Since 1 November 2007, companies in Singapore are required to file financial statements with ACRA, and filing financial statements in XBRL. With effect from 3 March 2014, the revised XBRL filing requirements under the BizFinx system apply.

WHAT IS XBRL FILING?

XBRL stands for Extensible Business Reporting Language, it is a system for financial and operational business reporting, and is derived from XML Extensible Markup Language. Instead of treating financial information as a static text, XBRL provides an identifying tag for each individual item of data, whether numeric or textual. This tag is computer readable and allows the information to be used interactively.

WHO NEEDS TO FILE XBRL?

Under the revised XBRL filing requirements, Singapore incorporated companies (unlimited or limited by shares) which are required to file their financial statements with ACRA, will be required to file a full set of financial statements in XBRL format, according to a minimum requirement list within the new ACRA Taxonomy 2013. Filing of Option B (Partial XBRL), a filing option under the previous XBRL system (FS Manager), is no longer be available.

• Public / Private companies (limited/unlimited by shares) except those under (a) and (b),- should submit a Full set of XBRL financial statements.
• (a) Specific companies, i.e. commercial banks, merchant banks, registered insurers, finance companies regulated by MAS – Financial statements highlights (FSH)(XBRL) + PDF copy of financial statements
• (b) Companies allowed by law to prepare accounts in accordance with accounting standards other than SFRS, SFRS for Small Entities and IFRS – FSH (XBRL) + PDF copy of financial statements
• Solvent exempt private companies (EPCs) Exempted from filing financial statements, but are encouraged to file with following options: –  Full set of XBRL financial statements or  –  FSH (XBRL)
• Insolvent EPCs Options of: –  Full set of XBRL financial statements; or –  FSH (XBRL) + PDF copy of financial statements
• Companies limited by guarantee – PDF copy of financial statements  (XBRL filing not required)
• Foreign companies and their local branches – PDF copy of financial statements  (XBRL filing not required)

WHEN DOES XBRL NEED TO BE DONE?

When financial statements are going for filing with ACRA.

WHAT ELTOMA CORPORATE SERVICES CAN DO?

If your company is subject to the above criteria and XBRL needs to be prepared and submitted to ACRA then Eltoma Corporate Services can prepare it on your behalf.

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