You have to follow many mandatory requirements when establishing your business in Singapore. The purpose of those mandatory requirements is to keep your entity compliant with Singapore regulations.
Section 142(1) of the Companies Act, Cap. 50 makes it mandatory for all companies to have a duly registered office address in Singapore during company incorporation.
Criteria for a Registered Office Address
Here are the criteria that a registered office address must fulfil:
- It must be a place where all notices and communications can be addressed and must be accessible and open to the public for at least 3 hours during regular business hours on every business day
- The office address must be a physical one in Singapore
- P.O. box address can’t be used
Kindly note that you will occasionally receive physical mails from government entities. Those mails can inform you of new incentives, remind you of annual requirements or contain any other vital information that will help your business. Therefore, we advise you to check your mail every day to avoid missing out on important information.
Using Your Home Address as a Registered Office Address
If you live in Singapore, you may decide to use your home address as your registered office address. It’s possible to do so under the Home Office Scheme with HDB or URA. However, kindly note that there are some criteria that must be met before you can be permitted to use your home address as your registered address. The permit may be revoked if you breach any of those conditions.
Also, you should note that some types of businesses are not permitted under the Home Office Scheme, so make sure you verify that yours is allowed under the scheme. Some of the common business types that are not permitted include food catering, courier services, beauty services, and manufacturing. These are just a few examples out of many, so we implore you to check the complete list here to verify whether your kind of business is permitted.
Kindly note that you don’t have privacy when you use your home address as your registered office address since the address will become information that anyone can find easily. This lack of privacy is one of the reasons why many entrepreneurs use a registered office address different from that of their home, even if they run their business from home. Kindly note that it’s legal to run your business from your home even when you have a different office address.
Signing up For The Registered Office Address Services that Your Corporate Service Provider Offers
Whether you live in Singapore or not, your corporate service provider offers you the best option when it comes to the registration of office addresses. Here are some of the reasons why it’s advisable to register your company address via a corporate service provider:
- Potential investors and customers will be attracted to your company when your office address is situated in a prestigious central business district, especially if the business relates to the corporate industry. Therefore, we recommend choosing a corporate service provider with an address in prime locations.
- A corporate service provider can help you reduce the amount needed to rent an office and solve some of the issues that business owners usually face. For example, people who run their Singapore businesses from overseas are faced with more problems than those living in Singapore. For instance, the time difference between their country and Singapore can make their office hours different from Singapore’s, and they can’t respond quickly to emails from Singapore. You will successfully eliminate these problems if you use your Company Secretary provider’s office address as your registered office address.
- You will be privileged to go paperless. By signing up for HeySara’s registered office address service, we will help you handle all mails from banks, the Singapore Government Authorities, and other government entities. We will scan the mails and send them directly to your platform. In addition, you can reach out to us at any time of the day via email for anything concerning your mail.
Next Steps
At HeySara, we handle incoming mail for numerous companies and clients every day. Our AI technology automatically analyses each mail, converts it into digital format, and delivers it to the correct client cloud mailbox. Beyond just receiving your mail, we digitise and upload everything to your HeySara Digital Mailroom—making it easy for you to access all company correspondence anytime, anywhere in the world.
Also, we follow up with every letter that we receive under your business name. So feel free to contact us today to obtain your own virtual office address and enjoy our unique service.
