As a country Singapore has been flourishing as far as business and opportunities are concerned. The country provides immense scope for businessmen to establish and grow a company. There are various procedures that you need to go through before you can establish your business successfully.

This article provides a guideline regarding the methods to incorporate a company in Singapore. Before we understand the company incorporation procedure, it is important to understand who can incorporate a company in Singapore.

Who can register a company in the country of Singapore?

Any individual who intends to start a business in Singapore can establish and incorporate his or her own company. However, it is necessary to understand the procedure thoroughly if you are a foreign-based investor. This gives you a method through which you can comply with ACRA. ACRA is a regulatory body that states certain rules you need to follow when it comes to company incorporation.

ACRA stands for Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. In case you are new to the compliances, a company incorporation service provider will be able to help you out. Following are the steps to incorporate a company in the country of Singapore.

1. Company Incorporation if you are a foreigner:

If you are a foreigner and want to start a company in Singapore it is essential to appoint a Singapore citizen as the company director. This is a mandatory compliance put forward by ACRA. Once the company incorporation process is complete you can take 100% shares of the company.

All of this is possible even when you are a foreign director. To go through the process, you have to appoint a company incorporation service provider. You will be required to submit the following documentation:

• Your passport copies
• Official residential proof of your own country
• Your business profile and other details.

2. Company Incorporation While being a foreign corporation:

It is possible to incorporate a foreign company in Singapore. You can choose to incorporate the company in the form of a bank, subsidiary office or a representative office.

Along with the documents from the previous step, you will also require to file the following document copies:

• Incorporation Certificate copy from the parent company
• Details from the company registrar or information about the directors and members of the company.

Prerequisites for company incorporation in Singapore:

In the previous section we understood about who can incorporate a company in Singapore.  Let us understand what are the prerequisites to be followed while incorporating a company in Singapore:

The minimum setup requirements would be as follows:

• Minimum one shareholder
• One company secretary
• A paid share capital of minimum S$1
• Address of a physically registered office in Singapore.

As the above-mentioned requirements are easy to follow, Singapore has been the center of attraction to start a successful company.

Steps to follow to register a company in Singapore:

We saw all the basic requirements we need to fulfill to incorporate a company in Singapore. Following are the steps to actually register a company.

You have to follow only three basic steps to get your company registered in Singapore:

1. Approval for the company name.
2. Registration of the essential documents.
3. Registering the company with ACRA.

1. Approval for the company name:

You have to follow the below given rules:

• The name of the company cannot be obscene.
• The name should not clash with existing Trademarks.
• The name should not be identical to any existing company in Singapore.
• The name you plan to use should not be reserved by another company.

If you follow these criteria, ACRA will approve your company name immediately.

2. Registration of essential documents:

You have to submit the following documents to ACRA:

• Consent to act form from every director in the company.
• Consent to act form from the company secretary.
• A company constitution document.
• Identity and residential address proof of all the officers and shareholders.

You also have to include a “Know Your Customer” form to prevent money laundering.

3. Registering the company with ACRA:

As all the above details receive an approval your company is ready for registration. Your registration with Singapore ACRA will be ready soon. If it has to be referred by another government department it may take extra weeks.  But the majority of time, the company registration in Singapore is over within only one day.

Wrapping it up:

As you can see, the process of company incorporation in Singapore is very simplified. This is true only if you have an expert company incorporation service provider with you. We made a massive effort to help you understand the process in the simplest way possible. Let us know if you have any concerns to discuss regarding the procedure.