Comprehensive Guide for Setting up a Company in Singapore

Comprehensive Guide for Setting up a Company in Singapore

This article collates all the imperative information you will need to know while setting up a business in Singapore. Here is what all you can know more about

  • Registering a company or entity
  • Types of business structures
  • Selecting a business structure suiting your requirements
  • Deciding an apt business or company name
  • Company’s official address
  • Requisite approvals from relevant authorities
  • Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority’s (ACRA’s) Pro-business services
  • Information on Taxes, Licenses and CPF

Who needs to do a registration?

Any business operation which is conducted on a regular basis for the objective of gaining profits is needed to be registered with ACRA.

Every individual, before setting up a business in Singapore, should register with ACRA. The only exception is for those who have been exempted under the Business Names Registration Act.

The minimum age for an individual to register a business or company is 18 years. The application for registration of a new business has to be submitted online via BizFile+, which is ACRA’s online filing and information retrieval system.

To register a new company or business, the applicant has to log into BizFile+ by entering his or her identification number and also the SingPass. The applicant can also take the services of a registered filing agent (for example some reputed law firm, corporate secretarial company, or an accounting firm) especially in case the applicant does not have a SingPass.

Cases of Exemption from the Registration

The following individuals are not needed to be registered for doing a business or setting up a company in Singapore:

  • Any individual proprietor who is conducting a business only under the individual proprietor’s full name
  • Any firm that consists of two or more persons carrying out a business under the full names of all the persons
  • Subject to subsection (2), any professional or firm of two or more persons conducting a business including only the exercise of any occupation or profession which, under the guidelines of any written law, could be exercised only by those who have certain qualifications set by the written law and whose names are registered or otherwise recorded in the way approved by any written law
  • An individual (A) in respect of or for whom another person (B) conducts or runs the business completely or mainly as a nominee or trustee if B has given the details needed under section 7(1)
  • Any statutory authority or other body set up by or under any public act for a public purpose
  • Any institution, authority, individual or fund listed in the First Schedule to the Income Tax Act (Cap. 134)
  • Any society, which is registered under the Societies Act (Cap. 311)
  • Any society, which is registered under the Co-operative Societies Act (Cap. 62)
  • Any mutual benefit organisation that is registered under the Mutual Benefit Organisations Act (Cap. 191)
  • Any trade union, which is registered under the Trade Unions Act (Cap. 333)
  • The Public Trustee or an Official Assignee of the property of a bankrupt
  • Any foreign organization conducting business in Singapore, which is registered under the Companies Act (Cap. 50) and runs the business under its registered name
  • Any company conducting the business under its corporate name
  • Any limited liability partnership, which is registered under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act (Cap. 163A) conducting business under its registered name
  • Subject to section 42(3) of the Limited Partnerships Act (Cap. 163B), any limited partnership, which is registered under that Act
  • Any other individual or class of individuals for the time being who are exempted by the Minister under specific regulations under section 43; and
  • Any individual proprietor who runs any business, which is specified in the First Schedule to the Business Names Registration Act just before the date of commencement of this Act and who is alive and regularly carries on the same business on and after that date

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