This post is a summary of the key regulatory updates, official announcements, and policy changes from May 2026 that affect small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore. It is written for the entrepreneurs, founders, and directors who run Singapore private limited companies. This edition covers company and accounting law, tax enforcement, Employment Pass renewals, the governance of artificial intelligence, and other developments relevant to Singapore SMEs.
Company Law
Corporate and Accounting Laws (Amendment) Act 2025 Takes Effect: Four Key Changes for Companies
On 6 May 2026, the first tranche of the Corporate and Accounting Laws (Amendment) Act 2025 came into force, introducing four key changes:
- The maximum fine for breaches of directors’ duties rises from S$5,000 to S$20,000, with up to 12 months’ imprisonment for serious cases.
- Directors convicted of money-laundering offences are now disqualified, alongside an expanded list of disqualifying offences.
- The individual engagement auditor must be named on audit reports, rather than the report being signed in the firm’s name alone.
- Selective off-market share buybacks now require a separate 75% approval from holders of the affected share class, on top of the existing 75% approval from all shareholders.
For founders and directors of private limited companies, the practical effect is greater personal exposure, so major decisions should be properly minuted and supported by due diligence.
Filing Compliance in Focus: Individual Fined S$108,000 for Authorising False ACRA Filings
ACRA announced on 18 May 2026 that an individual was fined S$108,000 for authorising false filings with the Registrar of Companies under the Companies Act. The case is a reminder that the accuracy of information lodged with ACRA is a personal responsibility that cannot be delegated away, and that directors and authorised filers remain liable even when the day-to-day work is handled by others. For SMEs, the lesson is the value of proper compliance discipline: verifying the underlying facts before any filing is authorised, keeping registers and supporting documents current, and engaging a qualified company secretary or corporate service provider so that submissions are accurate and timely.
All Companies Migrated to SSIC 2025 Business Activity Codes
With effect from 9 May 2026, ACRA automatically converted every registered entity’s business-activity classification from SSIC 2020 to the new SSIC 2025 codes, notifying entities whose codes were affected. The 2025 edition adds codes for emerging activities such as the green economy and restructures the information-and-communications categories. No action is required unless a converted code no longer reflects what the business actually does, in which case a change of SSIC should be filed via Bizfile. Because the activity codes a company selects when registering a Singapore company feed into licensing referrals, grant eligibility and statistical treatment, it is worth confirming the new classification is accurate.
New Bizfile eServices Streamline Share Capital Filings
ACRA has added four new eServices under the “Update shares information” function on Bizfile, continuing its shift away from manual general-lodgement transactions toward guided, auto-calculated filings for share allotments, transfers and capital alterations. The structured flows prompt filers for the right information at each step and total the shares automatically, reducing the clerical errors that often slowed manual lodgements. For private companies, this means faster and more reliable turnaround on the share-related filings that arise when bringing in new investors, issuing shares or restructuring a cap table.
Source: https://www.acra.gov.sg/manage/companies/shares/altering-share-capital/
Tax & Accounting Law
Accurate Records and Honest Filing: Accountant Jailed 30 Weeks for Submitting Fictitious Documents to IRAS
In a GST enforcement case publicised in May 2026, a 50-year-old accountant was sentenced to 30 weeks’ imprisonment for submitting fictitious invoices and listings during an IRAS audit of a dormant company he had been authorised to represent. The case underlines that accurate record-keeping and honest dealings with IRAS are core obligations under Singapore’s tax system, and that the duty to file truthfully cannot be delegated away. Deliberately providing false information carries a penalty of three times the tax undercharged, a fine of up to S$10,000, and imprisonment of up to seven years.
Immigration Law
Updated COMPASS Salary Benchmarks Apply to Employment Pass Renewals from 1 July 2026
Employers planning into the second half of 2026 should note that MOM’s latest COMPASS sector salary benchmarks, already in force for new Employment Pass applications since 1 January 2026, apply to EP renewals for passes expiring on or after 1 July 2026. Under the C1 salary criterion, a candidate’s fixed monthly salary must meet at least the 65th percentile of local PMET pay in the relevant sector to score points, and these benchmarks are revised annually. This sits alongside the broader 1 January 2026 COMPASS refresh, which updated the recognised-qualification lists (C2) and the Shortage Occupation List (C5). EP candidates must still reach at least 40 points across the six criteria, and renewals are assessed against the rules in force at renewal rather than at first issuance, so SMEs with EP holders due to renew from July onwards should check each employee’s likely score now to leave time to address any shortfall.
Source: https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits/employment-pass/eligibility/compass-c1-salary-benchmarks
Licensing & Regulatory Compliance
Banks Step Up AI-Based Scam Detection on Business Transactions
On 4 May 2026, MAS, GovTech and the Singapore Police Force launched a proof-of-value exercise with five banks to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect scam-related transactions before money is lost, using historical transaction data to train the models. For Singapore companies, the practical takeaway is that business bank accounts are a prime target for payment fraud and business email compromise, and that banks are moving toward automated risk scoring that may increasingly flag or hold unusual transfers. Finance teams can complement these defences with their own controls, such as requiring dual approval for payments, verifying any change to a supplier’s bank details by phone, and training staff to recognise spoofed payment instructions.
Funding & Startup Ecosystem
Government to Act Against Firms That Take AI Grants While Treating Workers Unfairly
In comments to CNA on 27 May 2026, Minister of State Jasmin Lau, who co-chairs the Economic Strategy Review committee on technology and innovation, warned that companies repeatedly tapping public grants to grow through AI while treating workers unfairly could face government intervention, since public funds are involved. For Singapore SMEs, the takeaway is that grant-funded AI adoption now carries an expectation of fair treatment and reskilling of existing staff, so technology spending should be paired with genuine investment in people rather than short-term cost-cutting.
Tech & Digital Law
IMDA Publishes Practical Lessons on Deploying AI Agents Safely
On 20 May 2026, IMDA released findings from an AI Agents Sandbox run with Google, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and GovTech, which tested how “computer-use” AI agents, the kind that can take actions such as updating records or processing payments rather than just generating text, behave in real-world settings across use cases of differing risk. For Singapore companies beginning to deploy AI agents, the takeaways echo IMDA’s agentic AI governance framework from earlier in 2026: choose suitable use cases, bound what an agent can access and do by restricting its tools and data to the minimum necessary, apply proper access controls, and keep a human accountable for higher-impact actions. The practical message for SMEs is to treat an AI agent’s permissions as carefully as a new employee’s system access, and to put guardrails in place before letting it act autonomously.
Consultations & Future Reforms
New Skills and Workforce Development Agency to Become a Single Touchpoint for Employers
On 5 May 2026, MOM issued a factsheet on the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) Bill, introduced for First Reading in Parliament on 8 April 2026, which will merge SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore into a single statutory board jointly overseen by MOM and the Ministry of Education. For employers, including SMEs, the practical upside is one point of access that combines skills training, career guidance and job-matching with labour-market and skills data, intended to give businesses clearer insights and more timely, relevant training, and to support them in job redesign, workforce transformation and capability building. As roles shift with AI and restructuring, SMEs can expect a more integrated channel for grooming and finding the talent they need once the agency is established.
Source: https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2026/0505-factsheet-on-swda