I am planning to start a drop shipping online e-commerce store. I have no business experience whatsoever. I have only recently started reading up on the topic online, and I am hoping to get some insight.
I am a Singapore citizen. The proposed website will be hosted overseas. My products will be shipped directly from various suppliers in China to customers all over the world, except Singapore(reason to be explained below). For receiving payments, I intend to use a payment gateway like Stripe(has presence in Singapore) or a similar company, in which payment will be deposited into my Singapore bank account.
Therefore, kindly baring in mind that apart from me managing the website from Singapore, the website itself is hosted overseas, and none of my goods will be coming into or passing through Singapore, with regards to these questions:
Am I still required to register a business in Singapore to do this? I know no license is required to operate an online store, but I am not sure if registration of a business is required.
Secondly, this question may be somewhat related to the first, and I refer to https://www.guidemesingapore.com/busine ... -tax-guide.
Does that mean I won't be subject to any tax in Singapore, or will does that mean as I am physically working from within Singapore, and therefore will be subjected to tax? This question is related to why I may not wish to ship to Singapore in the meantime, to simply things, with no intention to evade any tax.Tax treatment of income earned overseas
Generally, overseas income received in Singapore on or after 1 Jan 2004 is not taxable. This includes overseas income paid into a Singapore bank account. You do not need to declare overseas income that is not taxable.
Thirdly, is a business/merchant account required at a Singapore bank to receive money from payment gateways like Stripe?
Thank you.