Dear Sir or Madam,
SingaporeIQ is a comprehensive compendium of practical guidance on doing business in Singapore. I have been working in Singapore and Hong Kong since 2009, as a Singapore permanent resident, and have worked there as a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and as managing director of a Singapore licensed foreign law practice. The articles answer the questions my clients ask most often, in plain English and based on the statutes, court decisions and official sources.
If you plan to incorporate a company in Singapore, or need advice on corporate and commercial law, crypto and digital assets, or litigation and arbitration in Singapore, feel free to write to me directly at [email protected]. You can also use the contact icons in the bottom right corner of every page to reach me by e-mail, WhatsApp or WeChat. All meetings and conversations require a prior appointment. Together with my colleagues at KGP Legal LLC, a medium-sized regional law firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors, I may be able to assist with your matter from the first question to completion and work alongside your lawyers and advisers at home. All Singapore law advice is provided through KGP Legal LLC, where I am Of Counsel. The firm is duly licensed and offers the full range of legal, tax and fiduciary services in Singapore.
I welcome you to Singapore and look forward to working with you should the opportunity arise.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Alexander RessosOf Counsel, KGP Legal LLC
One Hub for Five Continents
SingaporeIQ is written for companies, entrepreneurs and investors from Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, the United States and Canada, Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan, Japan and Korea, South-East Asia, Australia, India, Central Asia and Mongolia, the Gulf, Africa and Latin America who do business in or through Singapore. From Singapore you can hold your subsidiaries and regional headquarters, bank and manage your funds, reach partner markets through its free trade agreements and raise capital, all the way to a listing on the Singapore Exchange. Together with my colleagues at KGP Legal LLC, I am able to assist with any of these projects.
For international readers
SingaporeIQ explains what Singapore offers companies, investors and families from Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. Singapore has 29 free trade agreements in force, including RCEP and the CPTPP, and tax treaties and related arrangements with around 100 jurisdictions. It levies no withholding tax on dividends and no tax on gains of a capital nature, subject to section 10L of the Income Tax Act. Dr Alexander Ressos is Of Counsel at KGP Legal LLC, a duly licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors.
Choose a subject and go straight to what applies to your company in Singapore: the rules, the procedures and the figures, each with the source that supports it.
Banking and Wealth Management
How clan, credit and remittance networks shaped banking in the Straits, and what a Singapore bank wants to see today before it opens an account for your company and keeps it open. To the articlesCapital Raising
Capital markets products under the Securities and Futures Act, prospectus requirements and their exemptions, licensed intermediaries and approved exchanges, and the funds used to raise money across borders. To the articlesFamily Offices
The fund incentives under sections 13O and 13U, the variable capital company, the single family office model and the Global Investor Programme, with the questions that digital assets add. To the articlesResidence and Relocation
Tax residence, the pass system, relocation between Switzerland and Singapore, and the ways a private client can hold assets: personally, through a company, a foundation or a trust. To the articlesTrade Finance
How junks, country traders and agency houses built the entrepôt, and the credit chains that linked Europe, India, China and the archipelago. To the articlesAML and Compliance
The MAS notices PSN01 and PSN02, customer due diligence, the travel rule, reports to the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office, and the money laundering case of August 2023. To the articlesSanctions and Export Control
United Nations sanctions and how Singapore implements them, the Russia measures of March 2022, OFAC in commercial practice, proliferation financing and the screening a licensee must run. To the articlesTax and Transparency
The territorial charge to tax, the absence of a capital gains tax and its qualifications, section 10L, GST on digital payment tokens, and reporting under the Common Reporting Standard and CARF. To the articlesGroup and Holding Structures
The private company limited by shares, the limited liability partnership and the registered foreign company, the Singapore holding company for Asian operations, and groups that span Singapore and Switzerland. To the articlesCrypto-Assets
The Payment Services Act 2019, the digital token service provider regime in force since 30 June 2025, retail restrictions, stablecoins, tokenisation and the tax treatment of tokens. To the articlesSuccession, Trusts and Foundations
Express and constructive trusts, the Trustees Act and the Trust Companies Act 2005, estate duty removed for deaths from 15 February 2008, and cross-border estates that include digital assets. To the articlesRegulation and Supervision
The Monetary Authority of Singapore and its three roles, how it licenses and supervises, the legal force of its notices and guidelines, and the enforcement tools it uses. To the articlesLitigation and Arbitration
The General Division of the High Court, the Singapore International Commercial Court, arbitration under the SIAC Rules of 2025, mediation, and the enforcement of judgments and awards. To the articlesWhite-Collar Crime and Corporate Liability
Cheating, criminal breach of trust, money laundering, market misconduct and computer misuse, with the liability of companies and their officers. To the articlesInternational Organisations
How the wider world shapes the rules: FATF Recommendation 15, IOSCO and the OECD reporting framework, MiCA in the European Union, and the regimes in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States and the UAE. To the articlesFinancial History
The Strait of Malacca, Temasek and Singapura, Raffles and the free port of 1819, the treaties of 1824, the Straits Settlements and the Crown Colony: the episodes behind today’s rules. To the articlesBankability and Onboarding
Why digital-asset businesses meet a bottleneck at the bank, how to open an account in Singapore, how to off-ramp a treasury, and what a bank wants to see over time. To the articlesDouble Taxation Treaties
Singapore has agreements with around 100 jurisdictions, some of them limited. The articles read the Swiss agreement closely: residence, permanent establishment, dividends, interest, royalties and capital gains. To the articlesSingapore regulates crypto-assets under the Payment Services Act 2019, the Securities and Futures Act and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022, with the Monetary Authority of Singapore as regulator. Together with Zug in Switzerland, Singapore is one of the world’s leading jurisdictions for crypto and digital assets. Know where your project fits and you can choose the right licence, partner and structure from the start. The book Digital Assets Law in Singapore and Switzerland treats each point in full, with the law stated as at 30 June 2026. Dr Alexander Ressos draws on experience from more than 700 projects involving crypto-assets. The crypto section brings the guides together. Dr Alexander Ressos is Of Counsel at KGP Legal LLC. All Singapore law advice is provided through this duly licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors.
Licence for token services
The Payment Services Act 2019 has been in force since 28 January 2020. Since 4 April 2024 a digital payment token service also covers transfers, custodial wallets and exchange facilitated without possession of money or tokens.Serving customers abroad
Part 9 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 has applied since 30 June 2025, with no transition. A Singapore company that provides digital token services only to customers outside Singapore needs a licence, as does a person doing so from a place of business in Singapore.Retail access with limits
A provider must assess a retail customer’s risk awareness first. Sign-up bonuses, referral rewards, credit, margin and payment by credit card are all ruled out. Accredited and institutional investors fall outside these measures.Custody on trust
Customers’ tokens are held under a statutory trust and reconciled daily. Access and operational controls stay in Singapore, and the custody function must be operationally independent of the other business units.No retail lending or staking
A provider may not lend or stake a retail customer’s tokens, even on the customer’s instruction, and no risk acknowledgement lifts the rule. Earning yield through a licensed provider requires accredited investor status.Stablecoins
MAS finalised its policy on 15 August 2023, and the framework is not yet law. Draft amendments to the Payment Services Act were published on 1 September 2026 and the consultation closed on 16 October 2026. Subsidiary legislation is to follow, with no date yet.Tokenised securities
A token that represents shares, debentures or fund units stays within the Securities and Futures Act. An offer needs a prospectus or an exemption, and most issues so far have relied on the exemptions for institutional and accredited investors.Taxation of gains
Singapore does not tax gains that are capital in nature. Trading gains remain taxable, and IRAS applies the badges of trade to tell the two apart. Section 10L can reach foreign disposal gains received in Singapore by an entity without economic substance.Property before the courts
In ByBit v Ho Kai Xin [2023] SGHC 199 the High Court held USDT to be property and a thing in action, and declared a constructive trust. In CLM v CLN [2022] SGHC 46 it granted a proprietary injunction over stolen tokens.Raffles Place
Raffles Place lies at the core of the business district, together with Tanjong Pagar and Marina Bay. The MAS directory showed 96 wholesale bank licences in November 2026, and Singapore counted 1,320 licensed fund management companies in December 2025.
Singapore in figures
in assets under management at 31 December 2025, up 10 per cent in a year, with 76 per cent sourced outside Singapore
in foreign exchange turnover a day in April 2025, the third-largest centre after the United Kingdom and the United States
single family offices with tax incentives under sections 13O and 13U at the end of December 2025
in the Global Financial Centres Index, behind New York, London and Hong Kong
A Hub for Asia and the Pacific
Singapore is a compact city state, so the whole country works as a single business location, with one legal system, one tax regime and one regulator for its financial centre, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Across the straits lie the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone in Malaysia and the free trade zones of Batam, Bintan and Karimun in Indonesia. Your choice between them decides which country’s law applies, how you and your staff are taxed and how quickly you reach your customers. Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok lie within three hours’ flight, Hong Kong and Manila within four, and Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney within about eight, which makes Singapore a natural base for business across Asia and the Pacific.
Raffles Place and Marina Bay form the core of Singapore’s central business district. Marina Bay was mapped as a new downtown in the 1991 Concept Plan, and its first land sale followed in 2001. Here you will find out what the district means for a company choosing its Singapore address.
Singapore and Malaysia exchanged the agreement on the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone on 7 January 2025. Both prime ministers have named December 2026 for its launch, and passenger service on the RTS Link across the Strait of Johor is expected in February 2027.
Tuas Port opened on 1 September 2022 with three berths and is planned to reach 65 million TEU in the 2040s. On Jurong Island, seven islands have been joined into about 3,000 hectares. If you are in shipping, energy or industry, start here.
Compare locations
Set Singapore beside up to two other centres and compare them side by side: tax, legal system, currency, capital market, links to Mainland China, dispute resolution and the rules for crypto-assets. Use it as a starting point for your own review.
Tax on profits: Singapore 17%, year of assessment 2026 (IRAS). Hong Kong 16.5%, with 8.25% on the first HK$2 million for one entity per group (PwC, 2026). Mainland China 25% (PwC, 2026). UAE 9% above AED 375,000 and 0% below, with 0% on qualifying free zone income, for financial years from 1 June 2023 (PwC, 2026). United Kingdom 25% main rate on profits above GBP 250,000 (GOV.UK). Zug 11.71%, the figure for the Canton of Zug in KPMG, Clarity on Swiss Taxes 2026 (May 2026), which is not directly comparable with the headline rates. Other taxes: IRAS, GOV.UK and PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, read in 2026. Top personal rate for Zug: no figure is shown, because no primary source was available. Indicative only. The actual burden depends on the structure, special regimes and the global minimum tax.
Holding and regional headquarters
Enter the expected annual profit and how much of it comes from dividends and gains on qualifying shareholdings. You see at a glance the approximate tax on profits in Singapore and in four other holding locations.
Singapore does not tax gains of a capital nature, and dividends from a Singapore resident company are exempt in the hands of the recipient. Foreign dividends may be exempt when received in Singapore if the conditions of section 13(8) are met. Section 10L taxes foreign-asset disposal gains received in Singapore if the entity lacks economic substance or the asset is foreign intellectual property. The rest, such as Singapore-sourced interest, fees and trading profits, is taxed normally.
Indicative figures only, not tax advice.
Tax is only one factor
A holding or regional headquarters also depends on courts that decide commercial disputes predictably and independently, on comprehensive tax treaties with the countries where your subsidiaries and investors are based, on banks that will open and keep your accounts, and on a deep pool of experienced lawyers, accountants and managers. Singapore combines a common law system and courts of international standing with a treaty network reaching around 100 jurisdictions and an established professional workforce. In Dubai, the DIFC Courts apply a common-law-based system in English, while the onshore courts apply UAE civil law and conduct proceedings in Arabic, so the forum and the law that govern a dispute depend on how the structure is set up. A lower headline rate elsewhere, as in Dubai, can soon be outweighed once these factors are counted. Singapore strikes an ideal balance, and so does Zug.
Method: the rate of each location is applied to the part of the profit that does not come from dividends and gains on qualifying shareholdings. That income is treated as fully relieved everywhere, which simplifies the conditions of each regime. Singapore: corporate income tax at a flat 17 % (year of assessment 2026), after the partial exemption of 75 % on the first S$10,000 and 50 % on the next S$190,000, at most S$102,500 of exempt income. The start-up exemption is left out because it excludes investment holding companies, and the rebate for the year of assessment 2026 is also left out. Disposals of ordinary shares may fall within the safe harbour of section 13W, which requires a holding of 20 % for 24 months. Singapore levies no withholding tax on dividends. Comparison rates: Hong Kong 16.5 %, without the lower rate on the first HK$2 million (PwC, 2026); United Kingdom main rate 25 % (GOV.UK); United Arab Emirates 9 % for financial years from 1 June 2023, without the 0 % band on the first AED 375,000 and without the free zone regime (PwC, 2026); Zug 11.71 %, the figure for the Canton of Zug in KPMG, Clarity on Swiss Taxes 2026 (May 2026). Minimum tax: Singapore applies a domestic top-up tax and a multinational top-up tax at 15 % to groups with revenue of EUR 750 million or more, for financial years from 1 January 2025. Here this is shown only as a floor on taxable profit. Not included: foreign withholding taxes, tax incentive schemes and relief under tax treaties. Singapore has no comprehensive treaty with Hong Kong or the United States. Figures are indicative and do not replace an analysis of the specific case. Dr. Alexander Ressos is also a Swiss attorney-at-law. His law office in Switzerland provides a full range of legal and fiduciary services, including company incorporation.
The Singapore Strait
The port handled a record 44.66 million TEU in 2025 and sold a record 56.77 million tonnes of bunker fuel. Singapore’s 29 implemented free trade agreements (August 2026) extend that reach to goods, services and investment.
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Book
Dr Alexander Ressos
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Practitioner Handbook
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Marina Bay
Assets under management reached S$6.7 trillion at the end of 2025, and more than 2,000 single family offices held tax incentives. Singapore does not tax gains of a capital nature, subject to section 10L, and estate duty ended for deaths from 15 February 2008.
SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.
If you are planning a company incorporation, an investment, a holding structure or a market entry through Singapore, you can reach Dr Ressos directly at [email protected]. Singapore law advice is provided by KGP Legal LLC, a licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors. Dr Ressos and his team facilitate the full range of Singapore legal, compliance and company administration services, including company incorporation, corporate transactions, commercial contracts, crypto and digital assets, financial regulatory work and dispute resolution, including litigation in the Singapore courts. For Hong Kong, our parallel site HongkongIQ.com offers the same practical guidance. For crypto and digital assets, dltreg.com covers legal, tax and fiduciary services. For legal, tax and fiduciary services in Switzerland, see helveticaregister.com.
Beyond the information on this website, the topics below may call for advice on your specific facts. Dr Alexander Ressos coordinates the international side of a matter and advises on Swiss, English, Hong Kong and German law, together with your lawyers and advisers at home. Dr Alexander Ressos is Of Counsel at KGP Legal LLC. All Singapore law advice is provided through this duly licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors.
When your client sets up a company, invests, raises capital or resolves a dispute in Singapore, I am able to take on the international side of the matter and, together with my colleagues at KGP Legal LLC, a duly licensed full-service firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors, work alongside you as your counterpart for Singapore. I structure the project, coordinate the advisers involved in each jurisdiction and keep you informed throughout, while the advice on the law of your own jurisdiction remains with you. We do not compete with you for your client, but support you throughout.
Accountants, tax advisers and family offices who need a contact for a Singapore company, a licence, a trust or a transaction with a Singapore connection are equally welcome to write to me.
Dr Alexander Ressos
Of Counsel, KGP Legal LLC (Singapore)
Solicitor (England & Wales)
Solicitor (Hong Kong)
Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law (Zurich, Switzerland)
Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law (Germany)
Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP)
Singapore ranks fourth of 117 centres in the Global Financial Centres Index of September 2026 and was the third-largest foreign exchange centre in the BIS survey of April 2025. At the end of 2025, S$6.7 trillion of assets were under management there, 76 per cent of them sourced outside Singapore and 88 per cent invested outside it. Its 29 implemented free trade agreements (August 2026) include RCEP and the CPTPP.
A company pays corporate income tax at a flat 17 per cent. Singapore levies no withholding tax on dividends and no tax on gains of a capital nature, subject to section 10L of the Income Tax Act. Its tax treaties and related arrangements reach around 100 jurisdictions, in the wording of the tax authority. These include limited agreements, and there is no comprehensive treaty with Hong Kong or the United States. For disputes you can turn to the SIAC, the Singapore International Commercial Court and the Singapore Convention on Mediation. If you wish to relocate, the Employment Pass, the ONE Pass and the Global Investor Programme each set their own criteria.
Whether your company is opening a regional headquarters, you are selling a business or your family is planning for the next generation, Singapore gives you a stable legal system, low taxes and direct access to Asia. I help corporate clients, entrepreneurs and their families set up and run their Singapore structures. This covers incorporating the company, opening bank accounts, establishing a family office or fund, holding and passing on wealth, and moving key staff and family members to Singapore. Together with my colleagues at KGP Legal LLC, I take care of the Singapore side and coordinate it with your advisers at home. You deal with one point of contact from the first question to completion.
A Singapore company needs at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore, a registered office from incorporation and a company secretary within six months. It keeps a register of registrable controllers from its first day and appoints an auditor within three months unless it is exempt. Knowing these duties early helps you plan your structure from the start. If you have no director resident in Singapore, I am able to arrange a professional director service. Together with my colleagues at KGP Legal LLC, I am able to assist with all immigration and relocation matters.
I am Of Counsel at KGP Legal LLC, an established and duly licensed firm of Singapore advocates and solicitors, through which all Singapore law advice is provided. I am also a Swiss and German attorney-at-law and a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. You advise on the law of your jurisdiction, while I coordinate the international side of the matter and am able to advise on Swiss, English, Hong Kong and German law.
For your project, you can contact me directly.
SingaporeIQ is an information website. It gives no legal advice, and reading it creates no client relationship.