For those of you who have Singapore Companies

[dogprince]

I'm pretty much settled on Singapore for incorporation (digital nomad, no residence in SG, sell online internationally).

My questions are for people who have a Singapore company and talk from personal experience.


1. Can all the paperwork (taxation, company registration, and re-registration, annual renewals, etc.) be done "electronically" with electronic signatures?

I'm trying to avoid physical paper, company chops, stamps, Fedex courier charges, etc. Online and digital is what I prefer.



2. If you have money in a PayPal Singapore account but don't remit it to a Singapore bank, does having the money in a PayPal SG account still count as 'remitting" money to SG? That's kind of a weird grey area.



3. Tell me why I shouldn't incorporate in SG... what problems did you have? What problems should I look out for?

 

[daniels27]

2. If you have money in a PayPal Singapore account but don't remit it to a Singapore bank, does having the money in a PayPal SG account still count as 'remitting" money to SG? That's kind of a weird grey area.

You actually may want to go for a US PayPal account if you have a lot of USD transaction as you can save on conversion fees (resp. the need of transferring through a personal account in the US).

3. Tell me why I shouldn't incorporate in SG... what problems did you have? What problems should I look out for?

Audit requirement if you have over 10M SGD turnover AND assets.

Who are you using to incorporate?

 

[Xshore]

You actually may want to go for a US PayPal account if you have a lot of USD transaction as you can save on conversion fees (resp. the need of transferring through a personal account in the US).

Where is the info about opening a US paypal account for foreign companies? When I tried to open they required a US SSN and EIN and a US resident and address on the account.

does having the money in a PayPal SG account still count as 'remitting" money to SG? That's kind of a weird grey area.

Paypal have a Singpore money transmitter license, so I'd assume that a SG Paypal account is based in SG and that receiving money to a SG paypal is viewed as received in SG.

 

[Roo]

1. Can all the paperwork (taxation, company registration, and re-registration, annual renewals, etc.) be done "electronically" with electronic signatures?

Yes everything is done online, no papers, no couriers.

2. If you have money in a PayPal Singapore account but don't remit it to a Singapore bank, does having the money in a PayPal SG account still count as 'remitting" money to SG? That's kind of a weird grey area.

No idea about this one, my corporate service provider wouldn't go down the no remittance path, they quoted various other things and reasons why I need to pay tax in SG. May be pretty hard to find someone to do that, Sovreign recommended by @daniels27 said they do it but their service are considerably more expensive (probably quality is also way better) than you highly-marketed online incorporation agents like Osome, Sleek, etc.

3. Tell me why I shouldn't incorporate in SG... what problems did you have? What problems should I look out for?

One reason may be costs, it isn't as cheap as other jurisdictions due to the need for nominee director, proper accounting and filling, etc. If you will be considered SG tax resident (some service providers will just do that regardless of having no ties to SG), you will have 4.5% tax on the first 200K SGD for the first 2 years then it goes up. So taxation depending on what you end up with in terms of service provider may be a slight drawback and incompetent accountants that change at least once a year and tell you crap like you don't have documents for transactions X,Y,Z but the receipt scans are sitting in their online system and you find them in less than 5 minutes.

 

[daniels27]

Where is the info about opening a US paypal account for foreign companies? When I tried to open they required a US SSN and EIN and a US resident and address on the account.

Yes, you need an EIN. It takes about 5 minutes on the phone to get it. SSN can be bypassed on the phone, but I would recommend getting an ITIN first.

 

[Xshore]

Yes, you need an EIN. It takes about 5 minutes on the phone to get it. SSN can be bypassed on the phone, but I would recommend getting an ITIN first.

How about a US address? Do you need to pretend that you operate and live in the US? I couldn't even get a US PayPal opened for my US llc, they said that a SSN is required (I called and talked to them), I'd think it's even harder for a foreign company. But great if it's possible.

 

[daniels27]

How about a US address? Do you need to pretend that you operate and live in the US? I couldn't even get a US PayPal opened for my US llc, they said that a SSN is required (I called and talked to them), I'd think it's even harder for a foreign company. But great if it's possible.

Yes, you need one. But normally, in the US pretty much anything is accepted as an address. Even a hotel normally works. Maybe, they changed things, but was pretty simple until quite recently.

 

[redeye]

You mean you can get your receipt from the Hotel and use this for proof of address to form a company ?

 

[daniels27]

I think the company formation does not require a proof of address. Also, receipts are not accepted as proof of address. Depending on the jurisdiction, you may be able to send a letter to you and then use the postmarked envelope as proof of address. For PayPal etc. we normally use bank account statements.

 

[Xshore]

PayPal etc. we normally use bank account statements.

How do you get the US address on the foreign company 's bank statement?

 

[daniels27]

How do you get the US address on the foreign company 's bank statement?

Either paint or you change the address with the bank (better to check first if they still like you). I personally would recommend using US banks for US addresses. I rarely use foreign addresses for banking.