Company secretary, registered address, and annual filings – for your Hong Kong, China, or Singapore company.
An annual calendar you don’t track. We hold the secretary role, accept government correspondence, file every return on time, and keep the statutory register accurate – year after year, in each jurisdiction.
Annual filings by jurisdiction
Three jurisdictions, three different statutory windows
Hong Kong and Singapore both require a licensed company secretary, but the filings and clocks are different. China doesn’t have a corporate-secretary role at all – the same functions sit with the legal representative and the finance team.
Hong Kong
Licensed company secretary mandatory under the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622). Must be a Hong Kong resident, or an entity with a registered office in HK.
Annual Return (NAR1) filed with the Companies Registry within 42 days of the incorporation anniversary.
Business Registration renewed annually.
Statutory register, directors register, and Significant Controllers Register kept at the registered office.
China (WFOE)
A WFOE doesn’t have a corporate-secretary role the way HK and SG do. The equivalent functions sit with the legal representative (法定代表人) and the in-house treasurer (出纳员) provided by you, and registered with the tax bureau.
The Annual Report to AMR is due by June 30.
Director, address, and capital changes filed through AMR.
Singapore
Corporate secretary mandatory under the Companies Act – must be a qualified Singapore resident.
Register of Registrable Controllers (RORC) filed with ACRA on incorporation, and any change updated within 2 business days.
AGM held within 6 months of financial year-end.
Annual Return filed with ACRA via BizFile+ within 7 months of FYE.
Director, shareholder, and address changes filed within 14 days of the event.
How we work
We find a path that works
Corporate-secretary work isn’t complicated, and firms run the same checklist. Where the role gets interesting is the moment a request goes off the price list.
A bank asks why another entity at your registered address is on the OFAC sanctions list. You need a special licence on top of the Business Registration. An account opening requires an extra document in a specific format. Ownership shifts, a director resigns, an offshore or dormant status needs to be set up or unwound, a VAT refund doesn’t go through cleanly – or you bring us a question nobody on our team has seen before.
The reflex at a standard secretarial firm is to refuse what isn’t routine. Ours is to work the path with you until your bank, the registry, or the counterparty has what they need.
Common questions
What founders ask before they sign up
If your question isn’t here, book a call – we’ll discuss your case in detail.
When does the secretary role start?
From day one. The secretary appointment and registered address are in place the moment the company is incorporated – in Hong Kong and Singapore included in the formation package, in China set up together with the WFOE registration.
The first annual deadline goes on our calendar the day the company is incorporated. NAR1 anniversary in Hong Kong, AGM and AR windows after the financial year-end in Singapore, AMR Annual Report by June 30 in China. We start working on each one well before the window closes.
Can I use a virtual office as the registered address?
In Hong Kong and Singapore, yes – a registered address through a licensed provider is standard practice for non-licensed industries (consulting, trading, services, marketing). The address handles government correspondence and is sufficient for opening a fintech account. We provide registered addresses in both jurisdictions.
The exception: banking-licensed industries (MSO, payment services, securities), or applications to high-street banks in Hong Kong or Singapore – most regulators and most major banks require a physical office lease, not a virtual address. We tell you which side you’re on during the initial call.
In China, a WFOE can be registered at a virtual office – but that limits banking options, and a virtual address won’t qualify for VAT export refunds later. Common practice: rent a virtual or incubator-space office for the first few months, then switch to a physical office once operations grow.
What happens if I miss a filing deadline?
Each jurisdiction has its own penalty pattern. In Hong Kong, the NAR1 late-filing fine starts at HKD 870 and escalates with time past the deadline; an unpaid Business Registration puts the company’s right to operate at risk. In China, missing the AMR Annual Report by June 30 lands the company on the Abnormal Operations List (the bank-freeze risk noted in the China card above). In Singapore, ACRA may issue a late-filing fee, then a summons (up to S$5,000 for the company and officers in default).
Our work is to make this not your problem. Every deadline is on the calendar from day one, with a buffer. We start documenting and filing weeks before the window closes, not days.
How do I change the owner or director?
It depends on the jurisdiction – and the gap between Hong Kong/Singapore and China is significant.
Hong Kong and Singapore – relatively straightforward. Director, shareholder, and address changes are filed with the Companies Registry (HK) or ACRA (SG). For share transfers in Hong Kong, stamp duty of 0.2% applies on the value transferred. Most director-change filings clear within days and remotely; share transfers with HK stamp-duty processing land within one to two weeks.
China (WFOE) – a different scale of complexity. An equity transfer goes through three layers in sequence: a board resolution accepting the change, tax pre-clearance with the State Taxation Administration, and finally the SAMR equity-change filing. Realistic timeline: eight to fourteen weeks end-to-end. The seller pays 10% withholding tax on the capital gain.
Changing the legal representative (the 法定代表人) in a WFOE is its own document-heavy process – Articles of Association amendment, board resolution, application to SAMR, plus the practical work of updating banks, tax authorities, company seals, and operating licences. Local examiners interpret the rules differently across cities and districts, so the realistic timeline depends on where the WFOE is registered.
Whichever jurisdiction you’re in, we walk the full sequence with you before any filing lands.
Everything you might need for your international business across jurisdictions.
The specific items we handle most often:
- Apostille, document translation, and legalization
- Issuing or obtaining a Certificate of Good Standing, share certificates, lease contracts, or other non-standard documents a bank or counterparty might ask for
- Statutory register reconstruction when records have fallen out of sync – common on companies taken over from a previous provider
- Coordination with the registry on official correspondence – objections, queries, document requests from Companies Registry, ACRA, or AMR
- Voluntary deregistration / closure – in China this includes the tax-clearance step, which is typically the longest piece at three to six months
- Dormant company maintenance – keeping a paused Hong Kong company in good standing at the minimum required service level
- Corporate-record changes and Business License amendments – ownership, business scope, registered capital, company name, legal representative, registered address
- VAT export refund filings
- Import-export licence registration for China WFOEs (Customs, SAFE, CIQ)
- Trademark registration
Book a free 30-minute call.
You explain your company – where it’s incorporated, and what your goals are. We’ll tell you what we can handle, and how.
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