ACRAConnect newsletter
May/Jun 2025 Issue of ACRAConnect
Audience
Accountants
Accounting entities
Businesses
Corporate service providers (CSPs)
Public
3 July 2025
MAY / JUN 2025
Has Your Company Filed Its Annual Returns?
All Singapore-incorporated companies are required to file their annual returns with ACRA. Annual returns (AR) provide critical information that helps the company’s stakeholders make informed decisions. Filing on time helps to ensure proper and timely disclosure to all stakeholders.
To support filers in your journey to file accurate and complete AR, ACRA has been hosting webinars to guide users through the AR filing process. Our first AR filing webinar on 11 June saw over 1,000 participants. Please sign up for our upcoming session on 9 July 2025 if you have missed the first run. We also welcome your suggestions for future webinar topics here.
For more information, please visit our website. If you are ready to file, begin your process on Bizfile.
Top Five Ways to Strengthen Your Company’s Financial Reporting Practices
We’re in the middle of the financial year for many companies. What steps can your company take to strengthen and review your financial reporting practices? ACRA’s latest Financial Reporting Surveillance Programme (FRSP) report spotlights five critical areas that deserve your attention during this mid-year review:
Financial Statement Presentation: Omission of material disclosures such as critical judgements and estimations uncertainties.
Consolidation/Equity Accounting: Incorrect assessment of influence and control, resulting in misclassification of subsidiaries and associates.
Cash Flow Statement Issues: Inclusion of non-cash items and/or cash flows classified in the wrong categories.
Impairment of Assets: Errors in calculation of recoverable amounts, and insufficient disclosures.
Financial Instruments: Incorrect accounting for complex financial instruments and inadequate Expected Credit Loss assessments for financial assets.
Drawing from a decade of surveillance insights, these findings can help strengthen your reporting quality and avoid common pitfalls. Whether you’re preparing interim reports or planning for year-end closing, our findings in the report will guide you in your reporting journey.
Ready to strengthen your financial reporting?
Education & Career Guidance Playbook to Guide Students on Opportunities in Accountancy
On 27 May, ACRA launched Singapore’s first Accountancy Education & Career Guidance (ECG) Playbook to help education and career guidance (ECG) counsellors and teachers guide students on opportunities in the accountancy profession. The Playbook includes career personas, emerging roles, and pathways to enter the profession. It also dispels common misconceptions about accountancy careers.
At the launch event, “Bridging Classrooms and Careers: Shaping the Future of Accountancy”, ACRA’s Chief Executive Mrs Chia-Tern Huey Min said, “To build a robust pipeline of accountancy talent for the future, we are driving three key thrusts: ensuring good careers, creating quality pathways, and strengthening professional capabilities. The launch of the ECG Playbook marks the beginning of what we hope to be a sustained engagement with the schools and Institutes of Higher Learning. We are working with stakeholders to introduce learning journeys to potential employers for students, and to enhance internship experiences.”
Attended by nearly 100 educators, ECG counsellors, and student leaders, the event had a panel discussion featuring industry thought leaders. Participants gained insights into the breadth of career opportunities the profession provides, and the meaningful role accountants play in driving business success.
Sector Engagement on the Implementation of the CSP Act
The Corporate Service Providers (CSP) Act took effect on 9 June 2025. Under the CSP regulatory framework, entities that perform corporate services by way of business but are not currently registered with ACRA as a Corporate Service Provider, will have a 6-month period until 9 December 2025 to do so. ACRA has developed a set of guidelines [PDF, 1.1 MB] to help CSPs understand and implement their regulatory obligations.
In the lead-up to the Act, ACRA held a series of engagement sessions to prepare the CSP sector for the changes. We organised two webinars in April for over 2,800 participants to explain key provisions, including fit and proper considerations for nominee directors, requirements for remote transactions, and customer due diligence measures. ACRA also partnered with the Chartered Secretaries Institute of Singapore (CSIS) for an in-person seminar attended by over 500 CSP participants. We also hosted a dialogue with key leaders from the sector to share about the Act and hear their views on the upcoming changes.
ACRA will build on this momentum to strengthen ties with the CSP community and to bolster Singapore’s standing as a trusted business hub.
Find out more about the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 and Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2024
Strengthening our Regulatory Regime
The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Miscellaneous Amendments) (CLLPMA) Act 2024, effective from 16 June 2025, introduces amendments to enhance the transparency of companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) to strengthen Singapore’s regulatory framework against the misuse of legal persons.
One aspect of the amendments focuses on the accuracy of registers currently maintained by companies and LLPs:
Mandatory annual verification of registrable controllers’ particulars for all companies, foreign companies, and LLPs.
Non-compliance with requirements to maintain registers and file information with ACRA may result in prosecution and fines of up to $25,000.
The other set of amendments will enhance transparency around nominee arrangements:
New requirements for foreign companies to maintain Registers of Nominee Directors and declare their exemption status during annual filings.
Companies and foreign companies must file information from their private Registers of Nominee Directors and Nominee Shareholders with ACRA’s Central Registers by 31 December 2025, unless exempted.
While nominee status of directors and shareholders will be publicly available, nominator information in ACRA’s Central Registers will only be accessible by law enforcement agencies.
These changes reinforce Singapore’s commitment to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and other financial crimes by improving transparency in corporate ownership and control structures. This ensures Singapore maintains its standing as a trusted international financial and business hub while meeting global standards for corporate governance.
Find out more the Corporate Service Providers Act 2024 and Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2024
Building Capabilities in Sustainability Reporting
ACRA launched the Sustainability Reporting Body of Knowledge (BOK) at the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Preparer Readiness Training event on 19 May. The SR BOK provides a comprehensive framework of essential knowledge areas to guide training providers in developing quality programmes for professionals involved in sustainability reporting.
It is designed to equip professionals with technical skills and competencies in greenhouse gas accounting and sustainability/climate reporting, enabling them to take on roles as specialists in preparing sustainability reports. The BOK has been validated by more than 50 key industry stakeholders including the GSC SRA sub-workgroup, company preparers, assurance providers, professional bodies, and training providers through focus group discussions to ensure that it is aligned to industry needs.
This marks a significant milestone in our commitment to building strong sustainability reporting capabilities in Singapore.
Find out more from the Sustainability Reporting Body of Knowledge [PDF, 1.9 MB]
ACRA's e-Newsletter for professional stakeholders
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