Income Taxes, Levy and GST

Income Taxes, Levy, and GST

File income tax return

Income tax is filed with Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). Unsure about the tax filing obligations for your business/company?

Income tax filing for sole proprietorship/partnership/limited partnership/limited liability partnership

If you have newly registered your business or intend to register for one, check out the following guides to learn more.

• Basic Guide for Self-Employed Persons
• Basic Guide for Partnerships

After registering for your business, access the Start-Up Kit for customised information to guide you in your first Income Tax Return filing with IRAS.

• New Sole Proprietorship and Partnership Start-Up Kit

Corporate income tax filing for new companies

If you have newly incorporated a company or intend to incorporate one, check out the following guide to learn more.

• Basic Guide to Corporate Income Tax for Companies

After incorporating your company, access the Start-Up Kit for customised information to guide you in your first filing of the Annual Return with ACRA and Corporate Income Tax Returns with IRAS.

• New Company Start-Up Kit

Learn more about your company’s Corporate Income Tax filing obligations from this video.

Register for GST

You will need to register for GST if:

• Your taxable turnover for the past calendar year has exceeded $1 million or
• You can reasonably expect your taxable turnover in the next 12 months to exceed $1 million

If your yearly taxable turnover does not exceed $1 million, you may still choose to voluntarily register for GST after carefully considering the obligations and responsibilities of being GST-registered.

GST InvoiceNow Requirement

If you intend to register for GST voluntarily, you will be required to share invoice data with IRAS using InvoiceNow solutions via the InvoiceNow network. This new requirement will be implemented in phases:

• From 1 November 2025, for newly incorporated companies (i.e. companies that are incorporated within 6 months from the time they submit their application for GST registration) that register for GST voluntarily.
• From 1 April 2026, for all new voluntary GST-registrants, regardless of incorporation date or business constitution.

The GST InvoiceNow Requirement will be implemented in future for the remaining GST-registered businesses. IRAS will continue to consult industry partners and carefully review the feedback before announcing further details.

A soft launch will commence from 1 May 2025 for early adopters¹ that wish to share invoice data with IRAS using InvoiceNow solutions. Click to read more about the GST InvoiceNow requirement.

¹ Includes existing GST-registered businesses as well as any other businesses applying for GST registration on/after 1 May 2025.

We encourage businesses to plan ahead for the adoption of InvoiceNow solutions or make changes to your in-house accounting systems to be compatible with the GST InvoiceNow Requirement. There are 4 steps:

From now

• Step 1: Ensure that your solution is InvoiceNow-enabled
• Step 2: Register for InvoiceNow and obtain your Peppol ID

From May 2025

• Step 3: Ensure that your InvoiceNow solution is connected to IRAS’ system via Application Programming Interface (API) technology
• Step 4: Activate the feature to transmit invoice data to IRAS

For more information on coming onboard early, please visit IRAS’ website.

How to calculate my taxable turnover?

Company

Total Taxable Turnover = combined revenue, fees and income from:

• All business activities
• Sole proprietorship businesses owned by the company
• Rental of commercial properties
• Rental of furniture & fittings for residential properties

Partnership

Total Taxable Turnover = combined revenue, fees and income from:

• All partnership businesses with same composition of partners
• Rental of commercial properties
• Rental of furniture & fittings for residential properties

Sole Proprietorship

Total Taxable Turnover = combined revenue, fees and income from:

• All business activities
• Self-employed profession or vocation
• Rental of commercial properties
• Rental of furniture & fittings for residential properties

Being GST-registered means:

• You have to charge customers GST for the goods and services you sell locally. The GST collected is called Output Tax.
• You can claim back GST paid on your business purchases (eg: ingredients and materials). This is called Input Tax.
• You have to file GST returns for each prescribed accounting period. If Output Tax is more than Input Tax, you have to pay the difference to IRAS. If Input Tax is more than Output Tax, you will be refunded by IRAS.

Check out the following webpages and video to learn more.

• Applying for GST Registration
• Do I Need to Register for GST?
• Factors to Consider Before Registering Voluntarily
• Overview of GST

Pay Skills Development Levy (SDL)

The SDL is a compulsory monthly levy that businesses have to pay on all employees, to support workforce upgrading programmes and to provide training grants. It is administrated by the SkillsFuture Singapore Agency (SSG).

Learn more about SDL and how to calculate and make payment at the links below.