The Singapore Company Compliance Calendar: Every Recurring Deadline, In The Order It Falls

Last updated: 6 September 2026 · Author: SBC Team

Almost every deadline a Singapore private company owes hangs off one date: its financial year end. From that date, ACRA — the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority — gives a non-listed company six months to hold its annual general meeting and seven months to file its annual return. IRAS, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, wants an estimate of chargeable income within three months of the same date. Everything else is either monthly, fixed to a calendar date, or triggered by something changing inside the company.

This guide sets out the whole obligation set on one page, grouped by what triggers each item rather than by which agency receives it. Use the table as the reference and the sections below for detail.

The Master Compliance Table

Anchored To Your Financial Year End

Your financial year end (FYE) is the pivot. You choose it at incorporation, and five obligations then count forward from it every year.

Close the Accounts and Prepare Financial Statements

Financial statements are prepared under the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS), or SFRS for Small Entities where the company qualifies. Everything downstream waits on this: if the ledger is not closed, the auditor cannot start and the annual return has nothing to attach.

Work Out Whether You Need an Audit

A private company is exempt from audit if it qualifies as a small company. The test sits in the Companies Act 1967: the company must be private and meet at least two of three criteria in each of the two immediately preceding financial years — total revenue of not more than S$10 million, total assets of not more than S$10 million, and not more than 50 employees. A company in a group also tests the group’s consolidated figures.

Hold the AGM, or Dispense With It

A non-listed company holds its annual general meeting within six months of FYE. A private company can dispense with the AGM where all members agree, or where financial statements are sent to members within five months of FYE and no member requires a meeting. Dispensing still creates paperwork: the resolution and the circulation of accounts are both documented and kept.

File the Annual Return With ACRA

The annual return is a filing, not a meeting. A non-listed company files it through BizFile within seven months of FYE, and it cannot be filed before the AGM is held or dispensed with. It confirms the officers, shareholders, share capital, registered office and FYE as at the date of filing.

Financial statements that accompany the return are filed in XBRL, a structured data format ACRA reads automatically. Not every company files them: solvent exempt private companies are treated differently from insolvent ones and from companies with corporate shareholders, and the template depends on size and type. Confirm your category on acra.gov.sg first. Our complete guide to annual return filing in Singapore walks through the filing step by step.

File ECI With IRAS

Estimated Chargeable Income is your early estimate of taxable profit, filed within three months of FYE. There is a waiver: no ECI is due where annual revenue is not more than S$5 million and the ECI is nil. The conditions and current thresholds are published on iras.gov.sg.

Anchored To The Year Of Assessment

Singapore taxes on a preceding-year basis. Profits for a financial year ending in 2026 are assessed in Year of Assessment 2027. The corporate income tax return is due by 30 November of the Year of Assessment, and the headline corporate tax rate is 17%.

Which form applies depends on the company:

• Form C-S — a simplified return for Singapore-incorporated companies with annual revenue at or below S$5 million, whose income is taxed only at the prevailing corporate rate and which claim no reliefs such as carry-back of losses or group relief.
• Form C-S (Lite) — a shorter version of Form C-S for companies that meet the C-S conditions and have annual revenue at or below S$200,000.
• Form C — the full return, for every company that does not qualify above. It is filed with the financial statements, tax computation and supporting schedules.

ECI is an estimate filed within three months of FYE; the return is the final position filed much later. Both are owed.

Monthly And Quarterly Obligations

CPF contributions. Central Provident Fund contributions are payable for Singapore citizen and permanent resident employees each month. They are due for the month they relate to, and late payment interest applies once payment passes the 14th of the following month. Rates vary by age and wage band — the current tables sit on cpf.gov.sg.

Skills Development Levy. The SDL is payable on every employee rendering services in Singapore, including foreign staff and short-contract hires. It is a small percentage of monthly remuneration, subject to a minimum amount and a capped salary band, submitted with the CPF contribution. Employers of foreign staff who owe no CPF still owe SDL, which is the part most often missed.

GST F5 returns. A GST-registered company files a Form F5 for each accounting period, usually quarterly, within one month of the period ending. The GST rate has been 9% since 1 January 2024. Registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million, and you have 30 days to register.

Payroll. Salaries are paid within seven days of the end of the salary period under the Employment Act, with itemised payslips and employment records kept. The requirements sit on mom.gov.sg.

Anchored To A Calendar Date

One obligation ignores your financial year. By 1 March each year, employers report each employee’s employment income for the preceding calendar year to IRAS. Employers on the Auto-Inclusion Scheme submit electronically, and participation becomes compulsory once an employer reaches the employee count IRAS specifies. Everyone else gives employees the completed IR8A by the same date.

Triggered By A Change, Not A Date

These have no annual slot. The clock starts when something happens inside the company, which is why they get missed.

• Appointment or resignation of a director or company secretary — lodged with ACRA within 14 days. A company must not be without a secretary for more than six months, and must always have at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore.
• Change of registered office address or office hours — lodged within 14 days.
• Allotment of new shares — a return of allotment is lodged within 14 days, showing the shares issued, the consideration and the allottees.
• Transfer of existing shares — lodged through BizFile, and the register ACRA maintains updates on lodgement. Stamp duty is a separate obligation to IRAS.
• Register of Registrable Controllers — the RORC records who ultimately controls the company. It must be updated within a short statutory window after the company learns of a change, and the current window is stated on ACRA’s RORC page.
• Change of financial year end — notified to ACRA, with approval required in defined cases, such as where the new financial period exceeds 18 months or where the FYE was already changed within the preceding five years.
• Change of company name — passed by special resolution, then lodged with ACRA. The new name takes effect on approval, and the company then updates its business documents, bank records and licences.

A corporate secretarial provider files these as they arise. If you handle them internally, make lodgement part of the decision itself, so the resolution and the filing happen in the same sitting. Our company secretarial services cover this event-driven layer alongside the annual cycle.

Ongoing, Rather Than Periodic

Three obligations apply continuously.

1. Statutory registers and minute books. Registers of members, directors, secretaries, controllers and charges, plus minutes of meetings and resolutions. These are the company’s own records, kept current, not filings.
2. Accounting records retained for five years. Invoices, receipts, bank statements, contracts, payroll records and supporting schedules, kept five years from the end of the financial year they relate to. The duty survives the company’s closure.
3. An accessible registered office. A physical Singapore address, open to the public for at least three hours during ordinary business hours each business day. A residential address may be used under the Home Office Scheme with approval.

Your First Year Runs On Different Numbers

First-year deadlines confuse founders because they count from incorporation rather than from a full trading year. Your first financial year starts at incorporation and runs to your chosen FYE, so it can be shorter or longer than twelve months, and once the period exceeds 18 months ACRA’s approval requirements apply. The first AGM and first annual return count forward from that first FYE, so an unusual first period moves both.

Tax follows the same logic. Your first Year of Assessment depends on when that first period ends, and where it spans two calendar years the profits may be apportioned across two Years of Assessment.

What Actually Goes Wrong

A director accumulates filing defaults. Late annual returns attract penalties, and ACRA can debar a director who leaves filings outstanding, so that person cannot take new appointments until the defaults are cleared. The consequence attaches to the individual, not only the company.

A dormant company assumes it owes nothing. Dormant describes activity, not exemption. A dormant company still files its annual return with ACRA, though it may qualify for relief from preparing financial statements and may apply to IRAS for a waiver of its income tax return. Both reliefs have conditions, and neither is automatic.

A financial year end change quietly moves everything downstream. Shifting the FYE by three months moves the AGM, the annual return and the ECI deadline with it. Teams update the accounting software, forget the compliance calendar, and then file against a date that no longer exists.

The corporate secretary is assumed to have filed. Appointing a provider does not transfer the legal duty, which stays with the directors. Ask for the BizFile confirmation after each lodgement, and pull your company’s business profile from ACRA once a year to check the register matches reality.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the annual return due in Singapore?
A non-listed company files its annual return with ACRA within seven months of its financial year end, and only after the AGM has been held or validly dispensed with. It is filed through BizFile. Listed companies work to a shorter window, so confirm your company type on ACRA’s site.

What is the difference between the annual return and the tax return?
They go to different agencies and cover different things. The annual return goes to ACRA and confirms your corporate particulars — officers, shareholders, share capital and registered office. The tax return goes to IRAS and reports taxable profit for the Year of Assessment. Filing one does not satisfy the other.

Does a dormant company still have to file?
Yes. A dormant company files its annual return with ACRA on the same timeline as an active one. It may qualify for relief from preparing financial statements, and it may apply to IRAS for a waiver of its income tax return, but both depend on meeting the published conditions and neither is automatic.

Do I have to hold an AGM?
Not necessarily. A private company can dispense with the AGM where all members agree, or where financial statements are sent to members within five months of the financial year end and no member asks for a meeting. You still document the decision and circulate the accounts, and the annual return still follows.

How long must a Singapore company keep its records?
Five years from the end of the financial year the records relate to. That covers invoices, receipts, bank statements, contracts, payroll records and the working papers behind your tax computation. IRAS can ask for them within that window, and the duty survives the company’s closure.

What happens if I miss an ACRA deadline?
ACRA imposes a late lodgement penalty, and the amount rises the longer the filing stays outstanding. Persistent default can lead to composition offers, prosecution, or debarment of the directors from new appointments. File late rather than not at all, since clearing the backlog is what lifts a debarment.

If you would rather have the annual return, the AGM paperwork and every event-driven ACRA lodgement handled on schedule, our team can run the calendar. See our company secretarial services.