Closing a company in Singapore: routes, rules and your records

How to close a company in Singapore

Striking off is used when the company has stopped trading or never started business, has no unpaid debts, has no charge on the register, and is not in a legal case or a regulatory proceeding. It owns nothing and owes nothing, and a majority of the directors agree. ACRA may approve the application if it believes the company is not carrying on business. After approval, the process takes at least two months for an application made on or after 20 October 2026. Winding up is used when the company has debts to settle. In a members' voluntary winding up the directors believe the company can pay all debts within 12 months, and the company appoints a liquidator.

Dissolution and liquidation routes

The registry

ACRA. Company officers can file a striking-off application directly, or a corporate service provider can file after a majority of the directors have consented. You do not attach supporting documents, but you confirm the striking-off criteria and give the company number and any cessation date. If other officers hold positions, all or most of the directors must endorse the application within 14 days or it lapses. A false declaration can lead to an investigation. When the company is dissolved, outstanding tax credits move to the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office.

Employees: consultation and notice

The Ministry of Manpower says an employer with a business registered in Singapore and at least 10 employees must notify the Ministry within 5 working days after telling an employee of a retrenchment. That notice applies no matter how many employees are retrenched. An employer with fewer than 10 employees does not have to file it. A separate early alert, sent while the plans are still being made, is voluntary and does not replace the notice that is due within those 5 working days.

For staff who worked in a US state, read final paycheck and WARN rules by state.

Data protection when the company closes

The Personal Data Protection Act. The Personal Data Protection Commission states that personal data means data, whether true or not, about an individual who can be identified from that data, or from that data and other information to which the organization has or is likely to have access. The term is not meant to be read narrowly, and it covers electronic and other forms.

The Personal Data Protection Commission. The Commission publishes the Advisory Guidelines on Key Concepts in the Personal Data Protection Act and decides, from those guidelines, when data about an individual is personal data.

The Personal Data Protection Commission says data counts as anonymized only when there is no serious possibility that a person could be re-identified from the data itself, or from the data plus other information the recipient has or is likely to have, given the safeguards in place. Anonymized data is no longer personal data under the Act. The Commission treats removal of direct identifiers alone as de-identification, and that set can still be re-identified. Because the result can weaken over time, the organization should review it.

Records to keep

Section 199 of the Companies Act 1967. A company must keep accounting and other records that explain its transactions and financial position and that allow true and fair financial statements to be prepared and audited. It must retain those records for at least 5 years from the end of the financial year in which the transactions or operations are completed. The records are kept at the registered office or another place the directors choose, and the directors may inspect them. If the records are kept outside Singapore, statements and returns that allow those financial statements to be prepared must be kept in Singapore and open to the directors.

What this means for a data license

You give the data partner the right to use your records, with personal details removed, for AI research. Personal details are removed before anything leaves your company. Customer and staff details are never shared. You approve each system before anything is shared. To train and test AI that helps people do their jobs. Never for marketing, and never sold as contact lists. You keep ownership of your data, and full use of it in your business. You agree not to license the same records to anyone else. You sign an NDA and the licensing agreement, directly with the data partner, not with Vetrix. The partner is a US-based AI data company. We tell you the data partner's name before you sign. Read what is shared and what is removed, and read the license terms, before you decide.

You need at least 30 staff at peak, or 25 if most of your staff are in the US, and at least 2 years of records.

Related

• Closing a company by country

  Dissolution or liquidation route, registry, employee notice, and data-protection authority by country.

• Winding down

  Order of operations to wind down a company, from approval through taxes and dissolution.

• South Africa

  The CIPC is the registry. One route is Deregistration.

• Spain

  The commercial registry is the registry. One route is Legal-cause dissolution.

• Sweden

  Bolagsverket is the registry. One route is Voluntary liquidation.

• What's shared

  Which records can be licensed, which details never leave, and what you approve.

• Systems

  What common business tools do to company data after you cancel, including each vendor deletion window.

Sources

1. Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. Closing a local company.
2. Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. Striking off a local company.
3. Personal Data Protection Commission. Advisory Guidelines on Key Concepts in the PDPA, 17 May 2022.
4. Personal Data Protection Commission. Advisory Guidelines on the PDPA for Selected Topics, revised May 2024.
5. Ministry of Manpower. Mandatory Retrenchment Notifications.
6. Singapore Statutes Online. Companies Act 1967, section 199.