Singapore Government uses BizFile+, a business filing electronic portal of ACRA. This is made available so that businesses can interact with other government agencies.
The key purpose of BizFile+ is to provide an easy way of submitting statutory filings online to ACRA. For most Singapore entities, the company secretary has access to this e-portal to submit annual returns or make changes to its records.
In Singapore, all registered companies use Singapore Corporate Access (widely known as CorpPass) to conduct online corporate transactions. There are more than 200 government digital services in CorpPass, which includes corporate tax with IRAS and CPF Board.
However, most foreign-owned entities hire professional company secretarial firms to act as Admin in CorpPass to conduct corporate transactions on their behalf.
In Bizfile+, your appointed company secretary can do their tasks such as company incorporation, change of directors, submit annual returns and statutory filings.
ACRA, what is its role?
The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, also known as ACRA, performs a crucial role in the country. It acts as a Company Registrar of the country.
As the regulator of the country, ACRA regulates different types of business, public companies in Singapore, and various corporate service providers.
It also facilitates easy and quick business operations and activities within Singapore. ACRA also takes part in the enforcement of Singapore’s Company Law.
Moreover, the agency needs to maintain a register of various information of businesses incorporated in Singapore. Thus, this information is always available in a public domain and can be easily accessed by means of BizFile+ e-portal.
In this way, an investor will find easy access to the company information, especially in researching the company’s background. ACRA also encourages innovations on the regulations and legislation to produce businesses for great convenience.
BizFile+ eServices and Buy Information
The company and its appointed corporate secretary use BizFile+ e-portal in many ways. These are the commonly used e-services.
- Register company online
- Renew or close a business
- Submit different types of statutory filings online
- Update business address
- Update share information of the company
- Make changes to company officers, controllers, and shareholders
- Access the Unique Entity Number central directory
- Buy entity profile or people profile at iShop@ACRA
How Can You Access the BizFile+
You must have a CorpPass ID to access to Bizfile+ at ACRA. It only means that only permanent residents, Singapore citizens, and selected authorised company secretarial firms can have access to BizFile+.
Sign Up to use BizFile+
With CorpPass, you can log in to BizFile+. You can then conduct corporate transactions with government agencies and there are more than 200 government digital services.
Here are some of the basic steps that you should do to log in to ACRA BizFile+:
- Go to BizFile+.
- Find the section on “For Businesses”
- Choose your business entity structure
- Click on the “Register now” button.
- Login to CorpPass.
- You may need to complete other steps to complete the registration to BizFile+ ACRA.
If you are eligible to utilize the e-portal, then you may hire a company secretary to do the specific task for you.
Changes – You must notify ACRA within 14 or 30 Days
From date of the change, you must update in BizFile+ within 14 days and late filing penalty applies for the following changes:
- Company’s name
- Registered address
- Business activities
- Company officers
- Particulars of company officers and shareholders
For a foreign company (i.e. Branches), you must update in BizFile+ within 30 days and late filing penalty applies for the following changes:
- Foreign company’s name and information
- Authorised representative or/and Directors
- Charter, Statute or Memorandum/Articles
Processing Changes in BizFile+
The e-portal requires approximate 5-15 minutes to do the processing pertaining to the changes in the company’s address.
However, ACRA needs at least 3 days and up to 2 months to update the changes and to notify the other agencies.
If you have some questions on the use of BizFile+ for your company business, then feel free to let us know about your query. Our team is happy to assist you.