Services · Audit & accounts for foreign companies

Singapore audit fees and annual accounts

We check whether audit applies, prepare the accounts and keep ACRA and IRAS deadlines.

Who needs a Singapore audit and who does not

A Singapore company must keep records, prepare financial statements under Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS), hold an annual general meeting or formally dispense with it, and file an annual return with ACRA. Audit is a separate obligation and it does not apply to everyone: a large share of private companies fall within the small company audit exemption.

This service is for owners of Singapore companies who want to meet local requirements on time and without unnecessary cost; for anyone who has just received a letter from ACRA or IRAS and cannot tell what is being asked; for companies carrying arrears from earlier years that need clearing before they turn into penalties and personal exposure for directors; and for anyone winding down who wants to close the company properly rather than walk away from it.

Who does not need this. If your company already has a Singapore corporate secretary handling bookkeeping and every deadline is met, a second team adds nothing. If you are looking for a way to file nothing at all, that option does not exist and we will not pretend otherwise: even a dormant company has obligations, just lighter ones. And if the goal is accounts that show numbers other than the real ones, we are not the firm for it.

A fuller treatment is in our article on auditing a Singapore company.

Small company thresholds: when audit is not required

Singapore's audit exemption is built around the small company concept. To qualify, a company must be private and must have met at least two of three criteria in each of the two immediately preceding financial years:

• revenue of no more than S$10 million;
• total assets of no more than S$10 million;
• no more than 50 employees.

For a newly incorporated company the test applies to the current financial year. If the company sits in a group, both the company and the group must pass the test on a consolidated basis. Headcount is measured per head at financial year end, not on a full-time-equivalent basis, which regularly catches out companies with many part-time staff and contractors.

Dormant companies have their own regime. A dormant company that is not listed and is not a subsidiary of a listed company, with total assets of no more than S$500,000, may be exempt from preparing financial statements altogether. The annual return still has to be filed with ACRA, and a tax return still goes to IRAS unless the company has obtained a formal waiver.

There is a filing simplification too: a solvent exempt private company does not lodge financial statements with ACRA and instead makes an online declaration of solvency with its annual return. In that case no XBRL filing is required. Where financial statements are lodged, they generally have to be submitted in XBRL through BizFile.

One point that matters as at September 2026: in February 2026 ACRA announced a review of the audit exemption framework, noting that the S$10 million thresholds date from 2015 while company sizes have grown since; targeted industry consultation began in March 2026. The existing thresholds continue to apply until final guidance is published, but plan on the basis that they may change.

What a Singapore company files and by when

• Annual general meeting. Within six months of the financial year end. Private companies may dispense with it by unanimous member resolution.
• Annual return to ACRA. Within seven months of the financial year end for non-listed companies. A dormant company files it too.
• Financial statements. Prepared under SFRS in every case unless the dormant exemption applies. Lodged with ACRA, generally in XBRL, except where lodgement is not required (solvent exempt private company).
• Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) to IRAS. Within three months of the financial year end. Filing ECI does not replace the tax return.
• Corporate tax return (Form C-S, C-S Lite or C). By 30 November.

On tax: Singapore's corporate tax rate is a flat 17%. The effective burden is usually lower thanks to the partial tax exemption and the start-up exemption in the early years. The actual figure has to be computed on your numbers, not on the headline rate.

How the work runs, step by step

1. Diagnostic - 2-3 business days. We look at the financial year end, company status, whether arrears exist from prior periods, whether the small company test is met, whether the dormant regime applies and whether the company was a solvent exempt private company.
2. Collecting source documents - 1-3 weeks. Bank statements, contracts, invoices, registers. The timeline depends on you, and in practice this is the longest stage.
3. Preparing accounts under SFRS - 2-4 weeks. Bookkeeping for the period, financial statements, notes and directors' report.
4. Audit where required - 3-6 weeks. We arrange it with a Singapore auditor, prepare the confirmations requested and coordinate the process on our side.
5. Approval. Holding the annual general meeting or documenting a unanimous decision to dispense with it.
6. Filing. Annual return to ACRA within seven months of the financial year end, and financial statements in XBRL where lodgement is required.
7. Tax. ECI within three months of the financial year end, tax return by 30 November.
8. Liquidation where needed - several months. A separate process with its own notice and waiting periods.

These timings are indicative. Where a company has arrears going back several years, the work runs year by year in sequence and takes longer. We fix the exact schedule and quote in writing after the diagnostic.

Singapore audit fees and accounting costs

Audit fees in Singapore depend heavily on transaction volume, the number of bank accounts and jurisdictions involved, whether there are subsidiaries, and the quality of the source documents. A company with a hundred transactions a year and one account and a company with thousands of transactions are different budgets, which is why the table shows a floor rather than a fixed number. ACRA and IRAS charges, including late lodgement fees, are paid to the state and are not included in our figures.

Prices are indicative and cover our work on a typical case. We confirm the exact quote in writing after a short call - you know the final number before we start. Government fees and bank tariffs are billed separately unless explicitly included.

Risks, penalties and common mistakes

• Late filing. ACRA charges late lodgement fees for the annual return, and they escalate with the length of the delay. Persistent default reaches directors personally, up to prosecution and disqualification.
• Company abandoned but not closed. Filing obligations do not disappear because you stopped using the company. Being struck off at the regulator's initiative is not the same as a proper liquidation and leaves directors with loose ends.
• Getting the small company test wrong. The most common error is counting headcount on a full-time-equivalent basis or forgetting the group test. The result: a company that assumed no audit was needed discovers otherwise at filing time.
• Missing ECI. Many assume the 30 November return is enough and skip the Estimated Chargeable Income filing due within three months of year end.
• Weak source documentation. An auditor will not accept unsupported expenses, and instead of an audit you get a bookkeeping reconstruction - more expensive and slower.
• Assuming a dormant company owes nothing. The dormant exemption from preparing financial statements is conditional, including a total asset threshold of S$500,000; the annual return is filed regardless.
• Thresholds may move. The review of the audit exemption framework has been under way since early 2026. We cannot guarantee that the threshold you fall under today will be the same next cycle.

How we work

We start with a diagnostic, not an invoice. The first thing we check is whether you need an audit at all: if the company meets the small company criteria, there is no reason to pay for one, and we will say so. Where an audit is required, we arrange it with a Singapore auditor and take on the correspondence, the confirmations and the schedule so you are not fielding auditor requests yourself.

We work to a written quote agreed before we start. If additional work turns out to be needed - reconstructing prior-year bookkeeping, clearing arrears - we show you the scope and the price first and do the work second. We track ACRA and IRAS deadlines on a calendar and remind you in advance, not after the date has passed.

See also audit and accounts for foreign companies and the full list of services.

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