Doing business in Singapore.The whole picture, with the numbers.

Corporate tax is 17% and a new company pays about 4% on its first S$100,000 of profit for three years. There is no tax on dividends or capital gains. Contracts are enforced in English under a legal system foreign counterparties trust. A company can be incorporated in a day by a foreigner who has never visited, and it can be 100% foreign-owned. Those are the reasons the holding companies, the regional offices and the one-person consultancies are here.

The things that are not true are the ones the sellers leave out. It is expensive to live in and to employ people in. A foreigner cannot run the company from Singapore without a work pass, and a pass is scored on salary. The bank account takes weeks and is the step that slips. A company run entirely from abroad can be tax resident in the country it is run from. This guide is the whole picture in one place, with the numbers, and each section links to the page that goes deeper.

You need a Singapore company if you want to sign contracts here in your own name, sponsor a work pass for yourself or anyone else, hold assets or shares in the region under a Singapore entity, or employ five or more people. You do not need one to sell to Singapore customers from abroad, to hire one or two Singapore citizens or permanent residents, or to test the market for a year.

For a first local hire without a company, an employer of record employs the person on paper for US$400 to 700 a month. It cannot sponsor a pass, and it stops being cheaper than a company at one to two hires, so it is a bridge. The decision between the two has its own page with the arithmetic.

The entity is a private limited company, a Pte Ltd, registered with ACRA for S$315 in government fees. It needs one shareholder, one director who lives in Singapore, a corporate secretary appointed within six months, a registered address in Singapore and at least S$1 of paid-up capital. Incorporation takes one to two days once the documents are in.

The resident director rule is the one that shapes everything for a foreign founder (Companies Act, section 145). If nobody on your team lives here, you appoint a nominee director for S$1,500 to 5,000 a year until your own pass is approved and you take the seat. A managed firm bundles the nominee, the secretary and the address; a self-serve platform sells them separately and cheaper. Year one for a foreign founder is S$2,300 to 7,500 depending on which, and S$700 to 2,500 for a founder who already lives here. The incorporation page walks through the six steps.

Choose the financial year end at incorporation and choose it for the tax exemption: the start-up exemption runs for three years of assessment, and a first period of two months wastes a third of it.

A founder who wants to live and work in Singapore needs an Employment Pass, and it is the founder's own company that applies for it. The salary floor is S$5,600 a month in 2026, rising with age to S$10,700 at 45, and the application is scored on COMPASS: 40 points from salary, qualifications and the company's workforce, with a company under 25 staff scoring 10 on the last two criteria automatically. Government fees are S$330 and most decisions take about three weeks.

The order is fixed by the rule: incorporate first with a nominee director, then apply from the new company, then take over as resident director when the pass is issued. Eight to twelve weeks from nothing to living here is realistic. EntrePass is the alternative for founders with investor backing or intellectual property, and has no salary floor. The Employment Pass page has the points and the COMPASS calculator scores a case in two minutes.

Incorporation takes a day. The corporate bank account takes one to eight weeks, and a foreign-owned company with no resident director and no Singapore revenue sits at the slow end with the traditional banks. Fintech accounts open in days with a Singapore account number, and most foreign founders open one first and add a traditional bank once there is a pass holder and some history.

Banks reject companies with no clear business description, no website, no contracts and a director they cannot meet. Have those ready before you apply. The bank account page lists what each type of bank asks for and how long each takes.

Which route you can use depends on the passport of the person you are hiring. A Singapore citizen or permanent resident can be employed through an employer of record without a company, or by your company once it exists. A foreign national needs a pass, and only a Singapore company can apply for one. The pass salary floor is S$5,600 a month for the Employment Pass and lower for the S Pass, which is quota-limited and levied.

A local employee costs the salary plus 17% employer CPF on wages up to S$8,000 a month, plus a small levy. A pass holder costs the salary and no CPF. Payroll software runs it for S$15 to 50 per employee a month; CPF is due on the 14th of the following month with no slack. The hiring hub has the three routes and the payroll page has the rates and dates. The Employment Act sets minimums for leave, notice and payslips that apply to almost every employee.

Corporate tax is 17% on chargeable income. A new company with an individual shareholder pays tax on 25% of its first S$100,000 and 50% of the next S$100,000 for three years, so S$100,000 of profit in year one is taxed at S$4,250. Dividends and capital gains are not taxed. GST is 9% and registration is compulsory above S$1 million of taxable turnover; a company selling abroad often registers early because its sales are zero-rated and it reclaims the GST on its costs. There is no withholding on salaries; employees settle their own income tax, which tops out at 24%.

Tax residence follows where the board takes its decisions. A company run from a sofa in another country may be resident there under that country's rules, and we are not tax advisers in that country. Ask one before you incorporate if you are not moving. The accounting and tax page and the GST page have the detail.

Once the company exists, the year has a shape. CPF on the 14th of every month. Estimated chargeable income three months after year end. The AGM, or the resolution dispensing with it, at six months. The annual return at seven, with a S$300 late fee that becomes S$600. The tax return by 30 November. IR8A income statements to employees by 1 March. GST quarterly if registered. A corporate secretary at S$500 to 1,500 a year files the ACRA side; an accountant at S$900 to 3,000 a year files the IRAS side; an audit applies only above S$10 million of revenue or 50 staff.

The compliance calendar builds the dates for your year end and gives you a calendar file. The running-a-company hub has the year in order, and the switching page is for when the provider you chose at incorporation turns out to be the problem.

Enterprise Singapore's grants for productivity, market expansion and hiring mostly require at least 30% local ownership and a Singapore-registered company with local operations. A wholly foreign-owned subsidiary does not qualify for most of them, and a company with a Singaporean co-founder or investor holding 30% does. The Economic Development Board deals with larger investments case by case. Build the plan without grants and treat any that arrive as a bonus.

A foreign founder who is moving here usually needs a managed corporate services firm: one engagement covers incorporation, the nominee director, the secretary, the accounting and the pass, with a person who answers. A founder who lives here, or a solo founder with a simple company, is usually better served by a self-serve platform at a fraction of the price. A local hire without a company goes to an employer-of-record platform. The bank is the bank.

Every company needs a different mix, and our job is to find it. Three questions give you a likely route on screen. Within one business day a person writes your plan: the structure, the steps, real numbers, and the firm that fits each part. When you say go, we introduce you, and from there the firm does the work and is your contact. The firm you go ahead with pays us a share of its fee, you pay its normal price, and your plan names the firm and what it pays us. When you do not need something, including something we would earn a fee on, the plan says so. That is the whole business.