Singapore admits foreign professionals, founders and investors through a system of passes. The articles collected here explain the pass system, tax residence of individuals, tokens as remuneration and the share plan rules, relocating from Switzerland to Singapore and back, permits and the right to stay, and the texture of family life. Current thresholds are summarised below with their dates, since they change on 1 January 2027.
The Employment Pass requires a qualifying salary and 40 points under COMPASS. For new applications from 1 January 2027 the salary runs from S$6,000 to S$11,500 by age, and from S$6,600 to S$12,700 in financial services. Until then it runs from S$5,600 to S$10,700, and from S$6,200 to S$11,800 in financial services (Ministry of Manpower, 3 November 2026).
The ONE Pass requires a fixed monthly salary of S$30,000 or outstanding achievements. Tech.Pass gives way on 28 January 2027 to a ONE Pass (AI and Tech). The EntrePass has no minimum salary and has conditions on the company and the funding.
The move changes your tax position in two countries. Residence in Singapore generally follows from 183 days of presence or employment in a year, and your former home state may tax your departure.
Holders of certain passes count as ordinarily resident, which matters for the resident director requirement of the Companies Act 1967.
Start with the pass system, relocation to Singapore or tax residence of individuals.
Safe Haven: Capital Inflows, Wealth Migration and Their Politics
Every financial centre that succeeds attracts two kinds of arrivals: money looking for safety and people looking for a place to live with it. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaSingapore as a safe haven
A safe haven, in the language of finance, is a place where capital is expected to keep its value and remain accessible in times of stress. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaWealth migration and residence programmes
Wealth can move without its owners, but the families who move their family office to Singapore usually want to live there as well. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaProperty, housing and public opinion
Property is the point at which foreign wealth touches the daily life of Singaporeans most directly. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaInflows and the risk of illicit funds
The attributes that make Singapore attractive to honest wealth also make it attractive to criminals. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaBalancing openness and integrity
The government has expressed its approach to the inflow in a formula that recurs in official statements. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaSafe Haven: Capital Inflows, Wealth Migration and Their Politics: Comparison with Geneva, Hong Kong and Dubai
Geneva and Singapore share the role of safe haven, although their histories of it differ. Read more Singapore · Gateway to AsiaSafe Haven: Capital Inflows, Wealth Migration and Their Politics: summary
Stability, the rule of law, a strong currency and a deep financial ecosystem draw wealth to Singapore. Assets under management reached S$6.7 trillion in 2025. Read more Singapore · LanguageTalent: Education, Immigration and the Financial Workforce
A financial centre has no mines, fields or factories of its own. Read more Singapore · LanguageUniversities and financial education
Higher education in Singapore began with medicine. Read more Singapore · LanguageEmployment passes and immigration policy
Singapore has always been a city of immigrants, as Part A described for the nineteenth century. The modern policy of recruiting foreign professionals took shape in the 1990s. Read more Singapore · LanguageLocal and foreign talent
Singapore’s population in June 2026 was about 6.21 million, of whom 3.68 million were citizens, about 547,000 permanent residents and 1.98 million non-residents. Read more Singapore · LanguageProfessional qualifications and continuing education
The central institution of professional training in Singapore’s financial sector is the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF). Read more Singapore · LanguageThe competition for talent
Singapore’s efforts have earned international recognition. Read more Singapore · LanguagePractical consequences for firms and professionals
A financial institution that builds a team in Singapore must think about immigration from the outset. The qualifying salary, which rises with age, determines the minimum cost of each foreign hire. Read more Singapore · LanguageTalent: Education, Immigration and the Financial Workforce: the comparison with Geneva
Geneva and Singapore both depend on foreign professionals, but they obtain them through very different legal channels. Read more Singapore · LanguageTalent: Education, Immigration and the Financial Workforce: summary
Singapore has built its financial workforce through three public research universities: the National University of Singapore with roots in 1905, Nanyang Technological University with roots in the… Read more Singapore · TaxTokens as remuneration
Most digital-asset businesses pay part of their people in tokens. Read more Singapore · TaxSection 10(6) and the share plan rules applied to tokens
Singapore has a specific regime for employee share plans. Section 10(6) taxes gains from rights to acquire shares, meaning options and share awards, at the time of exercise or vesting. Read more Singapore · TaxThe deemed exercise rule and the QEEBR deferral
Two features of the share plan regime are relevant to a mobile crypto workforce. Read more Singapore · TaxTax residence of individuals
An individual is resident in Singapore for a year of assessment if he resides in Singapore in the preceding calendar year, except for temporary absences, or if he is physically present or exercises… Read more Singapore · TaxThe pass system
Nobody lives and works in Singapore without a pass. The pass system is in practice a filter that decides which founders and employees Singapore wants. Read more Singapore · TaxRelocating from Switzerland to Singapore
A founder who moves from Zug to Singapore faces a sequence of questions on each side. Read more Singapore · TaxRelocating from Singapore to Switzerland
The reverse move is less common but increasingly seen as families return to Europe. Singapore has no exit tax other than the deemed exercise rule, so the founder leaves with his tokens untaxed. Read more Singapore · StructuringFour ways to hold
A private client with a material digital-asset position has four ways to hold it: personally, through a company, through a foundation or through a trust. Each hub favours a different combination. Read more Singapore · StructuringHolding personally
Personal holding is the default and, for a tax resident of either hub, often the best. Read more Singapore · StructuringHolding through a company
A Swiss holding company for personal digital assets is rarely tax-efficient. The company pays profit tax on realised gains at just under 12 per cent in Zug. Read more Singapore · StructuringHolding through a foundation
Swiss law permits family foundations only for the limited purposes of Art. 335 CC: the costs of upbringing, endowment, support or similar purposes of family members. Read more Singapore · StructuringHolding through a trust
Singapore is a mature trust jurisdiction. The Trustees Act 1967 provides the default powers and the Trust Companies Act 2005 licenses professional trustees. Read more Singapore · StructuringBanks and custodians that take crypto
A private client needs three relationships: a bank for fiat, a custodian for tokens and, often, a bank that will do both. Switzerland is further ahead. Read more Singapore · StructuringInsurance
Insurance for digital assets exists in two forms. The custodian's own crime and specie cover protects the custodian's balance sheet and indirectly the client. Read more Singapore · StructuringThe Singapore family office with Swiss members
The Singapore family-office wave of 2019 to 2023 brought several hundred single-family offices to Singapore under the s. 13O and s. 13U incentives, many of them with substantial digital-asset… Read more Singapore · StructuringReporting: CRS, CARF and the digital-asset wealth statement
Every structure in this chapter is reported. Under the Common Reporting Standard, banks and custodians in both hubs report accounts of non-resident clients to their home tax administrations. Read more