Monday 25 April 2016

Singapore Tax Workbook 2016/17 (19th Edition) launching soon!

The latest edition of the Wolters Kluwer Singapore Tax Workbook will be available for purchase on 6 May 2016! This year’s edition is out later than usual because of the delay of the 2016 Budget announcement. Thanks to the hard work of the author Professor Sum Yee Loong, technical reviewer Associate Professor Clement Tan Kai Guan and editorial team, we are pleased to announce that the book will be available for purchase just slightly more than a month after the Budget announcement on 24 March 2016.


Replete with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants’ (ACCA) taxation examination questions and model answers, the Workbook is an indispensable reference for students preparing for taxation examinations.

Thursday 21 April 2016

Are you tax compliant?


In a recent news report, a total of 108 companies in the Klang Valley have been identified for not submitting their tax returns between 2012 and 2014 and these companies will be visited by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) officers with the purpose of understanding the reason of not submitting the tax returns. According to IRB in these cases, these companies could have either folded or deliberately avoid paying taxes. Tax evaders could face a penalty of up to 300% of what they owed in undisclosed taxes.

Friday 15 April 2016

Re-employment age of older workers lifted!

A decision has now been taken to increase the age from 65 to 67 years. The change means that older employees up to the age of 67 should be given the option to continue working. The current re-employment age is 65, which was outlined in 2012. The Government first set the goal of raising the re-employment age to 67 in 1993.

Singapore currently has a tight labor market, and many employers are already re-employing older workers for their skills and to mentor younger employees or new recruits. Ahead of the changes, the Government will continue supporting these employers who are already employing workers above 65 and will extend the additional wage offset of 3% till 1 July 2017. Separately, a legal provision allowing companies to cut the wage of employees who turn 60 will be removed from 1 July 2017.  

Thursday 7 April 2016

Blogging now taxable

Lo and behold! Singapore bloggers have revealed that they have received a letter from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), requiring them to clarify their income sources, which include products or services received via their websites.

According to the online statement, “Payments in exchange for services performed by social media influencers such as bloggers, You Tubers, etc. can take the form of money, goods or services. All monetary and non-monetary payments/benefits-in-kind are taxable if they are given in return for services rendered or to be rendered by you. Any benefits whether monetary or in-kind provided to your family and friends will be taxable in your name.”

The statement can be viewed here.

Most personal bloggers write for themselves with the idea that whoever who wants to read can choose to do so. When their following grows, they tend to experiment with various forms of advertising to cover the expenses of running the site. Server cost, domain cost as well as the time and other hidden costs usually make up a bulk of the expenses. Hence, one would turn to advertising to earn some revenue to cover the expenses.

Blogging as a taxable income is not something new – countries such as Canada also require bloggers to declare any income through personal blogs. The catch here is whether IRAS decides that your blog is a business, or a hobby. If your blog is a business, which resulted in a profit in previous years, you would probably receive a letter from IRAS soon. For most of the general population who blog as a personal hobby, you should probably be safe!

One month extension for SST returns and payment of tax

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) has announced a one month extension (until 31 July 2021) for the submission of SST-02 forms an...