A Guide to Changing Company Information in Singapore

When incorporating a company in Singapore, there are several statutory requirements that your business must comply with. You are required to provide certain company information to the registration authorities, such as company name, address, details of key personnel, auditors, etc.

However, over time, it is common for businesses to make changes in their details. For example, you might want to change your company’s name or change the particulars of your company officers or auditors.

This article will cover the procedure for updating your company information and what you need to prepare to do so.

How to change your company information in Singapore

All the local and foreign companies in Singapore must compulsorily update their particulars with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).  Please, note that you do not need to separately notify IRAS of all the updates (except for changes to your company’s activity and tax agent) as IRAS updates its records based on information submitted to ACRA on a weekly basis.

Changing your company’s name, registered address, and FYE

If you change your company’s name, registered address, or financial year-end (FYE), all these changes must be filed with ACRA via BizFile+. However, you don’t have to file these changes yourself, as you can engage our corporate secretarial services to help you take care of this process.

You can apply to change your company’s name for a fee of $15. However, the application may require in-principle approval from referral authorities, depending on your proposed name. If you are expecting a tax refund or correspondence from IRAS shortly (i.e., within the next two weeks from the date of filing the change in company information with ACRA), you may request for the change in your company’s name or address to be updated in IRAS’ records by providing them with the following information:

• Your company’s tax reference number;
• Your company’s name before the update with ACRA;
• Your updated company’s name; 
• A copy of ACRA’s email notification on change in the name of your company or a copy of Biz Profile extracted from ACRA; and
• Your company’s new address that has been updated with ACRA.

IRAS cannot send forms and notices to any address other than your company’s registered address based on ACRA records. Therefore, if you wish to receive forms and notifications at an address other than your current registered address, you must update that address as your company’s registered address with ACRA.

As for your company’s FYE, you inform ACRA of the change with the help of a corporate service provider as well. They will submit the change request via the Change of Financial Year End, a record used by IRAS to send you the Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) filing notification and income tax assessment purposes. Next, if your company’s financial statements cover more than 12 months due to a change at the end of the financial year, you may have to divide and relate the adjusted profit/loss to two different Years of Assessment (YA).

Changing your company’s principal activity

When it comes to changing your company’s principal activity, you have to inform ACRA and IRAS separately about the change. IRAS needs to be notified of the change in your company’s business activity (i.e., SSIC Code) as this record may be used for income tax assessment purposes.

Changing your company’s tax agent

To notify IRAS of a change to your company’s tax agent, you must authorize the tax agent as a Preparer or an Approver. You will also need to submit the following documents via Corppass:

• Your Singpass;
• Your company’s Unique Entity Number (UEN)/ Entity ID; and
• Tax reference number (e.g., UEN-LOCAL CO, UEN-BUSINESS) of the tax agent firm

Differences between preparer and approver roles

For more information, refer to the Corppass step-by-step guides.

Changing particulars of your company officers, shareholders, and authorized representatives

Changes in the particulars of your company officers, shareholders, and authorized representatives must be updated immediately with ACRA. These changes include:

• Name (note: deed poll must be attached);
• Identification type;
• Identification number;
• Residential address;
• Nationality;
• Land/fixed-line number;
• Mobile number; 
• Email-address; and
• Occupation and cessation (for shareholders)

However, Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs) are not required to update ACRA on changes to their residential address, personal name, nationality, identification type, and number. For more information, refer to ACRA’s website. 

Changing your foreign company’s charter, statute, memorandum/articles, or other instruments

If your foreign company’s head office has made changes to the Charter, Statute, or Memorandum/Articles, you should submit the supporting documents – notarised or certified true – to ACRA within 30 days.

Failure to inform ACRA and IRAS of the updates of your company information could result in costly consequences. Fortunately, you can easily avoid non-compliance costs if you get professional assistance from a licensed corporate service provider like us. All you need to do is contact us via call or email to avail our services.

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