This is an old revision of the document!
Here are some facts about registering a business as a foreigner in Singapore.
You must have at least one locally resident director for your company.
Nobody in their right mind will be a director of someone’s company these days because so many foreigners setup companies for money laundering and tax evasion. The director is responsible for all acts of the company. So whereas, any old auntie used to be happy to be your director, not so anymore.
Instead, some companies will rent you a director, but for far more than before… $3600 per year and up. And that is only the beginning. You must give them access to your bank account and all the transactions that go through it. You must allow them to OK all contracts and work permits. They do not want to get burned if you are conducting illegal activities. They will insist on being your auditor and accountant. Expect to pay at least $500 per month for all these additional services, which are designed to protect the director.
As a non-resident director, you are taxed at 22 percent of your income earned from the company. Let’s say you are paid $1000 by the company. The company is required to withhold and remit to IRAS $220. Then the company can send a check to you for $780.
Initial setup is about $1500 SGD. If you need a local director then you have to pay a yearly fee which is about $1500 SGD a year.
You will need a company secretary to adhere to the law. Most places charge about $800 SGD a year for this. It will include your filing of AGM and other things to keep you compliant.
The other yearly costs are tax filing and annual statement. You are looking at the cost of someone to do this with your books and then fill in the forms and create the financial statements. This can range massively due to size of company.
Generally speaking if you budget 3K SGD for compliance as a small business every year (without the need for local director) then you have enough to get everything done.