Taxation

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Filing of tax returns on time is important for both individuals and companies. With many tax schemes for individuals and companies, having a professional firm on your side will ensure that you have a peace of mind when it comes to your tax obligations. This frees you to focus on the strategic issues that help you remain competitive.

We have a suite of services for both individuals and companies. Choose from a yearly to a monthly commitment depending on your business needs.

GST Filing Services

Complementing our GST Compilation Services, we can help your company to meet its quarterly GST filing obligations.

Goods and Services Tax or GST is a broad-based consumption tax levied on the import of goods (collected by Singapore Customs), as well as nearly all supplies of goods and services in Singapore. In other countries, GST is known as the Value-Added Tax or VAT. The current GST rate is 8%.

GST exemptions apply to the provision of most financial services, the supply of digital payment tokens, the sale and lease of residential properties, and the importation and local supply of investment precious metals. Goods that are exported and international services are zero-rated (0% GST).

Companies with an annual turnover exceeding S$1 million must register for GST (compulsory registration). Companies that do not exceed S$1 million in turnover, depending on their unique situations, may also choose to register for GST (voluntary registration).

Complementing our GST Compilation Services, we can help your company to meet its quarterly GST filing obligations. The scope of our GST Filing Services include:

  • Review and e-filing of GST returns, and assist with the claiming of pre-registration input tax claims
  • Advice on GST treatment of day-to-day business transactions
  • Perform GST due diligence reviews
  • Support in tax audits/ tax investigation process with IRAS where necessary

Let us assist you in your company’s GST matters. You will be engaging one of the most established locally grown companies providing accounting services in Singapore. Contact us today.

The GST return and payment are due one month after the end of the accounting period covered by the return.

GST Accounting Period Filing and Payment Due Date
Jan – Mar 30 Apr
Apr – Jun 31 Jul
Jul – Sep 31 Oct
Oct – Dec 31 Jan

If you have been granted special GST accounting periods, the due date to submit your returns is one month from the last date of the special accounting period.

A GST-registered business must file a ‘Nil’ GST return even if there was no business activity during the accounting period. If your business has ceased, you need to apply for cancellation of GST registration.

FAQ

  • For non/late submission of GST F5/ F8 returns, IRAS may:
  • With effect from 1 April 2018 – impose a late submission penalty of S$200 immediately once the GST return is not filed by the due date. A penalty of S$200 will continue to be imposed for every completed month that the GST F5/F8 return is outstanding (subject to a maximum of S$10,000 for each outstanding F5/F8 return).
  • Issue an estimated assessment of the tax due and the amount is subject to late payment penalties. The estimated assessment and late payment penalties will only be revised upon receipt of the overdue GST return.

Tax due must be paid within one month from the end of each accounting period. For non/late payment, a 5% penalty will be levied on the amount of tax unpaid by the due date. An additional penalty of 2% per month on tax remaining unpaid after 60 days from the due date of the prescribed accounting period (subject to a maximum of 50% of the outstanding tax) may also be.

You may claim pre-registration GST but you have to satisfy both the general rules for input tax claims and the pre-registration GST rules.

General Rules for Input Tax Claims

  1. The goods or services must have been supplied to you. For imported goods, the goods must have been imported by you;
  2. The goods or services are used or to be used for the purpose of your business;
  3. Local purchases must be supported by valid tax invoices addressed to you, or simplified tax invoices at the time of claiming the input tax;
  4. Imports must be supported by import permits which show you as the importer of the goods;
  5. The goods or services must be used for the making of taxable supplies (i.e. standard-rated supplies and zero-rated supplies) or out-of-scope supplies (e.g. third country sale of goods), which would be taxable supplies if made in Singapore, in the course or furtherance of your business;
  6. The input tax claims are not disallowed under Regulations 26 and 27 of the GST (General) Regulations; and

You have taken reasonable steps to ascertain and concluded that the goods or services were not part of a Missing Trader Fraud arrangement.

You may apply to cancel your GST registration if you are not liable for registration. However, if you were previously registered on voluntary basis, you must remain registered for at least 2 years before you can cancel your registration.

You may also cancel your GST registration if you are certain that the taxable turnover for next 12 months will be S$1 million or less due to specific circumstances, (e.g. termination of a high value sale contract from a major customer or large-scale downsizing of business). You will have to substantiate your basis of projection with supporting documentation.

When you register for GST, you are allocated quarterly GST accounting periods according to your financial year-end. Your GST accounting periods are not automatically adjusted whenever there is a change to your financial year end.

Depending on your business needs, you may write in to IRAS to request for a change in filing frequency via myTax Mail in myTax Portal on IRAS’ website. Your request will be subjected to IRAS’ approval.

With effect from 1 Jan 2020, GST will be introduced on imported services:

  1. Reverse Charge (RC)
    The recipient of the services will account for GST on the services he imports, as if he were the supplier. He may claim GST as his input tax, subject to normal input tax recovery rules. This applies to Business-to-business transactions.
  2. Overseas Vendor Registration (OVR) regime
    From 1 Jan 2023, GST will be extended to Business-to-Consumer imported non-digital services, through the OVR regime. Digital services which are currently subject to GST will remain taxable under the extended overseas vendor registration regime. Consequently, from 1 Jan 2023, all Business-to-Consumer supplies of imported remote services, whether digital or non-digital, will be taxed by way of the extended OVR regime.

Generally, input tax incurred in the making of exempt supplies is not claimable unless the De Minimis Rule is satisfied. The De Minimis Rule allows GST-registered businesses to claim input tax on exempt supplies.

To satisfy the De Minimis Rule, the value of the exempt supplies has to be less than or equal to:

  1. Average of S$40,000 per month; and
  2. 5% of the total value of all taxable and exempt supplies made in that period.

Corporate Income Tax Services

The filing of Corporate Income Tax as well as the Estimated Chargeable Income for a company is a critical compliance obligation that must be met. Late filing or failure to file may result in heavy penalties for the company and/or its officers. Find out more on how we can assist you in meeting your obligations.

All Singapore incorporated companies are required to file financial statements with ACRA, except for those which are exempted. As an established provider of accounting services in Singapore, we serve all our clients with the same level of care and professionalism.

According to the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards, a complete compilation of financial statements should comprise the following documents. Note that the information required is of the financial year that is ending or has just passed:

  • Preparing and filling of Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) to IRAS
  • Preparing and filing of corporate income tax returns and tax computations
  • Assistance with withholding tax compliance matters and filling of Form S45
  • Attend to queries raised by IRAS
  • Assist with tax audits and investigations initiated by IRAS
  • Reviewing corporate tax matters for due diligence purposes

Do not get caught unaware or miss the deadline for the filing of your corporate income tax returns. Contact us today to find out how we can assist you in getting a peace of mind on your corporate tax matters.

Corporate tax submission date

From YA 2020, e-Filing of Form C-S/ C is compulsory for all companies. The extended filing deadline of 15 Dec, which was initially introduced in 2012 to encourage companies to e-File their Corporate Income Tax Returns, will no longer be available from 2021. From YA 2021, all companies will be required to e-File their Corporate Income Tax Returns by 30 Nov.

ECI submission date

All companies including new companies are required to file ECI within three months from the end of their financial year except for companies that qualify for the administrative concession and those that are specifically not required to file.

Withholding tax (for income payments to non-residents) submission date.

As a payer, you are required to e-file and pay the withholding tax to IRAS by the 15th of the second month from the date of payment to the non-resident.

FAQ

Your company does not need to file the ECI for that particular YA if it meets the following criteria:

  1. Annual revenue is not more than $5 million for the financial year; and
  2. ECI is NIL for the YA.

The following entities do not need to file ECI:

  1. Foreign ship owners or charterers for whom the Shipping Returnhas been or will be submitted by the local shipping agent;
  2. Foreign universities;
  3. Designated unit trusts and approved CPF unit trusts;
  4. Real estate investment trusts that have been granted the tax treatment under Section 43(2) of the Income Tax Act; and
  5. Any other specific case granted waiver to furnish ECI by IRAS, e.g. via an advance ruling issued.
  • Eligible companies that satisfy the following three conditions will enjoy the tax exemption scheme for the first three consecutive YAs:
  • Incorporated in Singapore;
  • Tax resident in Singapore for that YA; and
  • Total share capital is beneficially held directly by no more than 20 shareholders throughout the basis period for that YA, where all of the shareholders are individuals or at least one shareholder is an individual holding at least 10% of the issued ordinary shares of the company.

While the company may not be in a taxpaying position with the Tax Exemption Scheme for New Start-Up Companies, it is nonetheless still required to file the Form C-S/ C to IRAS to confirm eligibility and make a claim for this tax exemption scheme by the filing due date.

Some new companies operate more than 12 months before closing their first set of accounts. When this happens, the first set of accounts covers more than 12 months.

Generally, the basis period cannot exceed 12 months, so the profits or losses must be apportioned and attributed to two different YAs.

The company should directly identify the income earned and expenses incurred for each of the two YAs, based on the actual dates the income was earned and the expenses were incurred. If this cannot be done, time apportionment basis can be applied (i.e. apportion based on number of days in the corresponding YAs).

Personal Income Tax Services

Let us to help you handle the preparation and filing of your personal income tax. We can also assist companies in the paperwork they need to provide their staff for the latter’s tax filing requirements.

Every individual or tax resident in Singapore who earns more than S$22,000 per year in Singapore needs to file personal income tax returns. This is especially critical for individuals who are part of partnerships or are sole proprietors and taxed at an individual level for their income derived from the partnership or business.

Let us to help you maximise your deductions and benefits allowable under the law and reduce your tax burden where possible.

We can also assist companies to in the preparation of returns of employee’s remuneration (Form IR8A) and tax clearance (Form IR21).

We also assist in attending to queries from IRAS should the need arise.

Contact us today to find out how we can help you.