Photography business

Transplants · Post by **Transplants** » Mon, 04 May 2009 6:24 am

Hello. I saw a post regarding an Australian doing freelance photography work in Singapore and was hoping someone might be able to help us with some info.

My husband is taking a job to move out to Singapore this June. I'll be joining him. We have a small photography business, on the side, here in the US (American citizens, if that matters) doing weddings and outdoor portraits as a sole porprietorship. We also team up with sports photography agencies to do races, occasionally. Will we need to get an Entre pass to do business in Singapore?

Any other additional info will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers...

Post by **Strong Eagle** » Mon, 04 May 2009 7:21 am

Are you coming in on a dependents pass? My view (and it is just a view with no legal ramifications) is that if you hold a DP then you do not need to apply for an Entrepass because you are already a legal resident of Singapore and can therefore start a business or company.

A business is a sole proprietorship or a partnership not exceeding 20 partners. You can read more about it here:

http://www.acra.gov.sg/Services/Busines ... siness.htm

Note that your 'local manager' can be a DP so you can have your own business as I see it.

In fact, you might not even need to register at all depending upon how you do things. You could qualify as an exempted business if you fall into one of these categories

1. Any business of a licensed hawker who sells or exposes for sale any drink, goods, wares or merchandise of any kind whatsoever, or who offers for hire his skill in handicraft or craftsmanship.

2. Any business of a craftsman who - (a) exercises his craft on his own domestic premises; (b) does not display the products of his craftsmanship for sale in public; and (c) does not employ any person other than members of his immediate family for the purpose of his business.

3. Any business of - (a) a taxi driver; (b) a trishaw rider; (c) a sampan man plying his sampan for hire; or (d) a farmer, a fish pond keeper or a prawn pond keeper who
(i) does not employ any person other than members of his immediate family; (ii) does not own the land on which his farm or pond stands; and (iii) does not charge members of the public any fee for admission.

So, you'd probably want to contact ACRA to see where your photo business would fit... and you would be better off having a registered business when it comes to banks and other business to business relationships.

In fact, you be even better off if you had a private limited, although this might be overkill for what you want to do. You do have protection of your personal assets with a pte ltd whereas you do not in a business.

As you can again see from the link below, a company requires only one director and that director can be a DP.

http://www.acra.gov.sg/Services/Company ... ompany.htm

Having said all that, you might consider going the Entrepass route if you wanted to insure that you could stay in Singapore even if your spouse lost his EP. Right now, you would have to leave along with him.

haggle · Post by **haggle** » Thu, 14 May 2009 5:29 am

I know of a few people who make good money selling travel photo's to the image companies.

tengku · Post by **tengku** » Thu, 11 Jun 2009 1:09 pm

haggle wrote:I know of a few people who make good money selling travel photo's to the image companies.

which image company ?

Transplants · Post by **Transplants** » Fri, 24 Jul 2009 3:13 pm

I had been waiting to see what my "status" would be...just got my passport back today and I have a FIN but I don't think that I can even work for another employer unless I'm sponsored, much less run the photography business! Could I volunteer? I'll try and call the Embassy and see what they say...

Post by **Strong Eagle** » Fri, 24 Jul 2009 4:54 pm

Transplants wrote:I had been waiting to see what my "status" would be...just got my passport back today and I have a FIN but I don't think that I can even work for another employer unless I'm sponsored, much less run the photography business! Could I volunteer? I'll try and call the Embassy and see what they say...

You still have not said what pass you have... I assume it is a DP. If it is a DP, you CAN start your own business.

Read this thread. I know of several who have successfully gone this route.

http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic60398.html

Transplants · Post by **Transplants** » Fri, 24 Jul 2009 5:14 pm

As far as I know, I only have a FIN in my passport, which allows me to stay longer then usual, but I'm not on a DP. I'll call the Embassy on Monday to verify as they are closed. Your link has a lot of helpful info...thanks!

Post by **Strong Eagle** » Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:02 pm

Transplants wrote:As far as I know, I only have a FIN in my passport, which allows me to stay longer then usual, but I'm not on a DP. I'll call the Embassy on Monday to verify as they are closed. Your link has a lot of helpful info...thanks!

If your husband is coming here for a job, he has an EP. If you are coming with him you have a DP. You don't get a FIN number unless you have one of the above.

It's not the embassy you'd want anyway, it is MOM.

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Photography business

Photography business

Thanks Strong Eagle

Re: Thanks Strong Eagle

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