6 Mar 2007
It is the tax-filing season again. This year, IRAS has introduced a few initiatives to make the filing process easy for various groups of taxpayers.
Tax Filing No Longer Taxing for 45,000
IRAS has embarked on a pilot project to further simplify tax filing for two groups of taxpayers. The first group of taxpayers, about 35,000 of them, are those with only dividend income of $20,000 or less and are therefore eligible for tax refund on the dividend. As details of all dividend income are sent to IRAS directly from the Central Depository (Pte) Limited, IRAS would calculate the tax refund for them and send them their Notice of Assessment without having them filing their tax return. They can expect to receive their tax refund cheque by end Jul 07.
The second group of taxpayers, about 10,000 of them, are those who have a straightforward tax position - where their salaries are already transmitted by their employers to IRAS under the auto-inclusion scheme for employment income and where their claims for personal relief have remained unchanged for the past 2 years. IRAS would compute their income and reliefs, and send them a Notice of Assessment by Jun 07.
Under this pilot project, there will be no return sent to taxpayers and no filing required of them as well. However, taxpayers could still take a look at their information pre-filled at the e-Filing system, if they wish to. If these taxpayers have other sources of income besides those already auto-included or new relief claims to make, they would have to e-file by 18 April. IRAS will collate feedback from the taxpayers involved in the pilot run and consider extending the "No-Return-No-Filing" system to more taxpayers next year.
New Taxpayer Services
IRAS has also introduced additional avenues to provide greater convenience to those taxpayers who may need help with tax filing, such as:
- IRAS tax officers to serve taxpayers in the heartlands; and
- E-filing help for hawkers at Tampines Street 11 Hawker Centre.
1. IRAS tax officers to serve taxpayers in the heartlands
As a service initiative to provide greater accessibility to taxpayers and to encourage them to e-file, IRAS will station its tax officers at 3 community clubs during office hours from 5 Mar 2007 to 18 Apr 2007, to assist taxpayers in e-Filing. Volunteers will also continue to provide e-Filing assistance to taxpayers at 32 CitizenConnect Centres and eClubs over weekends from 17 Mar 2007 to 15 Apr 2007.
2. E-Filing help for hawkers at Tampines Street 11 Hawker Centre
To promote e-Filing among the hawkers, IRAS is partnering the Tampines Street 11 Hawkers and Merchants Association to provide e-Filing assistance to their hawkers. The Tampines Street 11 Hawker Centre is the first in Singapore that is enabled with wireless Internet connection. IRAS officers have trained staff of the Association to assist hawkers to e-file there at their convenience.
By now, taxpayers should have received their income tax forms or letters for them to file their tax for the Year of Assessment 2007. Last year, about 916,000 or 3 in 4 taxpayers who had to file their taxes did so electronically using IRAS PIN or SingPass. IRAS has sent this group of taxpayers their IRAS PIN or SingPass letter so that they can continue to e-file their tax this year. Taxpayers who are paying taxes for the first time are also issued the IRAS PIN for them to file their taxes electronically.
For those who are not sure whether they are required to file their tax, IRAS has introduced a new service for them to check whether they need to file their tax. All they need to do is to SMS "filetax<space>NRIC No" to 9116 4900. They will receive a SMS reply advising them whether they need to file their tax. Those who need to file their tax and have not received their tax forms or letters can request a SingPass or IRAS PIN online or call 1800-356 8300 (salaried employees) / 1800-356 8611 (self-employed) to request a hardcopy form.
The e-Filing system is now available. The due date for e-filing is 18 Apr 07, and 15 Apr 07 for hardcopy returns. Taxpayers are encouraged to e-file early to avoid the last-minute rush. Those submitting paper returns can post their returns in any SingPost box by 12 midnight of 15 April and will still meet the deadline. They need not submit their forms personally at Revenue House. More information on tax filing is available at www.iras.gov.sg.
INLAND REVENUE AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE