If you choose the latter, you will need to provide the transaction number of your approved company name application to proceed with the “Incorporation of Local Company” transaction. This is because landlords may require companies to provide their company registration number on the application form, which cannot be provided prior to incorporation. In addition, ACRA Singapore is vested with the power to impose composition fines and issue court summonses to companies that have defaulted on the ongoing compliance requirements as set out under the Companies’ Act. Generally, ACRA is the statutory board that oversees the regulation of companies and public accountants in Singapore and facilitates the development of companies. The CorpPass is required for making transactions in BizFile+ for your entity. Just like SingPass, CorpPass is only granted to Singapore residents, some work pass holders, and permanent residence holders.
- Mr Lim also asked if clear guidelines will be issued for CSPs to assess who is considered a “fit and proper” person to be a nominee director.
- In addition, ACRA Singapore is vested with the power to impose composition fines and issue court summonses to companies that have defaulted on the ongoing compliance requirements as set out under the Companies’ Act.
- It contains essential information such as the entity’s registered name, Unique Entity Number (UEN), registered address, business activities, and information about its directors and shareholders.
How do I check if a company name is available in ACRA?
Nominee director refers to someone who is appointed as a director of a company, but acts according to another person’s instructions. A professional corporate services provider should be able to advise you on the additional business licenses that should be applied for. BizFile has combined several online variance analysis formula with example processes such as registration, discontinuation of the company, document administration, financial concerns, and reporting system. With BizFile’s paperless approach, companies can save a lot of time that was earlier required in official transactions. It also has made transactions easy and faster as compared to paper-based methods. Before the launch of ACRA BizFile, these processes would take days to complete.
He asked if CSPs will be given training and resources to assess if nominee directors are “fit and proper”, so that their assessments are aligned with legislation and the latest anti-money laundering developments. Mr Chua also noted that among the thousands of CSPs in Singapore, many could be very small entities dominated by one or two customer groups. He asked if their independence of judgement might be “clouded” by commercial considerations and whether CSPs will be required to declare their customer concentration risk. The online information portal set up by the accounting and corporate regulatory agency provides an accurate record of all registered businesses in Singapore. A Singapore company may choose a corporate secretarial provider to maintain its statutory records and ensure compliance with filing required information with ACRA. Residents of Singapore can easily access Bizfile+ through their Singpass or Corppass.
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In addition, ACRA oversees and reviews applications for name reservations and incorporation, which are submitted via Bizfile. However, a certain level of familiarity and understanding of how to make the said submissions is important before doing so. Here is a list of essential activities you or your company secretary can perform using the BizFile platform. It also makes it an offence for persons to provide false or misleading information about their registers to ACRA, and requires companies and LLPs to verify and update their controllers’ information annually.
On top of it, the online portal is a secure and flexible system, which can handle any simple to complex tasks. They will have to choose their business structure and take the necessary steps to register their business with ACRA. If you want to have a UEN that is easy to remember and identify with, you can choose a preferred UEN from a horizontal analysis formula list of reserved UENs for $1,000 (Tier 2) or $3,000 (Tier 1). If a company enters the wrong SSIC code for its name reservation, this could potentially impact the approval of the name reservation application. ✅ Exceptional Customer Service – We go the extra mile to ensure your satisfaction, making us a trusted partner for businesses. ✅ Expertise – Our skilled team boasts years of experience in the field, ensuring your business is in the safest hands.
Key Features of BizFile+
With Piloto Asia, you’re not just hiring a company secretary, you’re gaining a reliable partner committed to your extension of time to file your tax return business’s success. “This reallocation of resources in terms of time and people and system upgrades to meet new standards can cause temporary interruptions in service delivery,” he said. Explore our incorporation services or contact our team to get personalised advice today.
It could also raise the cost of doing business for companies that need to source for more people to fulfil the requirement. Ms Indranee said the government has consulted stakeholders extensively, and that the requirements have been carefully calibrated. This way, appropriate measures can be taken when obligations are breached, but Singapore remains open and friendly to legitimate businesses. Likewise, many locals still choose to engage with these providers for registering their companies, even though it is not mandatory to do so. It generally takes only 5-15 minutes for Bizfile+ to process the transaction. However, the information might take even longer to process (even up to 2 months) in the event the process requires approval or review from an ACRA officer or any other agencies.
Companies will also have to provide full information of nominee arrangements to ACRA for transparency. The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill was debated together with the Corporate Service Providers Bill, as both are meant to enhance Singapore’s anti-money laundering regime. Mr Lim Biow Chuan (PAP-Mountbatten), for one, said that imposing too many requirements and high penalties seems to be an “excessive reaction” to the current measures against money launderers. Between 2021 and June this year, ACRA imposed 41 sanctions, with the registration of firms and individuals cancelled or suspended in 31 cases.
Sign in to see who you already know at ACRA – Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority
The Singapore Companies Act requires your company to file annual returns with ACRA. The documents required for filing the Annual returns are the company’s financial statements and the latest information about the company, such as the details of company directors and shareholders. In 2016, to incorporate the growing number of transactions and improve the processing time, BizFile was redesigned to create an upgraded platform, BizFile+. Today, thanks to BizFile+, businesses can access around 400 services electronically. In this article, we share with you common features of the portal used by all entities and businesses in Singapore.
Hence, it would be prudent for companies to consult a professional corporate services provider to seek advice and assistance for any applications and submissions. The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) is the regulator of business registration, financial reporting, public accountants and corporate service providers. ACRA’s role is to monitor corporate compliance with disclosure requirements and regulation of public accountants performing statutory audit. By doing so, foreign entrepreneurs and foreign corporations can leverage the experience of a professional nominee director. They can be assured that the director can be relied on to be present and available to fulfil the annual compliance requirements. All companies are required, at the point of incorporation, to have a registered office in Singapore.
