Company registration and maintenance
- Official formation fee
S$15 name application plus S$300 registration: S$315 state setup charges.
- Annual state fee
S$60 annual-return filing; provider, office, accounting and any audit charges are additional.
- Share capital
At least S$1 share capital and one issued share; paid-up capital is a distinct concept.
- Directors
At least one ordinarily resident natural-person director aged 18+. Secretary appointed within six months; sole director cannot also be secretary.
- Shareholders
A single member is permitted; private company conditions apply.
- Office / registered agent
Singapore registered office and locally eligible secretary required.
- Published timing
Approval depends on complete information and any referral; do not promise bank-account approval with incorporation.
What the public can see
- Directors / managers
Public paid business products/registers show directors and other position holders, with protected personal fields.
- Shareholders
Shareholder information is available in paid ACRA products and company filings.
- Beneficial owners
Central RORC is not public; unless exempt, controllers must be filed with ACRA.
- Accounts
Filed financial statements are public paid data; solvent exempt-private-company filing exceptions must be tested separately.
An ordinary filing baseline is used; eligible exempt-private-company status can change accounts filing, not controller-identification duties.
Profits, company tax and distributions
- Ordinary company treatment
17% standard corporate income tax
- Standard headline comparison rate
17% — before lower bands and conditional reliefs
- Retained-profit comparison
17% — company layer
- Distributed-profit comparison
17% — company layer, excluding owner’s tax and outbound withholding
- Conditional reliefs / alternatives
Partial exemption and qualifying start-up exemption reduce chargeable amounts. YA 2026 has a 40% CIT rebate subject to the current cap/conditions; it is not a permanent new rate.
- Distributions / withholding
Singapore does not withhold tax on dividends. Singapore-resident one-tier company dividends are generally not taxable there in shareholders’ hands; foreign-owner tax remains.
- Other tax conditions
Control and management determine company tax residence; incorporation alone is not enough.
Corporate tax and retained profit
The standard 17% corporate rate applies before exemptions and the applicable year’s rebate. Retaining profits does not create a general 0% corporate-tax holiday. Treaty residence and concessions require their own control, management and eligibility analysis.
A public company file, a non-public controller register
ACRA makes shareholder, officer and filed financial information available for a fee. The Central RORC is not public, but controller filing is mandatory unless an exemption applies. Financial-statement filing exemptions must be assessed rather than assuming every Pte Ltd publishes, or withholds, its accounts.