- Activation of Customs Account
As part of our pro-enterprise and one-stop business facilitation initiative, ACRA has worked jointly with Singapore Customs to provide an integrated service for new business entities that wish to engage in trading activities to activate their Customs Account upon successful registration with ACRA.
After activation of the Customs Account, new traders can use the UEN Custom Accounts to apply for import, export or transshipment permits or certificates through TradeNet® on the following day.
We do not issue certificates as you are no longer required to display a copy of the certificate at your business address. However, if the business entity wants to open a bank account or apply for licences from other government agencies or need to produce proof of registration, you may purchase a business profile online.
The applicant is given an option to purchase the business profile at the point of registration and is only required to pay a fee of $3.30 instead of the usual fee of $5.50 per copy. Once payment is made, the system will send the business profile to the applicant's email address as stated in the application to register the new business entity.
ACRA, in collaboration with the Singapore Network Information Centre (SGNIC), has implemented a one-stop service for the registration of business entities and reservation of domain names. Business registrants can now reserve a domain name (ending with ".com.sg" or ".sg") upon successfully registering their business entity online via ACRA's BizFile system. An applicant can reserve up to five preferred domain names and will be immediately notified of the reserved names that are available for registration.
EnterpriseOne (One Network for Enterprises) is a multi-agency initiative managed by SPRING. EnterpriseOne aims to help local enterprises find the answers they need to start, sustain and grow their businesses. ACRA has implemented an interface with EnterpriseOne to allow customers to subscribe to EnterpriseOne Newsletter at the point when the business entity has been successfully registered online. By subscribing to the monthly newsletter, the subscriber will receive:
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Latest Government announcements and news from over 30 agencies,
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Updates about Government Assistance Schemes, and
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Updated Frequently Asked Questions in EnterpriseOne’s database.
ACRA has implemented an interface with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) to allow customers to register for Goods and Services Tax (GST) upon successfully registering their business entity online. In most cases, registering for GST is compulsory if the turnover of an entity exceeds $1million for a continuous period of 12 months OR when the person operating the business reasonably expects the turnover to exceed $1million for the next 12 months.
On 24 February 2011, ACRA launched a new value-added service to allow new business entities to apply for a corporate bank account after successful registration with ACRA. This pilot phase allowed the new business entities to open their bank account with DBS. This is an important initiative as business entities are most likely to open a corporate bank account in order to start business in Singapore. From 1 December 2011, new business registrants may also choose to apply for a corporate bank account with OCBC.