Claudia was asking about how to register a business in Singapore, and like her initially, isn’t S$65 all you have to pay to start a sole proprietory business? (S$68 if you take the Business Profile offer @ S$3 instead of the usual $5). Then reality strikes.

I found out that:

• you have to top up your own Medisave if you earn more than $6000 as a sole proprietor – there is some formula at the CPF website that gives you an estimate of how much you’d have to fork out
• you have to top it up before you are allowed to renew your licence
• the actual amount to top up can be obtained from the CPF website (just your NRIC and birthdate is needed)
• IRAS will send you reminders anyway
• you will be given an estimate (or exempted) for your first year’s top up figure
• you can veto the estimate for the first year 😛

Most of the information can be obtained from http://www.acra.gov.sg/company/business.html too. Now I know what to do next time when I register my own business. 😛