Form a company in Singapore or internationally?

[indodave]

Does anyone know of any good accounting firms in Singapore?

My wife and I will be relocating to Singapore in September. She has accepted a job there and I will be joining her on a dependent visa. I currently own an internet marketing business incorporated in the UK. At this stage I there seem to be several options as to how to deal with my business. As far as I know I can do the following 3 options:

1) Leave the business in the UK, pay UK tax and then utilize the double tax treaty when I bring money in to Singapore. For this I think I would be required to obtain a letter of consent.
2) Form a Singapore business and apply for an EP.
3) Form a new company in a jurisdiction where they have a tax rate of 15%, get a letter of consent.

Option 1 is probably the easiest way to proceed, but then we would be paying significantly higher taxes and it wouldn’t help me prove that I emigrated and thus severed all ties with UK.

The other factors I would need advice on would be things like; does Singapore and US have a double tax treaty? As most of our business comes from US, I don’t want to be subjected to tax withholding.

I have come across guidemesingapore.com, as they are advertised here and on Google. Does anyone have any experience with them? I notice that they offer incorporation and EP application services, so I want to make sure they are not just bias towards option 2 above.

Any insight anyone could offer on this situation would be greatly appreciated, as well as suggestions on good accounting firms would be greatly appreciated!

[Mad Scientist]

Don't know them personally but they are lawyers basically. Why do you want to pay an arm and a leg when you can do it yourself online.
Even if you are on DP you can always incorporate it when you are here . Then on you can always change your DP to EP

If you want to set up a company under entrepass or EP or whatever best way is to look up at www.mom.gov.sg
SE has more info on this.
To set up a company under Private Limited you can go to www.acra.gov.sg for more info
Then you can look up for company secretary to do the MOU and the rest of the docs if you intend to go via Pte Ltd way

There is a thread under Entrepass , look it up . Go to the search button at the top right hand corner and type in Entrepass and you can get all the infos you need

http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... =entrepass

[indodave]

Thanks for the advice!

The reason I am looking for some knowledgeable accountants/lawyers is that there are a number of questions I have at this time and it would be more efficient to seek expert advice. For example, the Company has no employees, as everyone who works for our company are independent contractors. I have no idea how Singapore deals with foreign independent contractors or how this would affect an EP.

[Mad Scientist]

Thanks for the advice!

The reason I am looking for some knowledgeable accountants/lawyers is that there are a number of questions I have at this time and it would be more efficient to seek expert advice. For example, the Company has no employees, as everyone who works for our company are independent contractors. I have no idea how Singapore deals with foreign independent contractors or how this would affect an EP.

If they are independent contractors, they will need an EP pass to work here. That you cannot provide as the quota between local and FT ratios hence it will not work. The contractors has to get get their own EP. Or they can moonlight for you and working illegally until such time MOM/ICA found out which they are very efficient in these areas and you can kiss goodbye your stay here and that includes your wife EP too.
Thread carefully if you intend to circumvent the guideline. I would suggest you read up all you can at the MOM , ACRA, ICA website as all the infos are there
BTW are you from Indonesia ?

[indodave]

I am not proposing to bring in any independent contractors. All of our contracts are located in other countries (Russia, UK, US, Philippines etc), they would not be relocating to Singapore.

Can anyone offer any recommendations as to knowledgeable accountants/lawyers firms in Singapore?

[auhiem]

Hi,
If the contractors are going to perform their services in Singapore, the income earned by them will be subject to withholding tax.

Exemption from withholding tax
1) If they are residents from a treaty country, you will not be required to withhold tax (plus you must submit form IR37C)
2) If they are employees of the company working less than 60 days in Singapore (this does not apply to directors, professionals & performing artiste)

They will need a valid work pass in order to work here as mentioned.

[auhiem]

Does anyone know of any good accounting firms in Singapore?

My wife and I will be relocating to Singapore in September. She has accepted a job there and I will be joining her on a dependent visa. I currently own an internet marketing business incorporated in the UK. At this stage I there seem to be several options as to how to deal with my business. As far as I know I can do the following 3 options:

1) Leave the business in the UK, pay UK tax and then utilize the double tax treaty when I bring money in to Singapore. For this I think I would be required to obtain a letter of consent.
2) Form a Singapore business and apply for an EP.
3) Form a new company in a jurisdiction where they have a tax rate of 15%, get a letter of consent.

Option 1 is probably the easiest way to proceed, but then we would be paying significantly higher taxes and it wouldn’t help me prove that I emigrated and thus severed all ties with UK.

The other factors I would need advice on would be things like; does Singapore and US have a double tax treaty? As most of our business comes from US, I don’t want to be subjected to tax withholding.

I have come across guidemesingapore.com, as they are advertised here and on Google. Does anyone have any experience with them? I notice that they offer incorporation and EP application services, so I want to make sure they are not just bias towards option 2 above.

Any insight anyone could offer on this situation would be greatly appreciated, as well as suggestions on good accounting firms would be greatly appreciated!

Option 2
- If you are not thinking about applying for a EP, you must have one other director who is a Singaporean or Singapore PR (nominee director)

As a new start-up company in Singapore, there will be full tax exemption for the 1st $100,000 of chargeable income and a further 50% exemption on the next $200,000 for 3 consecutive year of assessments (this applies to companies who have less than 20 shareholders who are individuals).

The effective tax rate is lower than 17%.

There are other factors you will need to take into consideration under personal income tax.