsibilities expected of officers of corporations.
Meeting the Minimum Paid-up Capital Requirement
The money can be drawn for operations whenever the business is ready. If you are a foreign company expanding into Singapore and you register a Singapore branch office, you will have a minimum paid-up capital in the Memorandum of Association. To bring business into the branch, the capital will be paid to the branch. However, this paid-up capital is not considered capital of the Singapore branch office, which means that the assets in Singapore do not belong to the foreign company group. It has several implications. If the branch ceases to have operations in the country, the assets will need to be liquidated and the funds will not be brought back to the head office. For companies who register a Singapore subsidiary, you do not have to show the paid-up capital to SGD$1 as required in the branch office/incorporate a Singapore Subsidiary Office of a Foreign Company etc.
One of the requirements for forming a company in Singapore would be to comply with the minimum paid-up capital with a Singapore Company Registration. It is $1 as of today’s date. It means that you need to inject $1 into the company so that the company can be incorporated. It does not make any sense if the minimum capital is a significant sum, e.g. $10,000. You should seek to keep your initial capital to the minimum possible. This keeps the cost of forming a company in Singapore low. You can always put in more capital after the company has been set up. The Companies Act also allows for the increase of the paid-up capital at a later date.
Obtaining Necessary Licenses and Permits
Normally, your company incorporation agent will also provide you with a draft of the Memorandum and Articles of Association which can be customized, should you have more complex ideas for your new company. Through your company incorporation agent, you then submit the following documents:
– Have at least one shareholder
– Allocate a proposed business activity code
– Establish the business activities of the company
– Create the Memorandum and Articles of Association
– a document that brings together all essential details of shareholders, directors, secretary, share capital
After taking those steps into account, you, as a business owner, will then further embark on incorporating a company in Singapore. Besides picking a unique reputation and registering it, the following steps should be subsequently completed:
Next, you have to obtain a Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) registration number for your business by registering with Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) within 60 days of incorporating the company. The PIC scheme is a measure implemented to encourage companies to undertake R&D or automation activities. It provides a tax deduction/allowance for activities such as registering a company’s, acquiring or leasing PIC Information Technology and Automation Equipment, training employees.
Provided that your company is engaged in certain business sectors, you need to obtain specific business permits or licenses. To verify what licenses or permits your business needs, you can use the Business Licensing Service (BLS). However, there is a catch. Once you have incorporated your company, the first step is to appoint an Economic Development Board (EDB)-approved tax agent who will be acting as an intermediary with the Singapore Inland Revenue Authority. This step is mandatory.
Setting Up Your Business Operations in Singapore
Conducting business in and from Singapore is a very exciting opportunity. Conducive business conditions, enhanced facilities and opportunities are a strong lure for international and domestic entrepreneurs. The strategic location, represented by its sophisticated infrastructure, makes Singapore the most desired place for investment. The city-state has one of the most efficient and dependable airport and seaport services with several global air traffic rights. The provision of a competitive and cost-effective business environment and the dynamic presence of many globally recognized business entities has further enhanced the appeal of the city-state as the desired destination for conducting international trade.
Entrepreneurs find that they can usually begin business operations in Singapore within a few days of deciding to incorporate their company. All they need to get started off the ground is to open a corporate bank account and to deposit sufficient funds. The next important step is to lodge the statutory documents required for incorporation. This might include any changes made after the business’ E-statement was signed. Other important documents are the Certificates of Incorporation, shares, and prospects. The next thing a budding entrepreneur would need to do is to audit his Singapore based company’s financial statements. It is these financial prepared statements that will determine any tax that is to be paid.
One benefit of incorporating a business in Singapore is that individuals do not need to be physically present in the city-state to form the company. They can arrange for someone else to deposit the necessary documents and to pay the registration fees at the Company Registrar. Alternatively, they can authorize another individual or a firm to represent them throughout the registration process. Singapore has made the procedure extremely convenient for customers. Thus, the process of company incorporation is quite straightforward. An individual would, however, need to obtain a business license in certain cases. For this, he or she would need to be in Singapore.
Opening a Corporate Bank Account
To start a business in Singapore, the first thing you will need to do is to open a corporate current account. Your corporate account is the key to your business. Then, the next thing you would need to do is to send one of your representatives down to Singapore to meet with the bank officers and provide the necessary documentation to obtain a queue for your corporate bank account. The next step is to meet the accounting officer to sign the final document and certify a true copy of the person who is authorized to apply and be the signatory of the corporate bank account. The entire process will take approximately 6 working days to successfully open as long as we receive the list of detailed personal appointment document copies.
Essential tips for successful company incorporation in Singapore. The business structures in Singapore, business considerations in Singapore, setting up your business in Singapore, and requirements for company setup. If you are a business owner based overseas and you need a reliable bank in Singapore that offers an easy and quick setup for your business without having to be physically present, then you would need the right advice for the right bank for the right business incorporation package to meet your needs. Company setup for foreigners in Singapore is always a first step even before you are able to extend your business and professional needs in an Asian country. Thus, company incorporation and relocation to another country is an ultimate strategy for it. We understand this and can advise you.
Renting or Purchasing Office Space
Small office places in the central district in the city can cost you S$142 a month. In places like City Hall or Raffles Place, the rentals can touch a high of S$76 per square foot a month. Rents for office space in Chatsworth Rd in the Tanglin/Kay Siang area are considered excellent. While the rents are not standardized, you can expect to pay S$3.03 a month. The Central Business District (CBD) is the top district for office rentals. Rentals have touched S$20 per square foot a month. The second-best place is Orchard Road, where the rentals come to S$10 per square foot a month. There are cheaper locations where you will pay more affordable rentals than the core regions publicity in the Central Primary Region (CCR). If your business is already established, it is appropriate to own property so you can enjoy tax breaks. In view of the costs of owning properties, however, CO has a tendency of renting properties. With the economic downturn, CO rentals have plunged sharply.
When launching your business in Singapore, you should do your homework and review all options. Analyze your niche and go for the best office space to match your business. You require having your work area, as per the local requirements. An address in your company name is obligatory and you are not allowed to work from home for too long. The requirement for office rentals has been in decline, and with a dampened economy in Singapore, now is the best time to rent or own office space.
Hiring Employees and Managing Payroll
When hiring your core team, remember to take a look at grants offered by SPRING and similar organizations in Singapore. These organizations are eager to offer assistance to young technology startups and have supported several successful startups over the years. Once registered, your business entity needs to comply with Singaporean employment law. The next steps for you to consider before you start hiring your team are a) handling employee tax and b) managing your payroll. Managing payroll is a business critical process that can be complicated and time-consuming. Issues will emerge if you do not manage payroll well, as it is not just about making payments to employees if you register incorrectly, pay the incorrect amount or decipher the tax amount incorrectly. When handling employee tax, as a startup you need to know what components of a tax rate are relevant and how to demystify it to your team. It is also your obligation as an employer to calculate and deduct as mandated by the IRAS.
Once you have evaluated the potential business structure that fits your needs the most, you should consider the hiring of your core team. Remember that Singapore offers many attractive grants and funding programs for startups. However, before you begin your employment process, you need to take care of registering your business with ACRA first. You may consult your legal advisors and accountants to make sure your chosen business structure is appropriate for your startup’s business model, and who can then assist you with the registration. You can also attempt to self-register. The process is quite straightforward and does not require physical presence in Singapore. After successfully registering your startup, you can proceed with hiring employees.