You’ve registered your Singapore company. ACRA has issued your Certificate of Incorporation and your Unique Entity Number (UEN) is confirmed. Now what?

Registration is the easy part. What follows is a set of practical, time-sensitive tasks that determine whether your company is actually ready to operate. Some have hard deadlines. A few carry penalties if missed. This checklist covers everything you need to do in the first 90 days.

What you should already have on day one

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If any of these are outstanding, address them before anything else.

1. Open a corporate bank account

This is the most urgent step and, for foreign-owned companies, often the most time-consuming.

You cannot receive payments, pay vendors, or manage company expenses without a corporate bank account. Traditional Singapore banks (DBS, OCBC, UOB) have thorough onboarding requirements: in-person meetings, extensive documentation, and processing that typically takes several weeks. Foreign directors not physically present in Singapore add further complexity.

Alternatives exist. Licensed payment institutions like Wallex have shorter onboarding processes and are increasingly accepted by clients and suppliers across the region. Many foreign-owned companies run both: a traditional bank account for compliance purposes and a payments platform for day-to-day cross-border transactions.

Documents typically required:

• Certificate of Incorporation
• Company constitution
• Register of directors and shareholders
• Passport copies and proof of address for all directors and beneficial owners
• Description of business activities and expected transaction flows

2. Register your beneficial ownership (RORC)

Easy to overlook and carries real penalties if missed.

Every Singapore company must maintain a Register of Registrable Controllers (RORC) and file it with ACRA. As a foreign UBO, you are required to register yourself. A registrable controller is any individual holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights, or exercising significant control over the company.

Set up the RORC within 30 days of incorporation. Keep it current whenever ownership or control changes. Failure to maintain it accurately is a criminal offence under the Companies Act, with fines of up to SGD 5,000 for individuals.

Your corporate service provider will usually handle RORC setup as part of the incorporation package. If they have not confirmed this, ask explicitly.

3. Appoint a company secretary

If your corporate service provider did not include this in the incorporation package, this is your first hard legal deadline. Every Singapore company must appoint a qualified company secretary within six months. They must be a Singapore resident and cannot be the sole director.

The company secretary maintains statutory records, files annual returns with ACRA, and keeps the company compliant with the Companies Act. Most foreign business owners engage their corporate service provider for this on an annual retainer.

4. Sort out your tax registrations

Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI)

File ECI with IRAS within three months of your financial year end. Confirm your financial year end early: it sets every downstream tax deadline.

Startup Tax Exemption Scheme (SUTE)

New Singapore companies may qualify for substantial tax relief in the first three years: 75% of the first SGD 100,000 of chargeable income exempt, and 50% of the next SGD 100,000 exempt. Confirm eligibility with your corporate service provider or tax adviser.

GST registration

Compulsory once annual taxable turnover exceeds SGD 1 million. If you expect to cross that threshold, register early.

5. Set up accounting records

Singapore law requires proper accounting records from the date of incorporation, not your first transaction. Keep them for at least five years. At a minimum, track income and expenses, bank statements, invoices, and payroll records.

6. Know your annual filing obligations

Annual return (ACRA)

File every year within seven months of your financial year end. Covers directors, shareholders, and financial information. Your company secretary handles this.

Corporate tax return (Form C or Form C-S)

File with IRAS annually by 30 November. Companies with revenue below SGD 5 million may use the simplified Form C-S.

7. Hire locally? Set up CPF

Hire Singapore citizens or Permanent Residents and CPF contributions are a legal obligation from the first payroll. Employer contribution rate: around 17% of monthly wages for employees aged 55 and below. Submit both employer and employee contributions to the CPF Board by the 14th of the following month. Late submissions carry interest charges.

CPF does not apply to foreign employees on Employment Passes or S Passes, though the Skills Development Levy (SDL) applies to all employees regardless of nationality.

8. Get your payments and FX setup right

Paying suppliers in Indonesia, collecting from customers in Malaysia, converting USD receipts, managing cash across currencies: these hit from the first month. Routing everything through a traditional bank works but is slow and expensive for ASEAN corridors.

Wallex handles exactly this stage: payments in 47 currencies, local rails into IDR, MYR, VND, and other key ASEAN markets, rates close to mid-market, and no hidden fees.

90-day checklist

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