If you’re a first-time founder in Singapore, here’s a question worth asking yourself right now: when was the last time you actually read the ACRA filing you signed off on — or did you just click “approve” and move on with your day?
As of 6 May 2026, that habit just got a lot more expensive. Singapore tightened the rules on directors’ duties under the Companies Act, and the penalty for getting it wrong personally — not your company, you — has quadrupled.[1]
The headline number
S$5,000 → S$20,000 [1]
Maximum fine for breaching a director’s basic duties under Section 157 of the Companies Act — plus up to 12 months in jail. And post-amendment, a court can now impose both the fine and the jail term together, not just one or the other.[2]
You don’t need to have done anything dishonest
This is the part that catches founders off guard. Section 157 doesn’t just punish fraud — it punishes not acting with reasonable diligence. In plain terms: if you sign off on a filing without checking it, let paperwork slide because you were busy building the actual business, or you’re not entirely sure what your accountant submitted on your behalf, you’re already in the zone this law is aimed at.
And it applies whether you’re a hands-on founder-director or you appointed a friend, family member, or a “resident director” purely to satisfy Singapore’s local-director requirement for incorporation. There’s no lighter version of this rule for a director who’s there in name only — the exposure is the same.[2]
Three mistakes that quietly trigger this
| Common founder habit | Why it’s now riskier |
| Approving annual filings without actually reading them | Counts as failing “reasonable diligence” even with no intent to deceive |
| Not updating ACRA promptly when a director, shareholder, or registered address changes | A stale public record is treated as your responsibility, not an admin slip |
| Letting bookkeeping fall behind so filings are based on old or incomplete numbers | Filing inaccurate figures — even unintentionally — is the exact conduct this rule targets |
What this means if you’re just starting out
You don’t need to become a compliance expert to stay safe here — you need someone whose actual job is to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. That’s the real shift for early-stage founders: it’s no longer enough to split your accounting, your annual filings, and your company secretary duties across three different people (or a spreadsheet and good intentions). When nobody owns the full picture, small gaps turn into the kind of “didn’t realise” mistakes that now carry a S$20,000 price tag.
The good news is this is a solvable problem, not a reason to panic. A proper corporate secretary keeps your statutory filings, director records, and deadlines in order as a matter of routine — so you’re never the one finding out too late that something was overdue.
Don’t let paperwork become a personal liability.
Lionsworld handles corporate secretarial compliance, ACRA filings, and accounting for Singapore startups — so your governance stays clean while you focus on growing the business. If you’re also weighing up a physical presence, our serviced and virtual office options in Singapore give you a real registered address without the overhead of a full office lease.
Sources
- [1] Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Corporate and Accounting Laws (Amendment) Act 2025 — official page, last updated 20 April 2026
- [2] Rajah & Tann Asia, “Singapore Companies Act Revised on 6 May 2026”, 13 May 2026
- [3] Allen & Gledhill, “First Phase of Commencement of Key Changes under Corporate and Accounting Laws (Amendment) Act 2025” (2026); Shook Lin & Bok LLP, Client Update on the Corporate and Accounting Laws (Amendment) Act 2025 (2026)