How to incorporate your business in Malaysia

If the operations of your business is already picking-up, it is the right time to think about taking it to the next level by incorporating it.

Now, your next question would be how to incorporate your business in Malaysia?

Here, we will discuss the overview of how you can incorporate your business. Note that this is only applicable to local Malaysian businesses.

Meet The Minimum Statutory Requirements

First things first: you must have a local registered address. Where do regulators or creditors go if they need something from you? Even if what you have is an internet start-up, you must still have a registered address.

At least one local resident directors is required for your company but there’s no maximum prescribed number of directors. Take note that each director must be at least 18 years of age, not bankrupt nor convicted for any malpractices. Only natural persons are allowed to be directors.

In addition, you will need a corporate secretary that is a natural person and local resident. He/She must be either a member of a professional body prescribed by the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, or is licensed by the Companies Commission of Malaysia.

With regards to shareholders, there must be at least one (at the point of incorporation), and maximum of 50. The minimum authorized capital should be RM 100,000 with paid-up capital of RM2.00.

Incorporation Procedures

You must request for a “name search” that is, apply for “Request for Availability of Name” from the Companies Commission of Malaysia. A nominal fee is required for each name search. Typically, results are available within 1 working day.

Within 3 months after name approval, you must file the necessary incorporation documents with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia – SSM). The Commission will then issue a certificate of Incorporation.

Goods and services tax registration is required if the annual company turnover is more than RM100,000.

Fees

Registration fees from SSM range from RM1,000 to RM70,000 depending on the Authorised Share Capital applied for. For example, if your authorised share capital is not more than RM100,000, the expected fee will be RM1,000. Whereas if your company’s authorised share capital is within the RM1,000,001 to RM5,000,000 range, you can expect a fee of RM8,000 from SSM.

Conclusion

This is just an overview of the incorporation procedures. There are still a lot of things you need to learn before you can smoothly file your incorporation papers on your own.

Instead of doing all of these on your own, it is advisable that you as an excited business owner focus on setting up your business and leave these hassle to reliable companies offer incorporation services that ensure you to incorporate your business in Malaysia smoothly.