In addition with the existing requirement to maintain the Registers of Registrable Controllers (“RORC”) at registered office,  Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (“ACRA”) has an additional requirement for all companies, foreign companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (“LLP”), unless exempted, to lodge information on the register with ACRA via BizFile⁺ in July 2020.  ACRA will provide Registered Filing Agents with a further notification when the transaction in Bizfile is available for lodgement.

The RORC information lodged with ACRA will be accessible to public agencies in Singapore such as law enforcement agencies. Members of the public will not be able to access the RORC information or purchase any extracts of these lodgements.

Failing to lodge RORC with ACRA when the law takes effect shall be liable upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding $5,000. 

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore has announced legislative changes regarding alignment of Annual General Meetings (AGM) and Annual Returns (AR) timelines with the Financial Year End (FYE) that will take effect on 31 August 2018.
What are the changes?

1)    Change in deadline of AGM and filing of Annual Return

Example : Company with financial year ended (FYE) 31/08/2018 and last year annual general meeting (AGM) held on 31/12/2017. Company is not exempted to hold AGM.
Under Current Rule with 3 rules to comply :

Earliest deadline of AGM is 31/12/2018 and deadline to file Annual return with ACRA is XXXXX (30 days from deadline of AGM)

Under New Rule with 1 rule to comply :

Earliest deadline of AGM is 28/02/2019 and deadline to file Annual return with ACRA is 31/03/2019 (7  months from FYE)

2)    Notify/get Approval from ACRA to change FYE

To prevent companies from arbitrarily changing their FYE, Companies must notify the Registrar of the FYE upon incorporation and of any subsequent change. Approval from ACRA is required if:
(i)            the change in FYE will result in a financial year longer than 18 months or;

(ii)           the FYE has been changed within the last 5 years;
Unless otherwise approved by ACRA, the duration of a company’s financial year must not be more than 18 months in the years of incorporation.
Only FYE of the current and immediate financial year may be changed (provided that the statutory deadlines for the holding of AGM, filing of annual returns and sending of financial statements have not passed);
Companies with an unusual financial year period (e.g. 52 weeks) should notify ACRA via the notification of change of FYE if they want to avoid applying for approval to change FYE every year.