Requirements for Local Residency to Register Business in Singapore

In Singapore, there are specific requirements that must be fulfilled for company registration in Singapore. With a team of professionals, we can help in company incorporation in Singapore. In Singapore, the self-registration of a new company is not permitted for foreigners.

To register a company in Singapore, several requirements need to be fulfilled by the local resident and foreigners. Several business entities can be registered in Singapore. The most common way to set up your business in Singapore is by creating a private limited liability company. ACRA is the statutory body that approves the registration of a company in Singapore only if everything seems fine and individuals have met all the requirements to register a Company. In this article, we have mentioned the requirement that needs to be fulfilled by a local resident to register the company in Singapore.

In addition to this, you can also check our registering a company in Singapore guide.

Requirements for local residency

Some of the requirements for local residents to register a company in Singapore are as follows:

• Only those local business owners aged 18 or above years of age are only granted to register a company in Singapore. Whereas for directors of private limited companies, there is no age restrictions.
• Another requirement for starting your own company in Singapore is that directors, representatives, managers, and general partners all should be local residents in Singapore.
• If you are a foreign entrepreneur looking to set up a business entity in Singapore, you must appoint a locally resident director/authorized representative to manage the company or business if you wish to continue residing outside Singapore.
• Singapore permanent resident, Singapore citizen, Singapore entry, or employment pass holder can be hired as a local resident authorized representative in Singapore registered company. However, foreign identification number (FIN) holders are first recommended to check their eligibility by referring to the concerned pass issuing authority (which includes MOM/ICA) before taking an appointment or registry (e.g., Director, Secretary).
• If you are a foreign business owner willing to start a business in Singapore in the selected business entities, then you will require to hire a local resident authorized representative to manage the complete functioning of your company or business if you want to continue living in your home country(outside Singapore).

As a foreigner, you will only get eligible to successfully start running a business in Singapore if you meet the local resident requirements for the following business entities:

For a sole proprietor or partnership type of business entity:

Requirements – You need to appoint at least one local resident authorized representative.

Additional details

• Those foreigners who are willing to continue living outside Singapore need to hire a minimum of one local resident authorized representative for their newly registered company in Singapore.
• Foreigners who wish to stay in Singapore and handle all the sole proprietor or partnership business operations are required to get approval from the Ministry of manpower once their company is registered as a sole proprietor or partnership business entity.
• Foreign identification number (FIN) holders are highly recommended to first check their eligibility period by referring to the concerned pass issuing authority Ministry of manpower (MOM) or immigration and checkpoints Authority (ICA) prior to accepting appointment (e.g., Director, Secretary).

For local company

Requirements: You must appoint at least one local resident director in your company

Additional details

Foreigners residing outside Singapore can purchase the shares of a Singapore-based company and can also be hired as a foreign director of the company.

For Foreign Company

Requirements: Must appoint at least one local resident authorized representative.

For Limited Liability Partnership

Requirements: You should appoint a minimum of 1 locally resident manager

Additional details

• Those foreigners who continue living outside Singapore should hire a local resident manager.
• Foreigners who are willing to stay in Singapore to manage all the Limited liability partnership operations should first obtain approval from the ministry of manpower once their company is successfully registered as LLP.
• Foreign identification number holders are recommended to visit relevant pass issuing authorities to get information about their eligibility criteria prior to accepting an appointment as director or secretary of the company.

For Limited Partnership

Requirements: Appoint at least one local resident as the general partner or local manager.

Additional details

• After registering their company Singapore, those foreigners who continue living outside Singapore need to hire a locally resident general partner or local manager to manage all the company’s operations.
• Foreign individuals who want to manage all the operations of their limited partnership business entity require to get approval from the Ministry of manpower once their company is registered as a limited partnership in Singapore.
• Foreign identification number (FIN) holders are suggested to first visit the immigration pass issuing authority, i.e., ICA/MOM, to check the eligibility criteria before receiving an appointment as Director or Secretary of the company.
• All the authorized representatives that foreigners will hire should be permanent residents, Singapore citizens, or employment pass holders.

What are the requirements of Company Registration in Singapore?

Given below are the requirements that every foreign individual should fulfill before registering their company in Singapore:

Company Name

For any type of business entity registration in Singapore, you must get approval of your company name.

Directors

You need to appoint at least one director who can properly manage your company’s business operations. The company’s director should be a local resident who can be anyone from Singapore citizen, permanent resident, and employment pass holder. It is not fixed to hire a specified number of local and foreign directors in your company. The only thing that needs to be taken care of is the directors you are hiring in your company should fulfill the eligibility criteria and should not have any previous criminal record or any record of bankruptcy. However, the directors should not be the shareholder in any company.

Company Secretary

Once your company is registered in Singapore, you must hire a qualified company secretary within six months under section 171 of the Singapore companies act. Also, remember, only local residents living in Singapore are granted to become the company secretary in Singapore, not any sole director or shareholder.

Paid-up Capital

During the company registration in Singapore, the minimum requirement of the paid-up capital should be S$1, which can be increased once your company is incorporated.

Advantages of registering a company in Singapore

There are several advantages of registering a company in Singapore:

1) Tax Benefits

The primary advantage of registering a company in Singapore is the text benefit that every business owners enjoy. Singapore government has introduced politically stable tax rates, which is relatively low. For all the newly started businesses in Singapore, you are not required to pay any taxes for the first 1,00,000 Singapore dollars profit earned by your company.

The corporate income tax rate in Singapore is 0-17% which is relatively low.

Also, Singapore’s personal income tax rate is relatively low (0.20%) compared to several other nations.

The other most remarkable advantage of getting a company registered in Singapore is that you do not have to pay taxes on capital gains.

2) Efficient business environment

Singapore provides one of the efficient business environments to all the business owners out there. Hence, Singapore is known as one of the prestigious places for operating business.

3) Financial

There are several deep and liquid capital markets in Singapore. It is also termed as one of the biggest corporate banking centers, with more than 160 banks operating in Singapore.

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The above-given details in the article have covered everything about the requirements of a local resident to register a company in Singapore.

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