Corporate and Regulatory Compliance
A company secretary is in charge of ensuring that the company is in compliance with the compliance requirements stated in the Companies Act as well as the Constitution of the company. As the tasks may be quite extensive, we will highlight the common tasks usually performed by the company secretary:
- Maintaining of Statutory Registers and Minute Books
- Preparation of Minutes and Resolutions for Annual General Meeting
- Preparation and Filing of Annual Returns
- Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA) for business and company compliance matters
- Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) for tax matters.
- Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB) for submission of CPF contributions for yourself and/or your staff members.
A company is required to appoint an auditor within 3 months from its date of incorporation unless the company is an exempt private limited company. For other business entities like sole-proprietorship and partnerships, there is no requirement for you to appoint an auditor.
Your choice of company name has to be approved by ACRA before the actual incorporation of a company. Your choice of name will only be approved if it is not identical to the name of an existing company. Undesirable name choices will also not be approved.
For private limited companies, you will need to hold your first AGM within 18 months from the date of incorporation. Subsequently, the company is required to hold an AGM in every calendar year and not more than 15 months after the last AGM. The AGM date must also not be more than 6 months from the financial year end of your company.
You may hold the AGM anywhere you wish.
For partnerships and sole proprietorship, there is no requirement for you to hold any AGMs.
A registered address is the official or legal address of your business. All official documents will be sent to this address. The registered address of the company need not be the business address of the company.
