KEY STEPS TO START A BUSINESS IN SINGAPORE

KEY STEPS TO START A BUSINESS IN SINGAPORE

1. CHOOSE A BUSINESS STRUCTURE

Whether you’re running the business on your own or with partners, choose the structure that best suits you. The most common are sole proprietorship, partnership and company. Each structure has its own benefits and considerations.

Here are the five different types of business structures:

1. Sole Proprietorship

2. Partnership

3. Limited Partnership (LP)

4. Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

5. Local Company

How to choose your business structure

• Here are some questions to help you decide:

• What is the nature of my business?

• How many owners will there be?

• How much capital will I invest?

• What risks am I prepared to take?

• What is my long-term plan for the business?

• What are the pros and cons of the different structures?

• What are my business needs?

• Is the business structure easy to set up, manage and close?

1. CHOOSE A BUSINESS ADDRESS

Business Address

When registering your business with ACRA, you must provide a business address. A business address cannot be a P.O. Box address.

1. Business (Sole Proprietorship/Partnerships) and Limited Partnerships

Sole proprietorships or partnerships should list down as a business address, the place where they are carrying out their business.

1. Local Company and Limited Liability Partnerships

Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) must provide a business address (known as a registered office address) when applying to incorporate a company. A registered office address is where all communications and notices to the company/LLP are addressed to.

All companies and LLPs must ensure that their registered office is open and accessible to the public for not less than three hours during ordinary business hours on each business day. This is to enable the public, businesses, stakeholders and government agencies to visit the company/LLP’s office or communicate via correspondence with the company/LLP.

The registered office address must be an address in Singapore but need not be the place of operations of the company/LLP (e.g. the registered office address may be in Raffles Place but the factory could be located in Tuas).

Residential & Alternate Addresses

Other than your business address, all business owners and company officers must also provide their residential address at the point of registration. These addresses are made publicly available when the public purchases information about the business entity.

If you wish to protect your privacy, you may submit an Alternate Address for a fee of $40. You are still required to submit your residential address for ACRA’s records.

The Alternate Address will be shown on public records instead of your personal residential address. However, please ensure you can be contacted at your Alternate Address.

1. RESERVE YOUR BUSINESS NAME

Decide on a name for your business and use our e-Adviser for Starting a Business to:

• Check if there are similar business names, and if it’s available as a domain name or a username on Facebook/Instagram/YouTube/Twitter.

• Create a Guided Journey to get your business started, step by step, and find out if additional approvals are needed.

You can also check if there are similar trade marks on the IP2SG portal (https://ip2sg.ipos.gov.sg/RPS/WP/CM/TradeMarkSimilarSearch.aspx)

Avoid names which are:

Identical to another business’ name

Undesirable (eg: vulgar, obscene or offensive)

Prohibited (e.g: Temasek)

You may submit an appeal if your name application has been rejected and/or you have a valid reason to use the name which is identical or prohibited. You will need to upload the supporting documents to support your name appeal.

Review of applications by Referral Authorities

Certain names or business activities require approval from the relevant government agencies (Referral Authorities). For example, names containing ‘hospital’, ‘clinic’, ‘surgery’, ‘healthcare’ will require approval from the Ministry of Health. In such cases, the application may take between 14 days to 60 days.

1. REGISTER YOUR BUSINESS

How to register a business

Registering a business involves two transactions: applying for a business name followed by business registration. Once the name has been approved, you can proceed with business registration.

There are three ways to register your business:

For Sole Proprietorship/Partnership:

1. Register directly through GoBusiness (https://dashboard.gobusiness.gov.sg/login)

i. Log in using your Singpass

ii. Use Guided Journey to continue with the next step to register your Sole Proprietorship/Partnership

For all types of business structures:

Register directly through BizFile+ (https://www.bizfile.gov.sg/ngbbizfileinternet/faces/faces/oracle/webcenter/portalapp/pages/BizfileHomepage.jspx)

or

Engage a registered filing agent (e.g: law firm, accounting firm or corporate secretarial firm) to submit an online application on your behalf.

1. REGISTER A CORPPASS ADMINISTRATOR

Now that you’ve registered your business, the next thing you must have to transact with Singapore Government agencies is a Corppass Administrator (Admin) account. Corppass is a single corporate digital identity for your business, accessed via your personal Singpass. Each business entity can have up to 2 Corppass Admins.

Corppass Admins can do the following:

• Manage users’ access to digital services

• Customise digital service access of individual users within the entity

• Authorise third party service providers to transact on your behalf for selected digital services

•  

There are two ways to register for a Corppass Administrator Account:

1) Register via GoBusiness;

Log in using your Singpass

Use the e-Advisor for Starting a Business to create a Guided Journey

Apply for Corppass Administrator Account.

2) Register via Corppass portal

(https://www.corppass.gov.sg/cpauth/login/homepage?URL=%2FCorppass%2Fcommon%2Ffindoutmore&TAM_OP=login)

1. OPEN A CORPORATE BANK ACCOUNT

Opening a corporate bank account is strongly encouraged.

A corporate bank account allows you to keep your business transactions separate from your personal transactions and also helps you to track your business cash flows/income and expenses, which will come in handy when filing your income tax returns.

For details guidance and information, please visit:

https://www.gobusiness.gov.sg/start-a-business/#getting_started