Register a company in Singapore, the HQ default.

Yes, fully: incorporation, secretary, registered address and tax filings are all remote, and several banks (particularly digital-first ones) onboard by video. Traditional banks often prefer one meeting, and any Employment Pass involves arrival by definition. Many clients incorporate remotely first and bank on their first trip.

Turnkey incorporation starts from $3,900 including the secretary and first-year address; with banking from $6,400. A nominee resident director, where needed, runs from $2,500 a year. Renewals with accounting from $2,500. Singapore is the premium product and prices like it. What you buy is the absence of questions everywhere else.

Yes: at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore, with no exceptions. Two workable solutions. Relocate a founder on an Employment Pass (COMPASS points, minimum salaries around S$6,000 and rising, higher in finance; we build the application), or appoint a professional resident director under a proper framework from $2,500 a year. We design this before incorporation because the bank, the EP and the tax residency all build on it.

17% flat, but early years are gentler: startup exemptions relieve most of the first S$200,000 of profits for three years, so genuine startups often pay effective single digits. No capital-gains tax, no dividend withholding; profits distribute to any shareholder anywhere at zero. GST at 9% applies over S$1M turnover. It is a low-tax system that no bank or treaty partner treats as a haven, which is the whole point.

Only if your group's consolidated revenue exceeds €750 million. Singapore applies the Pillar Two domestic top-up to such groups from 2025. Below that threshold, which covers almost every founder reading this, the classic 17%-with-exemptions arithmetic is untouched. Large groups: we model the top-up before structuring, not after.

Singapore banks are selective and unapologetic about it. DBS, OCBC and UOB underwrite the story (real activity, credible flows, resident connections) and decline politely otherwise. The working playbook is matching the bank to the profile: operating businesses with regional substance get traditional accounts, while early-stage and remote founders often serve better at MAS-regulated digital-first institutions, upgrading later. We route you where approval is realistic and say so plainly.

Through COMPASS, a points system scoring salary, qualifications, firm diversity and local hiring, on top of minimum qualifying salaries around S$6,000, rising with age and higher in financial services. Well-paid founders of real businesses pass; borderline files benefit from planning salary and role before application. The EP solves the resident-director requirement the clean way, and we run the whole track.

Because the exit arithmetic is clean and the wrapper is respected: no capital-gains tax, no dividend withholding, a wide treaty network, and the VCC, a purpose-built fund vehicle with umbrella sub-funds, under a regulator whose approval carries weight globally. Family offices layer the 13-series incentives on top. It is the rare zero-leakage structure that improves due diligence rather than complicating it.

The eternal question, answered by geography and audience. China-facing trade and finance still favour Hong Kong's gateway and its slightly lower rates; Southeast Asia-facing HQs, venture-backed startups and funds default to Singapore's neutrality and MAS's standing. Costs are comparable; both are premium. Many groups eventually hold both. We build either, and say which fits first.

Incorporation: one to three days, genuinely. Banking: one to four weeks depending on route. Employment Pass: three to eight weeks under COMPASS. A fully operational, banked, director-resolved Singapore company inside a month is the realistic default, faster than anywhere else at this tier of credibility.