Most Singapore-incorporated companies must file their financial statements with ACRA in XBRL format together with the annual return. Companies that are not publicly accountable and whose revenue and total assets both do not exceed S$500,000 file Simplified XBRL plus a PDF of the financial statements; most other companies file Full XBRL. Solvent exempt private companies and qualifying dormant relevant companies are not required to file financial statements at all.
XBRL is the step most companies think about last and should think about earlier. It is not a formatting exercise bolted on at the end of the year, because the tagged data has to agree to the financial statements the auditor signed. If the two disagree, the fix is never in the tagging software. This article sets out which category your company falls into, when the filing is due, and how XBRL sits in the sequence after your audit.
What is XBRL, and why ACRA requires it
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is a machine-readable format in which each figure in a set of financial statements carries a tag identifying what it is, so that revenue is recognisable as revenue rather than as a number in a particular position on a page.
ACRA’s reason for requiring it is analysis rather than storage. Tagged filings let the regulator, lenders, and anyone searching a company’s record compare figures across companies and across years without reading PDFs. That is also why the tagging rules matter: a figure tagged to the wrong element is, from the regulator’s point of view, a wrong figure.
Who files what: the four XBRL categories
ACRA sorts filers into categories by what kind of company they are and how large they are.
| Company type | What it files |
| Smaller and non-publicly accountable companies | Simplified XBRL financial statements plus a PDF copy of the financial statements |
| All other Singapore-incorporated companies required to file | Full XBRL financial statements |
| Banks, finance and insurance companies regulated by MAS | XBRL FSH (Banks) or XBRL FSH (Insurance) plus a PDF copy |
| Companies limited by guarantee, and companies using accounting standards other than SFRS, SFRS(I) or IFRS | PDF copy only |
| Solvent exempt private companies filing voluntarily | Optional: Full XBRL, Simplified XBRL, or PDF |
The S$500,000 test that decides Simplified vs Full
To file Simplified XBRL, a company must not be publicly accountable and must meet both of the following for the current financial year:
- Revenue does not exceed S$500,000
- Total assets do not exceed S$500,000
Both tests must be met. A company with revenue of S$400,000 and total assets of S$900,000 does not qualify and files Full XBRL. Where the company has subsidiaries, associates or joint ventures, the assessment uses the consolidated figures.
One point causes persistent confusion, so it is worth stating plainly. The S$500,000 test for Simplified XBRL is not the same as the small company test for audit exemption, which looks at revenue, total assets and employee headcount against S$10 million and 50 employees. A company can be exempt from audit and still have to file Full XBRL. The two regimes use different thresholds for different purposes. For the audit exemption criteria, see When Is Audit Required in Singapore? ACRA Thresholds and the Small Company Exemption
Which companies do not have to file financial statements at all
Two groups sit outside the filing requirement, subject to meeting the statutory conditions in full:
- Solvent exempt private companies. An EPC is a private company with not more than 20 members and no corporate shareholder. If it is solvent, meaning able to meet its debts as they fall due, it is not required to file financial statements with ACRA, though it may choose to file voluntarily.
- Dormant relevant companies that meet the statutory criteria, including total assets not exceeding S$500,000 and the absence of significant accounting transactions during the financial year.
Being outside the ACRA filing requirement is not the same as being outside the preparation requirement. The company still has to prepare financial statements and present them to members, and it still has to satisfy IRAS separately.
When XBRL is due
XBRL is filed as part of the annual return, so it inherits the annual return deadline rather than having one of its own.
| Company type | Annual return deadline, and therefore the XBRL deadline |
| Listed company | Within 5 months after financial year end |
| Non-listed company | Within 7 months after financial year end |
A company may only file its annual return after holding its AGM, or after sending the financial statements to members where it has dispensed with the AGM. Since the financial statements have to be audited before they go to members, the audit is the first domino in this sequence, not the last. The full sequence and the surrounding deadlines are set out at /blog/singapore-annual-filing-calendar/.
How XBRL connects to your audit
The XBRL submission must agree to the audited financial statements. That single rule explains most of the trouble companies encounter.
The order of operations is fixed:
- The audit is completed and the auditor signs the report
- The financial statements are finalised, with the audit report and directors’ statement attached
- The financial statements are laid before members at the AGM, or sent to members where the AGM is dispensed with
- The figures are tagged into XBRL, agreeing to the signed statements
- The annual return is filed with ACRA, with the XBRL attached
When the XBRL preparer finds a figure that does not add up, the instinct is to adjust the tagging until it balances. That is the wrong move. If the tagged data cannot be made to agree with the signed financial statements, either the tagging is wrong or the financial statements need to be revisited with the auditor before filing. Filing an XBRL set that contradicts the signed accounts creates a public record that disagrees with itself.
Because of this dependency, an audit that finishes close to the deadline compresses the XBRL step into whatever days are left. Companies that run into late filing penalties usually did not have an XBRL problem; they had an audit timing problem.
The tagging errors ACRA sees most often
- Revenue tagged gross where the financial statements present it net, or the reverse
- Related party balances not separately tagged, leaving the disclosure incomplete
- The wrong reporting framework selected, for example SFRS(I) where the statements were prepared under SFRS for Small Entities
- Comparative figures omitted or tagged to the wrong period
- Cash flow statement items misclassified between operating, investing and financing
- The PDF attached being a draft rather than the signed set, so it does not carry the audit report and directors’ statement
- Simplified XBRL used by a company that fails one of the two S$500,000 tests
The last two are the ones that trigger a rejected or amended filing most often. Check the category before preparing, and attach the signed set.
Frequently asked questions
What is XBRL filing in Singapore?
XBRL filing is the submission of a company’s financial statements to ACRA in a machine-readable tagged format, made together with the annual return. Each figure carries a tag identifying what it represents so the data can be compared across companies and years.
Who needs to file XBRL in Singapore?
Most Singapore-incorporated companies required to file financial statements with ACRA. Companies limited by guarantee, and companies using accounting standards other than SFRS, SFRS(I) or IFRS, file a PDF only. MAS-regulated banks, finance and insurance companies file the relevant XBRL FSH template plus a PDF.
What is the difference between Full XBRL and Simplified XBRL?
Simplified XBRL captures financial statement highlights and must be accompanied by a PDF of the financial statements. Full XBRL captures a much more detailed set of data. Simplified XBRL is available only to non-publicly accountable companies whose revenue and total assets both do not exceed S$500,000.
Can a company that is exempt from audit still need Full XBRL?
Yes. The audit exemption thresholds and the XBRL thresholds are different. A company can qualify as a small company for audit exemption purposes and still exceed the S$500,000 revenue or total assets test, in which case it files Full XBRL.
When is the XBRL filing deadline?
XBRL is filed with the annual return, so the deadline is 7 months after financial year end for a non-listed company and 5 months for a listed company.
Do solvent exempt private companies file XBRL?
They are not required to file financial statements with ACRA at all. If a solvent EPC chooses to file voluntarily, it may do so in Full XBRL, Simplified XBRL or PDF.
Does the XBRL have to match the audited financial statements?
Yes. The tagged figures must agree to the signed financial statements. If they cannot be reconciled, the tagging or the statements need to be corrected before filing rather than adjusted to force a balance.
What happens if XBRL is filed late?
The annual return it accompanies is late, which attracts ACRA’s late lodgment penalty of S$300 where the filing is made within 3 months after the due date and S$600 where it is later than that.
Get the audit done early enough for a clean XBRL filing
AG Singapore audits and prepares financial statements to a published 30-day completion target for qualifying engagements, which leaves room for tagging and filing rather than a scramble.
Check out AG’s audit services and financial reporting services and let us know if you need our consultant. We’d love to go through with you!
