Singapore company formation for non-residents

What a Singapore company costs, including the resident director

Starter is a fixed quote for year 1. It includes the ACRA registration, a Singapore registered address, the company secretary, statutory registers and a compliance calendar.

Growth (a fixed quote) adds a bank-account introduction and 12 months of mail scanning. Premium (a fixed quote) adds the resident director service, 12 months of bookkeeping and the year-2 annual filing.

The government fee is small. ACRA charges S$315 to register a local company: S$15 for the name application and S$300 for registration. The annual return costs S$60, and both are inside our package and renewal prices (ACRA, as of September 2026).

The real extra cost for non-residents is the resident director. If no director lives in Singapore, you need one: on Starter or Growth it is US$2,000 a year plus a refundable deposit that we quote separately, and Premium includes it.

From year 2, the base renewal is a fixed quote on Starter, plus the resident director at US$2,000 a year if you still need one.

• Included: ACRA fee, registered address, company secretary, registers of members, controllers and nominee directors
• Priced up front but separate on Starter and Growth: resident director at US$2,000 a year plus deposit
• Quoted on volume: accounting, XBRL financial statements, ECI and corporate tax return, GST if you register

Directors, secretary, shareholders and the resident director rule

A private company needs at least one director who is ordinarily resident in Singapore and at least 18 years old. Other directors can live anywhere. A Singapore citizen, permanent resident or holder of a qualifying pass counts as resident.

The company secretary must be appointed within 6 months of incorporation, must be an individual, and cannot be the sole director. We provide the secretary.

A private company can have up to 50 shareholders, and corporate shareholders are allowed.

Singapore tightened the rules on professional directors in 2025. The Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 has been in force since 9 June 2025. Anyone acting as a nominee director by way of business must now be arranged through an ACRA-registered corporate service provider that has assessed them as fit and proper.

Since 16 June 2025, nominee status is filed with ACRA and shown on the company's public profile, while the nominator's details are visible only to public agencies.

The resident director is a disclosed, regulated appointment. It meets the residency rule and does not give that person your shares, your bank mandate or your business decisions.

How long it takes, step by step

ACRA says most registrations are approved soon after payment. Cases that need a closer look take up to 15 working days, and names or activities referred to another agency take 14–60 days. Finance, education and some regulated activities are the usual triggers.

Our timeline is 1–3 business days after KYC approval. You upload a passport and address proof for each director and shareholder, choose the business activity code, and confirm the source of funds. We appoint the resident director where needed, file on Bizfile and send you the business profile, constitution and Unique Entity Number (UEN) through the portal.

• Before KYC approval: package chosen, documents uploaded, business activity confirmed
• Business day 0: KYC approved, name reserved via Bizfile and resident director appointed if you need one
• Business day 1–2: registration filed with ACRA; most are approved soon after payment
• By business day 3, unless ACRA refers the application: business profile, constitution and Unique Entity Number in your portal

How Singapore taxes your company

The corporate income tax rate is a flat 17%. Two exemptions cut the effective rate for small companies.

The partial tax exemption covers 75% of the first S$10,000 of chargeable income and 50% of the next S$190,000. Qualifying new companies can use the start-up exemption instead: 75% of the first S$100,000 and 50% of the next S$100,000, for the first three years of assessment.

A worked example at S$100,000 of chargeable income, before the rebate: with the start-up exemption, S$75,000 is exempt and tax is S$4,250. With the partial exemption, S$52,500 is exempt and tax is S$8,075.

The start-up exemption has conditions. The company must be incorporated and tax resident in Singapore, have no more than 20 shareholders, and have at least one individual holding 10% or more, or be owned entirely by individuals. Investment holding and property development companies do not qualify.

Tax residence follows control and management. IRAS says this is usually where the board of directors meets to make strategic decisions, so a board that meets only outside Singapore can cost you the exemption.

For year of assessment 2026, IRAS gives a corporate income tax rebate of 50% of tax payable. Companies that employed at least one local employee in 2025 receive part of the benefit as a cash grant of S$2,000. The rebate and cash grant together are capped at S$40,000 per company (IRAS, as of September 2026).

Foreign income is generally taxed only when it is received in Singapore, and foreign dividends, branch profits and service income can be exempt if the conditions are met. Dividends paid by a Singapore company are not taxed in Singapore under the one-tier system, though your home country may tax them.

Capital gains are generally not taxed. Since 1 January 2024, however, a company in a group with an entity outside Singapore can be taxed on gains from selling foreign assets when they are received in Singapore. This applies if the company lacks adequate economic substance in Singapore (section 10L of the Income Tax Act).

GST registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds S$1,000,000. Singapore has signed tax treaties, limited treaties or exchange-of-information arrangements with around 100 jurisdictions.

Annual compliance calendar

The deadlines run from your financial year end. Most small companies with a December year end will see the same pattern every year: ECI in March, annual return by July, tax return by 30 November.

• Estimated chargeable income (ECI): within 3 months of year end; waived if revenue is S$5,000,000 or less and ECI is nil
• AGM: within 6 months of year end, unless the company sends financial statements to members within 5 months or members agree to dispense with it
• ACRA annual return: within 7 months of year end for a non-listed company
• Corporate tax return: Form C-S, C-S (Lite) or C by 30 November
• Audit: required unless the company is small, meaning 2 of 3 for the past two years: revenue up to S$10,000,000, assets up to S$10,000,000, up to 50 employees
• Records: keep them for at least 5 years from the relevant year of assessment

Registers and beneficial ownership

Every company keeps a register of registrable controllers (RORC), meaning the people who own or control it, and files it with ACRA's central register. Companies registered from 16 June 2025 file it on the day of registration and update it within 2 business days of a change.

The central register is not public. The company also keeps registers of nominee directors and nominee shareholders and files them with ACRA.

Directors and shareholders appear on the public business profile. You can use a service address to keep your home address off the public record, but the law does not allow hidden ownership.

What you provide and what we handle

For each director and shareholder we need a passport copy and a proof of residential address. For the company we need the planned activity, so we can pick the right SSIC code (Singapore Standard Industrial Classification). We also need the expected countries of customers and suppliers, and a short source-of-funds statement.

Corporate shareholders also send their registry documents and details of the people behind them.

We handle the name reservation, the constitution, the Bizfile filing and the ACRA fee. We provide the registered address and the company secretary, set up the registers of members, controllers and nominee directors, and appoint the resident director when you need one.

After incorporation we keep the calendar for ECI, the AGM, the annual return and the tax return, and send reminders ahead of each date.

• You provide: passport, address proof, business activity, source-of-funds statement
• We handle: name, constitution, filing, ACRA fee, registered address, secretary, registers, resident director where needed
• Registered office rule: a Singapore address that is open and accessible to the public during normal business hours on each business day

When Singapore is the right choice, and when it is not

Singapore makes sense when you want a regional headquarters, plan to raise from investors, or need treaty access for cross-border income.

It is harder to justify for a single founder with no Singapore activity who only needs a trading company. The resident director fee and the yearly accounting, XBRL and tax filing costs add up even when the company earns little.