Audit Exemption in Singapore: Does Your Company Qualify?

Accounting Solutions Singapore Editorial Team · Last reviewed 1 October 2026

Most small Singapore companies don’t need an audit. Whether yours is one of them comes down to a short test in the Companies Act, and it’s the same test for every private company. Below: how the test works, a worked example, and the things you still have to do even when you’re exempt.

At a glance

The small company test, step by step

1. Is the company private during the financial year? If it stops being private at any point in the year, the small company exemption doesn’t apply.
2. Pull three figures from your financial statements, which must be prepared under the accounting standards: total annual revenue, total assets, and the number of full-time employees at the end of the financial year.
3. Count how many you meet. You need at least two of the three: revenue of S$10 million or less, total assets of S$10 million or less, 50 employees or fewer.
4. Check it over the right years. For an established company, that’s the two most recent consecutive financial years. For a company less than two years old, ACRA tests the current financial year instead.
5. Part of a group? Then go to the group test below.

You don’t need to be an exempt private company to qualify. A company with corporate shareholders can still be small.

Example (illustration only)

Both companies below are private, and have a 31 December year end. We’re checking whether each is exempt for the financial year 2026, which means looking at 2024 and 2025.

DEF Pte Ltd meets only the assets test in both years. Revenue is over S$10 million and it has more than 50 employees, so it fails the two-of-three test in each year.

If your company is part of a group

A company in a group is exempt as part of a small group only if both of these are true:

• the Singapore company is itself a small company, and
• the whole group, including any foreign entities, meets at least two of the three criteria for the past two consecutive years, using the holding company’s consolidated financial statements.

Once a group qualifies, it stays qualified until it fails the two-of-three test for the two most recent consecutive years. ACRA also says a subsidiary has to assess whether it belongs to a small group even if it doesn’t prepare or file consolidated statements. If you’re working through a group structure, our group consolidation page explains how consolidated figures are put together.

When a company stops being exempt

A small company loses the exemption if it ceases to be a private company during a financial year, or if it fails to meet at least two of the three criteria for the two most recent consecutive financial years.

What an audit exemption does not change

Being exempt from audit is not the same as being exempt from reporting.

• Financial statements. You still prepare them, and the filing requirements for them don’t change. See our unaudited accounts service for how they’re prepared when there’s no audit.
• Annual return. It’s still filed with ACRA every year.
• Tax. You still file with IRAS: the Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) within three months of your financial year end (companies with annual revenue of S$5 million or less and nil ECI don’t need to file it), and Form C-S or Form C, which is filed online by 30 November. Check IRAS for the current year’s dates. Our corporate tax page covers the filing.
• Records. Keep your accounting records. IRAS expects them kept for five years.

When you might still choose an audit

An exemption is permission, not an instruction. A bank, an investor or your own shareholders’ agreement may ask for audited accounts, and some regulated businesses have audit requirements under their licence that are separate from the Companies Act. If that applies to you, check what the licence or agreement says.

Questions we get asked

Do I need an audit for a company that’s just been incorporated? A company less than two years old is tested on its current financial year. It needs to be private and meet at least two of the three criteria in that year.

Is a dormant company treated differently? Yes. Section 205B of the Companies Act exempts dormant companies from audit, and that isn’t limited to private companies. We cover what dormant companies still file on our dormant company page.

Does the exemption apply to every financial year? It applies to financial years starting on or after 1 July 2015, and it’s tested each year, so a company that was exempt last year isn’t automatically exempt this year.

Where do the figures come from? From the company’s financial statements, prepared under the accounting standards. Revenue and total assets are taken from the same statements you’ll file with ACRA, including any XBRL filing that applies to you.

I qualify. Do I need to tell ACRA I’m exempt? ACRA’s page on the small company concept doesn’t describe a separate application. The exemption is determined by the test above, which is why we suggest keeping a short note of the figures you used each year.

Sources

• ACRA, Audit exemptions: Small company concept
• Companies Act 1967, sections 205B and 205C and the Thirteenth Schedule, on Singapore Statutes Online
• IRAS, e-filing deadlines for Form C-S / Form C and Estimated Chargeable Income

This is general information, not professional advice for your specific situation. Thresholds and dates can change, so confirm them on ACRA’s and IRAS’s websites before relying on them.