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Company in Singapore - crap or not?

O

Overtrade

New member
Sep 12, 2023
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Europe
#1
Currently operate companies in Estonia, Poland, and Hong Kong. I used to in Georgia (crap) also in the past.

It’s likely that the Polish company, and possibly the Estonian one, will be dissolved soon.

I am thinking about establishing a company in Singapore.

Is there a need for a physical presence, office, or director for Singaporean companies?

What are some good alternatives for registration, virtual office, and accounting services besides Osome.com?

My business is in education, IT, and consulting, with a mid-six-figure turnover per year.
 
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#4
Best decision I ever made is moving my IT business to Singapore from the EU. It's been around a year and no issues so far. Banking - we have OCBC and for smaller transfers we use Wallex. Not a single document was requested by their AML department.
And yes you need a local director + the address is usually provided by local accounting companies, they can also find you a local director.
 
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#5
hlepic211 said:
Best decision I ever made is moving my IT business to Singapore from the EU. It's been around a year and no issues so far. Banking - we have OCBC and for smaller transfers we use Wallex. Not a single document was requested by their AML department.
And yes you need a local director + the address is usually provided by local accounting companies, they can also find you a local director.
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Are you having with OCBC in Singapore? Where is your company tax resident?
 
#8
Overtrade said:
Afraid of loosing stripe which is very important for the business. That's why I tend to use 2 companies and have 2 backup companies with open stripe.
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Additionally, there could be other issues. I might be paranoid, but has anyone ever been harmed by having backup companies prepared in advance?

By the way, how much does it reasonably cost per year to maintain an inactive or minimally active Singaporean private limited company (LTD)?
 
#9
I have a friend who used Singapore for his startup. He has never visited Singapore, got some kind of virtual office and local director and a bank account in US Mercury. That was a year or two ago. I don't know the details, but he was happy generally.

What was your experience with Georgia? Problems with banks?
 
#10
Meta said:
I have a friend who used Singapore for his startup. He has never visited Singapore, got some kind of virtual office and local director and a bank account in US Mercury. That was a year or two ago. I don't know the details, but he was happy generally.

What was your experience with Georgia? Problems with banks?
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With accountants.

Old-Russian-minded: must be on papper and phisically singned invoice and other stuff like that.
 
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#12
Overtrade said:
Currently operate companies in Estonia, Poland, and Hong Kong. I used to in Georgia (crap) also in the past.

It’s likely that the Polish company, and possibly the Estonian one, will be dissolved soon.

I am thinking about establishing a company in Singapore.

Is there a need for a physical presence, office, or director for Singaporean companies?

What are some good alternatives for registration, virtual office, and accounting services besides Osome.com?

My business is in education, IT, and consulting, with a mid-six-figure turnover per year.
Click to expand...
I don't think a company in Singapore is crap, the question is what is your preferences and your budget? have you decided already what to do?
 
#15
daniels27 said:
@hlepic211 are you banking in Singapore with your Singaporean company? As far as I know any income remitted to Singapore is talent l taxable. Any idea on this?
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Yes, OCBC and Wallex.
Regarding taxes - I'm not sure, have to check with the accountant. Even if yes we don't show a lot of income there and keep this as an operational company (salaries, invoice payments, etc.). So let's say the turnover is 500k per year we show 50k income and only that gets taxed which I'm totally fine with for what I get.

Main benefit is that you do your KYC/AML, which was very straightforward in our case, and no document was asked after. International transfers are also fast and didn't have a single problem (100-150k transfers). It's been around a year and I'm very happy with the setup. We had a local employee who just took the director's role on paper. The costs and headaches are way less if for example you bank in Liechtenstein with a CH or LI company.

You can get more banking options but have to visit the country in person it'll be much easier.
 
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#16
hlepic211 said:
Yes, OCBC and Wallex.
Regarding taxes - I'm not sure, have to check with the accountant. Even if yes we don't show a lot of income there and keep this as an operational company (salaries, invoice payments, etc.). So let's say the turnover is 500k per year we show 50k income and only that gets taxed which I'm totally fine with for what I get.

Main benefit is that you do your KYC/AML, which was very straightforward in our case, and no document was asked after. International transfers are also fast and didn't have a single problem (100-150k transfers). It's been around a year and I'm very happy with the setup. We had a local employee who just took the director's role on paper. The costs and headaches are way less if for example you bank in Liechtenstein with a CH or LI company.

You can get more banking options but have to visit the country in person it'll be much easier.
Click to expand...
The salaries are taxable in Singapore right?
 
#20
So it only invoices other companies owned by you, that's why there aren't a lot of profits...?
If it's an operative business that simply doesn't have a lot of profit, then of course there isn't a lot of tax to pay, but that's how it would be in any country?
 
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