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Over the past 10 years Singapore has made it easier for residents and non-residents alike easier to start a business. A business can be incorporated within a matter of days, and a bank account (SGD), can be obtained within 3 weeks or less depending on the nature of the business.

Kimbocorp has successfully helped out clients start their business and their bank account within 2 days of incorporating. While we do not promise that all the time, we can at least guarantee we will do our utmost to ensure your business registration and corporate account opening is completed, regardless of the complexity of your business.

Singapore's headline corporate tax rate is a flat 17% at present. In order to make Singapore an attractive investment destination, corporate tax rates in Singapore have been going down consistently. Effective YA 2019 corporate income tax rate are reduced from 18% in 2011 to 12% to help maintain Singapore’s competitiveness.

Headline corporate tax rate in Singapore, as opposed to many other jurisdictions, does not necessarily provide an accurate indication of effective corporate tax rate. The effective rate is normally lower than the headline tax rate due to applicable tax exemptions and tax incentives, depreciation rules, etc. Once these tax exemptions are applied to the taxable income, the effective tax rates for small-to-mid sized Singapore-incorporated companies is reduced significantly when compared to the corporate tax rate payable in countries like Hong Kong. Effective corporate tax rate for Singapore private limited companies for profits up to S$300,000 is capped at 3.4%. In addition, newly-setup Singapore incorporated start-ups enjoy full tax exemption on the first S$100,000 in profits earned for 3 consecutive years and 50% off the next S$200,000. Most companies in Singapore except property and investment holding companies will qualify for the below rates.

One of Singapore’s unique advantages is our low effective personal and corporate tax rates. Personal income tax follows a tiered system. In Singapore, the personal income tax rate starts from 3.5% and goes up to 20% for income above S$320,000. In comparison to countries like Hong Kong, personal income tax, or salary tax as it is known, starts at 2% and goes up to 17% for income above HK$120,000. However, Singapore’s net effective personal income tax rate is much lower than that of Hong Kong’s. For example, a person earning US$65,000 in Hong Kong would end up paying close to US$6,500 as personal income tax. Whereas in Singapore, he would only have to pay approximately US$4,000.

Another major advantage to Singapore incorporated technology-centric businesses is access to SEEDS Capital (SSC), which co-invests in scalable innovative startups with strong intellectual property;

SSC especially seeks to fund deep-tech industries such as biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. SSC will take an equity share in the startup and the shareholding varies depending on the valuation of the startup. The investment horizon for SSC is generally five to seven years and may take longer depending on the company’s business traction. SSC’s exit options include all conventional means such as trade sale, IPO and M&A. Contact support@kimbocorp.com for more information.

Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB) is an active facilitator to help foreign-owned companies’ setup in Singapore.

The various programs they have includes;

• The Pioneer Certificate Incentive (PC) and the Development and Expansion Incentive (DEI) aim to encourage companies to grow capabilities and conduct new or expanded economic activities in Singapore, by providing tax rebates for income generated from intellectual property;
• The Tech@SG Program aims to help companies establish their core teams in Singapore and more quickly capture business opportunities here and in the region by facilitating and fast-tracing the application of work and employment passes;
• The Research and Innovation Scheme (RISC) provides co-funding support of up to 30% in qualifying R&D project costs such as IP, manpower, training, software, equipment, materials, consultancy. Local manpower may be supported up to 50%;
• The IP Development Incentive allows approved companies a reduced corporate tax rate of either 5% or 10% on a percentage of qualifying IP income derived during the incentive period. The percentage is determined by the modified by the Nexus approach, which directly attributes to capital expenditures spent to derive the IP against income from the IP. Incentive period can be up to 10 years.