11 October 2017 new rules of redomiciliation of foreign companies in Singapore came into force. Redomiciliation is transfer of registration of foreign company from one jurisdiction to another.
The rules were adopted by amending Singaporean Companies Act. Starting from 2017 companies registered in other jurisdictions, where such transfer of registration is permitted, are able to change its jurisdiction of registration to Singapore.
Singapore established increased requirements for companies that apply for redomiciliation in comparison with such jurisdictions like Cyprus or Seychelles. At least two of three of the following requirements are to be fulfilled in order to redomicile: annual revenue exceeds 10 000 000 Singaporean dollars (SGD), or value of total assets exceeds 10 000 000 SGD, or number of employees of a company exceeds 50 persons.
In addition to this, the company that applies for redomiciliation must not have any indications of financial difficulties, insolvency or bankruptcy, must not be in process of liquidation. Also, as it was mentioned before, the legislation of previous jurisdiction of a company that is to be redomiciled should explicitly permit such transfer of registration and establish the procedure of outward redomiciliation.
For successful redomiciliation to Singapore the applicant should pay fixed fee in amount of 1 000 SGD and provide required documentation. Application can be provided through online form and the term of completing the procedure is approximately 2 months.
