The perfect way to take your business to the next level is by incorporating it. Company incorporation opens up the company to a number of corporate benefits including Limited Liability tax choices. In case you do not want to become a Limited Liability Company, then you have to ensure that your business or company is fully incorporated.

Undertaking the whole incorporation process can be tiresome. But, approaching the matter in a more organized manner can help make it fast and fun.

Here is a strategy on how to incorporate a company in Singapore or any other location for that matter. There are two basic steps taken when looking to incorporate a business or company.

These include the following:

  • General preparation to get started
  • Form filing
General Preparation to Get Started

In this segment, there are a number of measures that should be taken.

  1. Make a decision.

Decide on whether or not your company should be incorporated. Have the pros and cons that tag along with incorporation at your fingertips. Have a clear picture of what you want for your company or business in future. Make that decision.

  1. Appoint a Board of Directors

It is important that you, together with the shareholders of your company appoint a board of directors. Assign a few individuals a number of titles and let the shareholders pick the rest.

  1. Consult the shareholders

When looking to incorporate a company, all the stakeholders or shareholders of the company should be informed of these proceedings. The shareholders should also agree on the decisions made pertaining the incorporation process.

  1. Decide on the filing- C corporation or S corporation

The standard filing for any basic business is C Corporation filing. On the other hand, when the company has less than a hundred shareholders, it can be filed as an S corporation.

  1. Hire a Corporate Lawyer

The incorporation process can be really tiresome. This is because it involves a lot of paperwork. Understanding the terms and policies that come along with incorporation can also be pretty hard. This and many more are the reasons why you need a corporate lawyer. To guide you in your decisions and also handle the paperwork.

 

Form Filing

This is the second segment of the incorporation process. It involves a number of steps.

  1. Contact your state’s secretary of state office

This is the first significant move to incorporation. The office of state is the office that handles all matters pertaining to a company’s incorporation. In some scenarios, other offices like the Business Bureau need to be consulted.

  1. Acquire the proper documents

These documents are handed over by the state office. These include a number of different documents that require different information. The charges for acquiring these forms differ depending on the content and use.

  1. Make the incorporation payments

Incorporation fee varies depending on the state. Each document contained in the articles for incorporation is usually charged at eighty to a hundred dollars each. You can also hasten the process by paying an additional fee.

  1. File an information form’s statement

This involves providing/filing pretty basic information about the company. Information needed is such as personal information on corporate members, information on board members, the exact address of the corporation, any vacant posts or changes that have occurred in leadership among others.

  1. Have your corporation registered under the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS)

After registering with the state, you need to have your company registered with the IRAS. This applies to both C corporation and S corporation.

That is pretty much all there is to the incorporation of a company or business. A few details such as the relevant body for handling company incorporation issues and the charges may differ depending on the business’s primary location. Let’s now have a look at what benefits are open to a business/company once they are incorporated.

Benefits of business/company incorporation

As an incorporated business/company, some of the things that you can now do are such as:

  • Make the business legit
  • Demarcate your personal liability
  • Publicize your company
  • Increase investment capital
  • Have a standing legacy even after you
  • Transfer shares among corporate members
  • Offer stock options to the members of staff

Summary

That is pretty much all there is to incorporating a business. With this information at hand, the exercise will be very simple and fun because you have all the details with you. Keep in mind that a business/company’s incorporation is a very important step when it comes to taking a business to the next level.

By Chakraborty

Dr Chakrabarty is the Chief Innovation Officer of IntuiComp TeraScience. Earlier she was Assistant Professor of Delhi University, a QS ranked university in India. Before that she has held research positions in IIT Mumbai, IIT Chennai and IISc Bangalore. She holds 2 patents and over 20 research publications in her name which are highly cited. Her area of research is in smart technologies, integrated devices and communications. She also has a penchant for blogging and is an editor of Business Fundas.