It's fairly easy actually. When we opened our company in Singapore, we had a reliable corporate secretary help us out (he now works with us).
Singapore is also fairly business-friendly to foreigners (they love people opening companies there!).
Here are some of the things you'll need to provide to open a company in Singapore:
- Suggested name of companies XXXXX Pte. Ltd. (Usually you'll recommend 3).
- Passports / IDs copies of all directors and shareholders that will be in the company. You will need ONE local director (Singaporean national or PR). If you do not have a Singaporean partner, there are services that allow you to appoint a nominee director.
- Other details like your business address, share capital structure, details of business activities, etc. (these details are typically collected by the cosec firm).
- Make payments to corporate secretary to set up the company. This is required and the price for incorporation + 1 year of secretary retainer fees is usually between $1.5k - $2.5k SGD.
Setting up the company can usually be done in less than a week, typically 2 - 3 working days.
Once your company is set up, you can go ahead with opening a bank account. For this, your cosec will help you out.
Some banks in SG require all directors to be physically present to open the account. Some people opt for digital banks like Aspire as their bank account to receive payments.
As for maintenance, you will need to perform your annual accounting + filing, which your cosec will typically assist you with. Costs for those range depending on the number of transactions (and revenue) of your business, but they shouldn't be too high (around $1.5 - $2.5k SGD too).
