Re: Incorporating in Singapore as foreigner without residing there

[Juanita]

On Aug 15, 5:35 pm, tom <thomas.feich...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do you know about any restrictions to this scenario according to
> Singaporean law, especially regarding business relations with Myanmar?

There are no issues with hiring foreign manpower or service
contractors to work on a Singapore based contract. However you should
be aware that if your Myanmar or other contractors do any work
physically in Singapore, the salary or fees earned for the work
physically done here may be taxable in Singapore. If your Singapore
company is required to withold the tax from the contractor payment,
the rate is usually

15% http://iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=566

> Are there any formal requirements for invoices issued by foreign
> freelancers and companies?

The requirements for any invoices collected by a Singapore entity are
the same as regardless if the billing party is overseas or in
Singapore. IRAS has a sample of a tax invoice in which they state the
elements of an invoice which are required. You can omit the word 'tax'
from the heading 'tax invoice', GST registration number and GST amount
but otherwise all the other elements are required.

http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=826

> Which are the possibilities to pay regular salaries to people not living in
> Singapore (including myself)?

If the individuals are not working in Singapore at any time in the
year, you can pay salary without any deductions.

http://iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page.aspx?id=8502

If the individual is in Singapore for 0-60 days during the year, no
witholding tax deductions are required. If the individual is here for
61-183 days, you need to deduct 15% on salary and 20% on directors
fees or other related income. If the individual is here for more than
183 days, no deductions are required but the individual would pay tax
on resident rates: http://iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=8914

Note that none of this tax information takes into consideration the
requirement of a work visa which is a separate but equally fascinating
process.

> As for Hong Kong, I can pay myself a regular salary as director of my
> company and pay the according income tax without the need to reside there.
> Does anybody have experience with foreign currency corporate bank accounts
> (Euro)? According to the following comparison, OCBC seems to have the best
> conditions:http://www.guidemesingapore.com/incorporation/banking/corporate-bank-...

This is really subjective. If you do a search on this group you will
likely find some discussions worth reading. I personally like Standard
Chartered as their Business One account has 50% cheaper TT fees than
all other banks in Singapore, if the company intends to send alot of
money overseas. This is only for the SGD account though. The FY
accounts are a standard $5K min balance but you can request for your
discounted TT rates to be allowed on other accounts if you anticipate
a 'significant' volume of transactions.

[chris chong]

I think Juanita has the best experience here for this :) 

Do also remember that you will need to pay CPF if you do have Singaporeans working in your company in Singapore, even of your company isn't incorporated in Singapore.

Cheers

Chris

--
--
Chat: http://hackerspace.sg/chat

[Benjamin Scherrey]

Ditto the recommendation for Juanita's company. We use her and just about every startup with any sense in SG uses her. We also work primarily out of Bangkok so circumstances are very similar to yours.

  -- Ben

[Juanita]

Thanks for the endorsement!

I am on the programme with the sg tax academy right now to become an
accredited tax practitioner yay! It is as fascinating to me as well
written code is to the hackerspace community, if you can imagine
that :)

Maybe tax planning talks hosted by hsg would be useful at some point
in the next 12 months, after provisional accreditation.

On Aug 15, 11:39 pm, Benjamin Scherrey <proteus...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ditto the recommendation for Juanita's company. We use her and just about
> every startup with any sense in SG uses her. We also work primarily out of
> Bangkok so circumstances are very similar to yours.
>
>   -- Ben
>

> On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 6:05 PM, chris chong <chris.chonghui...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I think Juanita has the best experience here for this :)
>
> > Do also remember that you will need to pay CPF if you do have Singaporeans
> > working in your company in Singapore, even of your company isn't
> > incorporated in Singapore.
>
> > Cheers
> > Chris
>
> > On Wednesday, August 15, 2012, Juanita wrote:
>
> >> On Aug 15, 5:35 pm, tom <thomas.feich...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Do you know about any restrictions to this scenario according to
> >> > Singaporean law, especially regarding business relations with Myanmar?
>
> >> There are no issues with hiring foreign manpower or service
> >> contractors to work on a Singapore based contract. However you should
> >> be aware that if your Myanmar or other contractors do any work
> >> physically in Singapore, the salary or fees earned for the work
> >> physically done here may be taxable in Singapore. If your Singapore
> >> company is required to withold the tax from the contractor payment,
> >> the rate is usually
>

> >> 15%http://iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page04.aspx?id=566