Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) is a government office which responsible for the accounting system in Singapore. It is the national regulator of business entities, public accountants and corporate service providers in Singapore. The procedure of Annual Return, the way of report, the registration of accountants and some other procedures should obey the rules of ACRA. And the followings are laws related accounting system, which should be obeyed by all of corporations：
Corporations that setup in Singapore should conduct Annual General Meeting regularly, and the following financial statements are required to declare to ACRA.
According to the Companies Act in Singapore, Financial Statements above as Annual Return should be declared to ACRA within one mouth after conducting all of Annual General Meetings. In general, the dates of financial statements are open to public (Companies Act, Section 197). The contents of closing report will be changed to Extensible Business Reporting Language, and they can be review through the search system called ‘bizfile’, and the contents of both Public Company and Private Company are included.
The financial standard in Singapore is Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) and Interpretation of FRS (INT FRS). In order to achieve to the purposes of transparency, possibility of comparison and reduction of cost in the international environment, Singapore is trying to engage in using IFRS. According to Accounting Standard Act, Accounting Standard Council has the right to supervise Accounting Standards. There are two kinds of Accounting Standards:
The accounting system is totally independent from Taxation Act. It is not necessary that in order to cover the fees of taxation, the figures of accounting will be possible to be distorted.
It is almost different from other countries that even private companies in Singapore should be audited by accounting auditors generally in Singapore. Auditors must be appointed within three months after setting up of companies. And it is also necessary to appoint auditors in the Annual General Meetings.
However, there are two kinds of corporations can be excluded to be audited.
It is required that all of the companies in Singapore must keep the accounting books for five years after the closing of accounting books.
Accounting system in Singapore
- Accounting and Corporation Regulatory Authority Act
- Accountants Act
- Business Registration Act
- Companies Act
- Limited Liability Partnerships Act
- Limited Partnerships Act
- Legal Resources
- Companies Act Reform
Filing Requirements
- Director’s Report
- Statement by Directors
- Independent Auditors’Report
- Statement of Comprehensive Income
- Statement of Financial Position
- Statements of Changes in Equity
- Statement of Cash Flows
- All Notes to the Financial Statement
- Mandatory information denoted by a red asterisk in FS Manager
Preparation and review of Financial Statement
Financial Standard and ASC in Singapore
- For large-scale corporations: Singapore Financial Report Standards (SFRS)
- For small-scale corporations: SFRS for SMEs
Relationship with Taxation Act
System of accounting audit
- Dormant companies
- Private companies, which the shareholders are less than 20 and the sales for the accounting year is less than $500.
- Keep of accounting books