After your Singapore branch has been setup, you can start your business activities immediately. However, you may need to consider the following:
- Open corporate bank accounts: You may want to choose a bank that serves your corporate banking needs eg., letter of credit, multi-currencies, physical location of the bank branches, banking hours, and check the banking services they can offer you, etc.
- Apply for business license: If your business requires one or more licenses to operate, you may need to obtain the relevant licences first before you can commence your business activities.
- Register for Goods & Services Tax (GST): Compulsory GST registration may arise under IRAS’s retrospective calendar-year or prospective next-12-month taxable-turnover tests. Both use the S$1 million threshold. Voluntary registration may also be available subject to IRAS conditions.
- Activate a Customs Account: If the entity intends to import or export goods, it must first have a UEN and activate its Customs Account with Singapore Customs before applying for import, export or transhipment permits through TradeNet. The older “Central Registration (CR) number” terminology should no longer be used.
- Apply for employment pass for your employees and register CPF account for staff payroll: If you plan to hire any foreign employee including yourself, your company will need to apply for employment pass (EP) for that person. We can assist you with EP applications. If you intend to hire local employees (Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents) you will need to open a CPF account with the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board and a percentage of the local employees' salaries will be contributed to their retirement fund. For more details, please visit www.cpf.gov.sg. We can help you register your Company CPF account and manage your staff payroll, if required.
- Decide on your company's financial year end: You need to decide on your company's financial year end which can be any date within 18 months from the date of incorporation of your company.
- Ensure that you keep track of your income and expenses (bookkeeping): Depending upon the volume of transactions, we can provide bookkeeping services either on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly accounting basis