What must a Singapore company file every year?
Every year a Singapore company answers to two bodies. To the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) it holds an annual general meeting within six months of its financial year end, unless exempt, and files an annual return within seven months, with its financial statements unless exempt. To the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) it files an estimate of its chargeable income within three months of the year end, unless waived, and its corporate income tax return by 30 November. ACRA's dates and the estimate run from the financial year end the company chose at registration; the return's date is fixed by IRAS for each year of assessment.
The annual general meeting
ACRA's page on annual general meetings says a company that is not listed must hold one within six months after its financial year end, to present its financial statements to its shareholders. A private company can skip the meeting in two ways ACRA sets out: it is exempt if it sends its financial statements to every member within five months of the year end, or if it is dormant, not listed and holds total assets of S$500,000 or less; or its members can pass a resolution to dispense with the meeting and deal with its business by written resolution instead. A member can still demand a meeting up to 14 days before the six-month deadline. Whichever applies, the company declares it when it files the annual return.
The annual return and the financial statements
ACRA's page on annual returns says every company registered in Singapore must file one each year while it is live, even if it is dormant or has a tax waiver from IRAS: an online form with the company's details, its officers and members, its shares and, where required, its financial statements. A company that is not listed files within seven months after its financial year end (eight months if it has a share capital and keeps an overseas branch register), and the fee is S$60. ACRA's page on penalties gives S$300 for a return filed up to three months late and S$600 after that, with a composition sum or prosecution, a fine of up to S$10,000 a charge, for a company and its directors that do not file.
ACRA's page on filing financial statements says they are filed with the annual return, in XBRL, a structured digital format, unless the company is exempt: a dormant company whose total assets never exceeded S$500,000 in the year need not prepare or file them, and a solvent exempt private company, one with fewer than 20 members and no corporation holding its shares that can meet its debts as they fall due, need not file them, though it must prepare them and declare its solvency online. ACRA's page sets a simplified template for smaller companies that are not publicly accountable and a full template for most other companies, with other formats for banks, insurers and some further categories. ACRA notes that any financial statements filed are available for public purchase.
Who needs an audit
ACRA's page on company officers says an auditor must be appointed within three months of incorporation unless the company is exempt, and its page on audit exemption says who is: a private company that meets at least two of three tests for the past two financial years, total revenue of S$10 million or less, total assets of S$10 million or less, and 50 or fewer full-time employees at the year end; a company less than two years old qualifies on the current year's figures, and a company in a group must meet the tests on the group's consolidated figures too. A company outside the exemption has its financial statements audited before they go to the members and to ACRA.
The tax filings with IRAS
IRAS's page on estimated chargeable income says a company must file its estimate within three months from the end of its financial year, unless it qualifies for the waiver: annual revenue of S$5 million or below for the year and an estimated chargeable income of nil, which the company assesses for itself without telling IRAS. If a company that must file does not, IRAS may issue a notice of assessment on its own estimate of the income.
IRAS's page on the corporate income tax return says every company must report its actual income each year, even one that made no income or a loss, on one of three forms: Form C-S for a Singapore-incorporated company with revenue of S$5 million or below that is taxed only at the standard rate and claims none of the listed reliefs, Form C-S (Lite) for one that meets the Form C-S conditions and has revenue of S$200,000 or below, and Form C for the rest; the first two are filed without the financial statements and tax computation, which the company keeps ready for IRAS. IRAS's filing-season page gives the deadline for the year of assessment 2026 as 30 November 2026. A company registered for goods and services tax files its returns for that tax as well, on the dates IRAS sets for it.
What an accounting firm does in the cycle
The company secretary keeps the registers, calls the meeting and files the annual return; ACRA's page on officers lists reminding directors of the filing deadlines among the secretary's duties. The accountant keeps the books, prepares the financial statements, the estimated chargeable income and the tax computation, and files the return; ACRA's page on corporate service providers counts carrying out certain designated transactions for a client while providing accounting services, such as managing the client's money, assets or accounts or buying and selling real estate or business entities, among the services that need its registration. The ranked list of company setup and accounting firms says, for each firm, which of these it takes on, the qualifications it states for the people who lead the work, and how it charges.