Which is an ideal jurisdiction for company incorporation in Asia? Singapore and Hong Kong have been dominant players in the Asian region, vying for the position of “the best place to do business.” But the crucial questions are, which of these jurisdictions have an edge over the other? Is incorporating a business easier in Singapore or in Hong Kong?
Strategic location and attractive tax benefits make Singapore the most preferred location for the overseas companies to set up their business. Various options are – opening up a Branch Office, a Representative Office or a Subsidiary in Kolam Ayer . The country also has liberal immigration policies. If the company wants to set up their regional head quarters in Singapore they are also provided with Financial Assistance.
Best Accounting Firms In Central, SG
A key determinant for setting up a business in Kolam Ayer is the tax regime in force. In this regard Singapore boast of being one of the lowest tax jurisdictions in the world. Detailed below is an overview of the tax system and Accounting Firms in Singapore.
Tax jurisdiction Singapore: Taxes are levied on a territorial principle i.e. companies and individuals are taxed on Singapore sourced income. In addition, the Foreign sourced income (branch profits, dividends, service income, etc.) are taxed when it is remitted or deemed remitted into Singapore unless the income was already subjected to taxes in a jurisdiction with headline tax rates of at least 15%.
What Does It Take to Get a Corporate Finance Job?
Tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) is an agreement between parties to transfer domestic tax information. It possesses no benefit to private third party. In fact, the government is the only party getting the benefit. The existence of such an arrangement will affect financial secrecy. It is considered as an important feature for some offshore investors. Experts of offshore banking and investments would not suggest their clients to do business in a country with a TIEA attachment.
TIEA is implemented to avoid a harmful tax practice. According to Organization For The Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the lack of effective exchange of information is one of the key criteria in determining harmful tax practices. It even has a working group aimed to develop a legal instrument that could be used to establish effective exchange of information. The Agreement represents the standard of effective exchange of information for the purposes of the OECD's initiative on harmful tax practices. The OECD even has developed a manual and tool-kit for automating the process of information exchange between countries. It also lists countries, which deemed to be unco-operative. Andorra, Liechtenstein, and Monaco listed by The OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs as unco-operative tax havens.
A recent act by the OECD was forcing tax haven characterized countries to favour for greater transparency and exchange of information. Singapore and Hong Kong was among the countries devoted to such and arrangements with OECD countries. Both of them were categorized as a tax haven country by offshore specialists.
For individuals this could means less privacy and little space to move. Tax haven is great place for an internet-based business. Own a monetized website, create an offshore account in a tax haven country, and you have a tax-free income. However, this strategy would soon be neglected, since the information and exchange agreement would be implemented and propagate rapidly. For your own convenience, offshore investment as a tax avoiding strategy should not be relied on. Contact a well-known CPA's or tax consultants for a better and legal tax minimizing strategy.
Lower Costs - Simplify and Outsource Your Accounting Services
A lot of people who do not understand business will tend to ignore accounting of the business. So why use accounting or accountancy for business?
I have a close friend (with an accounting background) who is married to a man who sells computer components and DIY desktops. She was working in an events management company at first, but because their marriage was on the rocks, she decided to resign from her job to help out with her husband's business.
At first, the computer business was getting less than 20,000 dollars profit per month, but since her entry into the business, the profit began to grow monthly. It eventually exceeded 300,000 dollars profit within her first year of taking over the business. When I asked her how she did it, she answered that all she did was to make sure the accounts was recorded daily. She also ensured that costs were kept under tight control.
Most important of all was that the husband / wife relationship grew as well.
My friend's story taught me a lesson. In running the day-to-day operations of a business, it is necessary to keep track and document all your income and expenses. If marketing and sales activities are always the top priority in any business, then accounting and bookkeeping statements will come as the second most important element.
I have been reading books about entrepreneurs outsourcing accountants and bookkeepers for their business transactions, and this decision has given them a great amount of extra time to focus on the marketing and sales aspects of the business.
Do not even try to Do-It-Yourself by getting accounting software especially so if you do not understand accounting. Even if you do understand accounting, you will not be able to focus on growing you business.
By engaging an outsourced accounting or bookkeeping firm, you will be able to cut down a lot of your costs. At the same time, a third party outsourced firm will be able to verify your business transactions for the whole work year, thus further decreasing the cost in auditing services.
Always have the attitude of outsourcing and not the DIY mentality. While we must try to be an all-rounder in our business, we must also acknowledge the fact that we are not always able to do everything. Instead, delegate tasks that are not directly generating in income to the business.
This is the new generation of doing business - knowing where exactly costs can be easily reduced.
In summary, if you do not take the time to properly analyse your accounts, you will be unable to assess how your business is doing.
With proper bookkeeping to ensure that every transaction is properly filed, you can be assured that generating a quarterly profit/ loss statement and monthly cash-flow statement will be easy and most important of all, accurate and up-to-date.