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Subsidiary in Singapore and Visa Type

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mistermat
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Subsidiary in Singapore and Visa Type

Post by mistermat » Thu, 22 Apr 2021 7:13 am

Dear Colleagues
I will set up a subsidiary of my Swiss Company in SG.
The company will provide consulting services in IT, specifically for Pharmaceutical -and Medical Device Companies.

I understand that it will be a PTE Ltd. and can be created by a lawyer or certified accountant. In the beginning I will travel between Switzerland and SG, before I will relocate to SG fully. I also understand, that to setup the company, I need a director. I would like this to be me. I am planning to have a permanent address in SG. If I am not mistaken, there are two types of Visa (which seem right for me) to make this possible:

1. Employment Pass
2. Entrepreneur Pass

Now, especially in the beginning, my full salary will be paid by my Swiss Company. I am not sure if this will exclude the possibility to apply for the Employment Pass, as there is a minimum salary requirement specified and I guess it needs to be paid through the SG company. Is that correct?

Further, based on the company details from above, do you think it is feasible to get the the Entrepreneur Pass in case the EP is not an option?

Is there anything I missed, described wrongly or is there another option to be able to register myself as director?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Best regards
Mat
by Myasis Dragon » Thu, 10 Jun 2021 11:12 pm
mistermat wrote:
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 7:13 am
Dear Colleagues
I will set up a subsidiary of my Swiss Company in SG.
The company will provide consulting services in IT, specifically for Pharmaceutical -and Medical Device Companies.

I understand that it will be a PTE Ltd. and can be created by a lawyer or certified accountant. In the beginning I will travel between Switzerland and SG, before I will relocate to SG fully. I also understand, that to setup the company, I need a director. I would like this to be me. I am planning to have a permanent address in SG. If I am not mistaken, there are two types of Visa (which seem right for me) to make this possible:

1. Employment Pass
2. Entrepreneur Pass

Now, especially in the beginning, my full salary will be paid by my Swiss Company. I am not sure if this will exclude the possibility to apply for the Employment Pass, as there is a minimum salary requirement specified and I guess it needs to be paid through the SG company. Is that correct?

Further, based on the company details from above, do you think it is feasible to get the the Entrepreneur Pass in case the EP is not an option?

Is there anything I missed, described wrongly or is there another option to be able to register myself as director?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Best regards
Mat
The EntrePass is designed for individuals who want to create a startup company in Singapore. INHO, the requirements are rather onerous, but exist because of previous abuses in the EntrePass program.

https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permi ... ligibility

In any event, you're not doing a startup, you're wanting to open a subsidiary of your existing Swiss company, so your basic process is to form a Singapore Pte Ltd, wholly owned by your Swiss company as the single shareholder, then apply for an employment pass (EP) for you, so that you can live and work in Singapore.

Like the EntrePass, hundreds, if not thousands of enterprising individuals have tried to scam their way into the country by setting up a company then having that company apply for an employment pass for them. Once in the country, the company fails but the scammer manages to hook onto another job.

Therefore, as PNGMK mentioned, a business plan and pro forma financial statements are essential to prove up the viability of your proposed subsidiary. The single biggest failure of the hack corporate formation agencies in Singapore (more on that in a moment) is their failure to provide revenue sources for the supposed salary that the EP person is supposed to receive. They make it worse by assuming that big salaries will guarantee the issuance of an EP.

Requests such as yours will probably be vetted by Enterprise Singapore, formally SPRING. https://www.enterprisesg.gov.sg/about-us/overview These are some of the best and brightest government employees and they will be looking at your business plan and pro forma's for "reasonableness" in markets, in sales, and in financials. Your experience and business skill sets will also weigh heavily in the determination.

That your Swiss company is going to pay your salary is good... it's the necessary capitalization to pay for the EP salary. You'll also want to account for all startup expenses you will incur, plus operating expenses to break even. Since your Swiss company is funding a subsidiary, you'll want to give some thought as to how your want to setup the financials for the Singapore company.

For example, your Swiss company can wire real dollars to your Singapore company bank account while your Singapore company records a "loans payable" item for the cash, then pays all expenses locally out of the local account. Or, your Swiss company can pay you directly, while your Singapore company records an internal liability and payroll expense. My view is that having cash in a Singapore bank is a good thing, but, you really should talk to a qualified CPA to determine how to best setup the accounting for your subsidiary.

And that brings us to the mechanics of the situation: How do you get the whole thing kick started and off the ground? There are essentially two ways of doing this.
  1. You engage a firm to form the company, and they provide you with a rented director who then files a request for your employment pass for the company.
  2. You engage a firm to handle the formation of the company and the application for an employment pass so that you are ready to hit the ground running with company and legal residence in hand.

Of the two, the second option is preferable but you'll also need a well versed CPA or firm to do this.
Be aware that as a single director, you are required to have an independent secretary, which you are going to want anyway to ensure compliance with Companies Act and ACRA, and IRAS regulations.

About those corporate formation firms: if you type "Singapore corporate formation" into a search engine, you'll get dozens of hits. I cannot recommend any one of them but I do know that an amazingly large number of them are complete bozos. You'll need to do your homework.

Lots of these firms provide you with an (expensive) rented director to get a company started. These firms generally cater to individuals wanting to start a company, and they need to throw the dice to see if they will get their employment pass. They are also the ones that fail to match revenues to expenses, resulting in denials of applications.

Thus, you'll need to vet these agencies. What is their process? What documents do they require? What are their recommendations for banking? For financial statements? For business plans? Do this a few times and you'll get a decent idea of the divisions between the bozos and the professionals.

I'll close by saying that Singapore is always interested in viable businesses and solid business experience.
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PNGMK
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Re: Subsidiary in Singapore and Visa Type

Post by PNGMK » Thu, 10 Jun 2021 4:05 pm

mistermat wrote:
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 7:13 am
Dear Colleagues
I will set up a subsidiary of my Swiss Company in SG.
The company will provide consulting services in IT, specifically for Pharmaceutical -and Medical Device Companies.

I understand that it will be a PTE Ltd. and can be created by a lawyer or certified accountant. In the beginning I will travel between Switzerland and SG, before I will relocate to SG fully. I also understand, that to setup the company, I need a director. I would like this to be me. I am planning to have a permanent address in SG. If I am not mistaken, there are two types of Visa (which seem right for me) to make this possible:

1. Employment Pass
2. Entrepreneur Pass

Now, especially in the beginning, my full salary will be paid by my Swiss Company. I am not sure if this will exclude the possibility to apply for the Employment Pass, as there is a minimum salary requirement specified and I guess it needs to be paid through the SG company. Is that correct?

Further, based on the company details from above, do you think it is feasible to get the the Entrepreneur Pass in case the EP is not an option?

Is there anything I missed, described wrongly or is there another option to be able to register myself as director?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Best regards
Mat
Read Strong Eagles and Myasis Dragon's posts on this - he covers it well. In short just registering a company will not get you an EP, otherwise everyone would do it. You need to set up a real company, have a business plan and it be for an actual purpose and not just as a tax shelter or whatever...
I not lawyer/teacher/CPA.
You've been arrested? Law Society of Singapore can provide referrals.
You want an International School job? School website or http://www.ISS.edu
Your rugrat needs a School? Avoid for profit schools
You need Tax advice? Ask a CPA
You ran away without doing NS? Shame on you!

Myasis Dragon
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Re: Subsidiary in Singapore and Visa Type

Post by Myasis Dragon » Thu, 10 Jun 2021 11:12 pm

mistermat wrote:
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 7:13 am
Dear Colleagues
I will set up a subsidiary of my Swiss Company in SG.
The company will provide consulting services in IT, specifically for Pharmaceutical -and Medical Device Companies.

I understand that it will be a PTE Ltd. and can be created by a lawyer or certified accountant. In the beginning I will travel between Switzerland and SG, before I will relocate to SG fully. I also understand, that to setup the company, I need a director. I would like this to be me. I am planning to have a permanent address in SG. If I am not mistaken, there are two types of Visa (which seem right for me) to make this possible:

1. Employment Pass
2. Entrepreneur Pass

Now, especially in the beginning, my full salary will be paid by my Swiss Company. I am not sure if this will exclude the possibility to apply for the Employment Pass, as there is a minimum salary requirement specified and I guess it needs to be paid through the SG company. Is that correct?

Further, based on the company details from above, do you think it is feasible to get the the Entrepreneur Pass in case the EP is not an option?

Is there anything I missed, described wrongly or is there another option to be able to register myself as director?

Thanks in advance for your response.

Best regards
Mat
The EntrePass is designed for individuals who want to create a startup company in Singapore. INHO, the requirements are rather onerous, but exist because of previous abuses in the EntrePass program.

https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permi ... ligibility

In any event, you're not doing a startup, you're wanting to open a subsidiary of your existing Swiss company, so your basic process is to form a Singapore Pte Ltd, wholly owned by your Swiss company as the single shareholder, then apply for an employment pass (EP) for you, so that you can live and work in Singapore.

Like the EntrePass, hundreds, if not thousands of enterprising individuals have tried to scam their way into the country by setting up a company then having that company apply for an employment pass for them. Once in the country, the company fails but the scammer manages to hook onto another job.

Therefore, as PNGMK mentioned, a business plan and pro forma financial statements are essential to prove up the viability of your proposed subsidiary. The single biggest failure of the hack corporate formation agencies in Singapore (more on that in a moment) is their failure to provide revenue sources for the supposed salary that the EP person is supposed to receive. They make it worse by assuming that big salaries will guarantee the issuance of an EP.

Requests such as yours will probably be vetted by Enterprise Singapore, formally SPRING. https://www.enterprisesg.gov.sg/about-us/overview These are some of the best and brightest government employees and they will be looking at your business plan and pro forma's for "reasonableness" in markets, in sales, and in financials. Your experience and business skill sets will also weigh heavily in the determination.

That your Swiss company is going to pay your salary is good... it's the necessary capitalization to pay for the EP salary. You'll also want to account for all startup expenses you will incur, plus operating expenses to break even. Since your Swiss company is funding a subsidiary, you'll want to give some thought as to how your want to setup the financials for the Singapore company.

For example, your Swiss company can wire real dollars to your Singapore company bank account while your Singapore company records a "loans payable" item for the cash, then pays all expenses locally out of the local account. Or, your Swiss company can pay you directly, while your Singapore company records an internal liability and payroll expense. My view is that having cash in a Singapore bank is a good thing, but, you really should talk to a qualified CPA to determine how to best setup the accounting for your subsidiary.

And that brings us to the mechanics of the situation: How do you get the whole thing kick started and off the ground? There are essentially two ways of doing this.
  1. You engage a firm to form the company, and they provide you with a rented director who then files a request for your employment pass for the company.
  2. You engage a firm to handle the formation of the company and the application for an employment pass so that you are ready to hit the ground running with company and legal residence in hand.

Of the two, the second option is preferable but you'll also need a well versed CPA or firm to do this.
Be aware that as a single director, you are required to have an independent secretary, which you are going to want anyway to ensure compliance with Companies Act and ACRA, and IRAS regulations.

About those corporate formation firms: if you type "Singapore corporate formation" into a search engine, you'll get dozens of hits. I cannot recommend any one of them but I do know that an amazingly large number of them are complete bozos. You'll need to do your homework.

Lots of these firms provide you with an (expensive) rented director to get a company started. These firms generally cater to individuals wanting to start a company, and they need to throw the dice to see if they will get their employment pass. They are also the ones that fail to match revenues to expenses, resulting in denials of applications.

Thus, you'll need to vet these agencies. What is their process? What documents do they require? What are their recommendations for banking? For financial statements? For business plans? Do this a few times and you'll get a decent idea of the divisions between the bozos and the professionals.

I'll close by saying that Singapore is always interested in viable businesses and solid business experience.

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