A derivative action is a court proceeding brought by a shareholder on behalf of a company — rather than for the shareholder's own benefit — to remedy a wrong done to the company itself. In Singapore, derivative actions are governed by Section 216A of the Companies Act, which provides a statutory framework that is stricter [...]
Singapore's Register of Registrable Controllers (RORC) is one of the most widely misunderstood corporate compliance obligations. Introduced in March 2017 under Part XIB of the Companies Act, the RORC requires every Singapore company (with limited exceptions) to maintain a private register identifying the natural persons who ultimately own or control the company. Non-compliance is a [...]
Singapore's government grant landscape is one of the most generous in Asia, but most businesses only claim one grant at a time. The companies that extract maximum value from the system are those that understand how to stack multiple grants across different projects, phases, and departments — without triggering double-counting or eligibility conflicts. This guide [...]
Allotting new shares is one of the most significant decisions a Singapore company can make. Whether you are raising capital from an investor, rewarding a key employee with equity, or restructuring your shareholding structure, a share allotment permanently changes the ownership composition of your company. Done correctly, it is a straightforward process governed by the [...]
GST registration is one of the most consequential compliance milestones for a Singapore business. Once you cross the threshold, you must charge 9% GST on all taxable supplies, file quarterly GST returns, and remit the tax to IRAS — with strict penalties for late registration, late filing, and underpayment. Get it wrong and you face [...]
Singapore businesses have access to some of the world's most generous government grant support. Three grants in particular sit at the heart of Enterprise Singapore's assistance framework: the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG), the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG), and the Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant. Each serves a different purpose, and choosing the wrong one — [...]
When a Singapore company cannot pay its debts, or when the relationship between shareholders breaks down irretrievably, one possible outcome is a compulsory winding up — a court-ordered process by which the company's assets are realised, its creditors paid, and the company dissolved. Unlike a voluntary winding up (which is initiated by the shareholders themselves), [...]
Singapore companies sometimes accumulate more paid-up capital than they need for their operations — capital that has been eroded by losses, or surplus capital that shareholders wish to return to themselves. In these situations, a capital reduction is the formal legal mechanism for reducing a company's share capital in a controlled and lawful way. Under [...]
For many expatriates living in Singapore on a Dependant's Pass (DP) — typically the spouses and unmarried children of Employment Pass (EP) or S Pass holders — the question of whether they can work in Singapore is a common one. The answer depends on whether the Dependant's Pass holder has obtained a Letter of Consent [...]
The Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) is one of Enterprise Singapore's flagship grant programmes, designed to help Singapore companies grow, innovate, and internationalise. Since its launch in 2018 — consolidating several earlier grants into a single framework — the EDG has supported thousands of Singapore SMEs across a wide range of projects, from business strategy development [...]