What does it cost to incorporate and run a company in Singapore?
The government's own fees are small: the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) charges S$15 to apply for a name, S$300 to register the company and S$60 to file each annual return. Most of what a founder pays goes to the corporate service provider, for the incorporation, the company secretary, a registered address, a nominee director where one is needed, and the accounts. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) then taxes the company's chargeable income at a flat 17 per cent, with a qualifying new start-up exempt on part of its first S$200,000 for its first three years of assessment.
ACRA's fees
ACRA's fees page lists what the register charges a company. To set up: S$15 to apply for a business entity name and S$300 to register the entity, S$315 in all. Each year: S$60 to file the annual return. If the company cannot meet a deadline, S$200 to apply for an extension of time to file its accounts or hold its annual general meeting, and S$200 to apply for an exemption from the financial statement requirements. ACRA's page on late annual returns adds the penalty for missing the deadline: S$300 if the return is filed up to three months late and S$600 after that, applied automatically on BizFile, with composition sums and court prosecution for worse cases.
What the firms charge
What a corporate service provider charges is its own price, and it varies with what is in the package. The ranked list of company setup and accounting firms on this site states each firm's published prices, and its first answer sums them up: on that page the published incorporation prices run from S$128, a limited-time offer for up to three Singapore citizens or permanent residents, to S$2,200 for a package with a company secretary and a nominee director; some prices include ACRA's S$315 and some do not; one firm prices a nominee director on its own, from S$2,800 a year with a refundable deposit; published bookkeeping starts from S$68 a month for a small number of transactions; and two of the eight publish no prices and quote on request.
A founder abroad usually pays for more than a founder in Singapore: the local resident director and the registered address are services ACRA's page on corporate service providers names as needing its registration, remote signing is the firm's own offer, and each is priced by the firm. The list's entries say which of these each firm offers and whether its prices are published or quoted.
What IRAS taxes a company at
IRAS's page on the corporate income tax rate says a company is taxed at a flat rate of 17 per cent of its chargeable income, whether local or foreign. A qualifying new start-up company is exempt, for its first three consecutive years of assessment, on 75 per cent of its first S$100,000 of normal chargeable income and on 50 per cent of the next S$100,000; IRAS's conditions are that the company is incorporated in Singapore, is a tax resident for that year, and has no more than 20 shareholders, all individuals or at least one individual holding at least 10 per cent of the ordinary shares, and it excludes investment holding companies and property developers. From the fourth year every company gets the partial exemption instead: 75 per cent of the first S$10,000 and 50 per cent of the next S$190,000.
For the year of assessment 2026 IRAS's page also describes a corporate income tax rebate announced in Budget 2026 and since enhanced: 50 per cent of the tax payable, capped so that the rebate and a cash grant of S$2,000 for active companies with at least one local employee in 2025 together come to at most S$40,000, computed by IRAS without the company claiming it. Such rebates are set budget by budget; IRAS's page gives the current one.
IRAS's page on registering for goods and services tax says a company must register when its taxable turnover is more than S$1 million at the end of a calendar year, or is expected to be more than S$1 million in the next twelve months; below that, registration is voluntary. A company that is registered charges the tax on what it sells and files returns for it.
The running costs that depend on size
Two yearly costs fall away for a small company. ACRA's page on audit exemption says a private company that meets at least two of three tests for the past two financial years, revenue of S$10 million or less, total assets of S$10 million or less, and 50 or fewer full-time employees, need not appoint an auditor; a new company qualifies on the current year's figures. And ACRA's page on filing financial statements says a solvent exempt private company, one with fewer than 20 members and no corporate shareholder that can meet its debts as they fall due, need not file its financial statements with its annual return, though it must still prepare them. What remains every year is the bookkeeping, the accounts, the tax computation and the filings, which is the work the accounting firms on the list price.