On 26 February 2026 the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority announced a review of Singapore’s audit exemption framework. The stated aim is to reduce compliance costs for small companies while keeping adequate corporate governance oversight.
Nothing has changed yet. The current criteria remain in force and no outcome has been published. This explains what is under consideration and who would be affected if it proceeds.
Why ACRA is looking at this
The current thresholds have been in place for around a decade. ACRA’s position is that average company revenues and asset values have grown considerably since they were set, which means a fixed threshold quietly captures more companies each year without anyone deciding that it should.
A company that was comfortably small when the rules were written may now sit above a limit purely through inflation and ordinary growth — and be paying for an audit that the framework never intended to require.
What is under consideration
Higher revenue and asset thresholds
ACRA is reviewing whether to increase the total annual revenue and total assets thresholds. If they rise, companies currently just above a limit would fall inside the exemption.
Subsidiaries assessed on their own
The second proposal is more consequential and has had less attention. ACRA will explore whether subsidiaries might qualify for exemption under specific conditions even where the group does not meet the thresholds.
Under the current framework, a company inside a group qualifies only if the company itself meets the criteria and the whole group qualifies on consolidated figures. That catches a particular and fairly common case: a small Singapore subsidiary of a large overseas parent, audited every year because of its parent’s size rather than its own.
If this changes, it would be the more significant of the two proposals for Singapore subsidiaries of multinational groups.
Where the review stands
- 26 February 2026Review announced
- March 2026Targeted industry consultation began
- 17 April 2026Deadline for public feedback
- OutcomeNot yet announced
Consultation closing is not the same as a decision. Any change would need to work through the usual process before it took effect, and the current framework applies until it does.
What this means for you now
- If you are comfortably exemptNothing changes. A threshold increase would not remove an exemption you already have.
- If you are just above a thresholdYou are the company this review is aimed at. It is still worth establishing your exact position, because the outcome is not decided and the current rules apply to your next financial year end.
- If you are a subsidiary audited because of your groupThis is the proposal to watch. We would not plan around it yet — it is under consultation, not enacted — but it is worth knowing it is live.
- If an audit is required by a lender or shareholder agreementThe review does not touch that. A contractual audit obligation is independent of the statutory one.
What we would advise
Deferring an audit you are currently required to have, in anticipation of a change that has not happened, would be a poor decision. Filing obligations do not pause for a consultation.
What is worth doing is establishing your position under the current rules, so that if the thresholds move you know immediately whether it affects you. Most companies do not have that clarity, which is why the question comes up at year end rather than in advance.
We will update this piece when ACRA publishes its conclusions.
Source
ACRA’s announcement and the current exemption criteria are published on its own site and are the authoritative reference. We have deliberately not restated the threshold figures here, because the whole subject of this review is that fixed figures go out of date.