Singapore Company Highlights and Key Features

1. One local resident director. A resident director must be an individual who is either a Singapore Citizen, a Singaporean Permanent Resident, or a person who has been issued an Entrepass, Employment Pass, or Dependent Pass). However, a Singapore Company may have any number of additional local or foreign directors.
2. Directors may or may not be shareholders of the Company.
3. Minimum of one shareholder and maximum up to 50 shareholders (for Private Limited Company). A shareholder can be an individual person or a corporate (another legal entity such as an other company or a trust or a foundation).
4. A foreign individual or a foreign company can be a 100% shareholder of a Singapore Company.
5. Company Secretary must be an individual resident of Singapore. Under Section 171 of the Singapore Companies Act, a Company Secretary must be appointed within 6 months from the date of the Company’s incorporation In case of a Company having a sole director, the same person cannot act as the company secretary.
6. Minimum S$1.00 Paid-up Capital for incorporation of a Singapore company. The concept of authorized capital was abolished in 2006 and ordinary shares issued have no par value.
7. Registered Address in Singapore is required for incorporating a Singapore Company. The registered address cannot be a P. O. Box and must be a physical address.
8. Tax exemption for newly incorporated Singapore Companies (excluding those with 100% owned by corporate shareholders and investment holding companies). For exempt private limited companies, the effective tax rate is around 8.5% For the first S$300,000 annual profits and 17% flat after that.
9. No capital gains tax and tax-exempt dividends for Singapore companies. Excellent tax benefits and business reputation of Singapore are the key reasons why entrepreneurs from around the world prefer to form a company in Singapore. For further information on taxes, please go to Singapore corporate tax.