Private Limited Company in Singapore

Before a company can be incorporated, it must be assigned a name. The name must not match the company name of an existing business. The name must then be submitted to ACRA for review and approval or disapproval. In most cases, the approval process takes 1-2 hours unless the proposed name contains restricted words.

The next step in setting up a company in Singapore is drafting an MoA and AoA.

The next step is to file the incorporation request and obtain approval from ACRA. This can be completed early, assuming all the incorporation documents are ready and have been duly signed by all the persons involved.

All companies incorporated in Singapore must appoint an auditor within 3 months of incorporation, unless the company is exempt from the auditing requirements. To be exempted, the number of individual shareholders in the company must be less than 20 with no corporate shareholders, and its annual turnover must be less than S$5 million.

Once the registration is completed, you can go forward with completing all the typical post-incorporation tasks:

• Open a corporate bank account
• Obtain the necessary business licenses as may be applicable to your company’s business activities
• Set up a website
• Order business cards and stationery as required
• Set up a bookkeeping system for your company’s financial affairs or engage the services of a professional accounting firm
• Recruit staff as necessary