Foreign Representative Office

A representative office in Singapore has no legal status, but is merely an administrative arrangement. Generally, the purpose of the representative office is to perform liaison services and establish business contacts, often as a precursor to the commencement of full-scale business activities in Singapore.

Requirements

To register, you need to fill up the application form and seek approval with International Enterprise (IE) Singapore

Approval can take 1-2 weeks and will usually be valid for one year. A representative office in Singapore must re-apply for a continuation of its status after the expiry of the initial period of approval. A representative office can be renewed for a total of no more than 3 years.

Documents

Completed application
Copy of the parent Company's Certificate of Incorporation
Copy of the parent company's latest annual report and audited accounts. In case the annual report and audited accounts are not available (for example when the parent company is relatively new), you can self-declare the needed information and provide other supporting details such as company brochures, contracts, website, etc. in support of your application. All documents must be in English otherwise an official English translation of the documents must be submitted.

Duly endorsed undertaking to abide by the Terms and Conditions governing the representative offices in Singapore

Compliance

Representative Office is not a legal entity in Singapore hence there is no compliance needed.

Taxation

Representative Office is not a legal entity in Singapore hence there is no compliance needed.

Comparison Chart for Subsidiary Company Vs Branch Office Vs Representative Office

Types	Subsidiary Company	Representative Office	Branch Office
Entity Name	Need not be the same as parent company	Must be the same as parent company	Must be the same as the parent company
Allowed Activities	Can conduct all business activities	Can only conduct market research or coordinating activities	Must be the same as the parent company
Suitable For	For local or Foreign Companies that wish to expand their operations in Singapore	For Foreign Companies that wish to set up temporary vehicle in Singapore to conduct research and act as liaison office	For Foreign Companies thay wish to expand their operations in Singapore
Disadvantages	Continuing Compliance Obligations eg Financial Reports, Audit, AGMS, etc	It is a temporary vehicle and cannot generate revenue	Continuing Compliance Obligations eg Financial Reports, Audit etc
Ownership	Can be 100% foreign or locally owned	No Ownership	Owned 100% by the head office
Separate Legal Entity	Yes	No	No
Cap on Number of Members	Yes, max 50	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
Minimum Setting up Requirement	Min One shareholder, that can be an Individual or corporate (100% local or foreign shareholding allowed. Must have at least one resident director	Must appoint a Chief Representative who will relocate from headquarters	Must have two Singapore Resident Agents
Limited Liability	Yes	No	No
Need for Audited Accounts	Yes	No	Yes
Filing of Accounts with ACRA and IRAS	Yes	No	Yes
Annual Filing	Must file audit report of subsidiary	Not Applicable	Must file branch office’s as well as parent company’s audit reports
Tax Treatment	Taxed as Singapore resident entity, local tax benefits available	Not Applicable	Taxed as non-resident entity, local tax benefits not available
Tax Benefits	A subsidiary company, with at least one individual shareholder with minimum of 10 percent shareholding, is entitled to local tax incentives and rebates	No Corporate tax. Employees have to pay personal tax	Partial tax exemption
Cessation of Business upon Death of a Member/Partner	No. Equity shares go on in perpetuity	Not Applicable	No
Validity Period	Perpetually until deregistered	This is a temporary Setup. It is intended not to last more than 3 years	Perpetually until deregistered
Normal Registration Time	3 hours	3-5 days	3 hours
Appointment of Officers	Must appoint at least one local resident director	Must appoint a Chief Representative who will relocate from headquarters	Must appoint two resident agents
Governing Body	ACRA & IRAS	International Enterprise Singapore	ACRA & IRAS

Our Services

We have a team of Accountants,Bankers and compliance experts who can advice on Singapore's Tax Regime(IRAS) & various regulatory frameworks such as ACRA to offer you a customized advisory services that include:

Mr.Eric Eio ,Partner
-CPA & B.Com (Uni Of Sydney)

Contact Us/ Our Management

Tel:(65)6221 4711/ (65) 8484 8816

TESTIMONIALS

I'm very impressed by their quick and reliable response in our queries. They are professional in their job and provide great secretarial,auditing

-John Eng, Mtm Group Pte Ltd, SINGAPORE

Paul Hype Page & Co is a highly reliable company and their staffs serves us with sincerity. I applied my EntrePass with

-Zhang Wei Hua, Hearing Aid Centre Pte Ltd, China

Eric was very helpful and provides excellent advice on incorporating our Singapore Company.He is well-versed in Singapore Visa such as Employment Pass/PR.

-Mr Patel ,Global Impex Pte Ltd, India