To serve you better, generally a tax credit due to you will be refunded automatically within 30 days from the date the credit arises. There are however circumstances wherein your tax credits will not be refunded automatically.
1. What are the circumstances when a refund will not be made automatically?
- If you have other outstanding taxes or penalties due, the tax credit will be used to offset the outstanding liability.
- If your tax credit is less than $15, for your convenience, the credit will be used to offset your future tax liability. However, if you would like the tax credit to be refunded to you, please email to Refund@iras.gov.sg or write to us with the following information. Your request will be processed within 30 days from date the email or correspondence is received.
- State your request for the refund;
- Your Full Name/ Company's Name/ Property Address;
- Tax Reference number (e.g. NRIC/ FIN/ ROC/ Property Tax reference);
- Amount of credit balance due;
- Contact number;
- Email address (if any);
- If you have informed us that you wish to leave the credit in your tax account to offset future taxes.
- If you have made an advance payment in anticipation of a tax assessment.
- If your tax credit is a result of GIRO deductions in respect of your provisional instalment plan, and your tax assessment has not been finalised for that Year of Assessment.
- If you have one or more outstanding GST returns not filed.
- If you are under audit or investigation by the Comptroller.
- If prior attempts to refund the credit have been unsuccessful.
- If you have failed to comply with any of our requests to furnish necessary information to effect the refund.
- If IRAS lacks sufficient information to effect a refund to you.
- If you have not replied to any outstanding assessment enquiries which may have impact upon the tax position.
- If your business or company has ceased registration and there is a credit due to the business or company, please come forward to request for the refund. Refund will only be processed upon receiving your request.
- If there is overpayment as a result of Withholding Tax under Section 45 of Income Tax Act remitted to the Comptroller of Income Tax. Refund claims need to be filed by the local payer who remitted the tax or non-resident whose income was liable to tax. Upon agreement by IRAS that a refund is due, IRAS will inform the local payer or non-resident and the credit will be refunded 30 days from the date IRAS agrees that there was an overpayment of tax.
- There will be no automatic refund to ex-owners of a property for credits that arise from claims approved after the sale of a property. Refunds to the ex-owners will only be processed upon ex-owners' request within the time period stipulated in the letter sent by IRAS to the ex-owner.
- If there are any other circumstances that may not permit the credit to be refunded by IRAS.
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2. When does a tax credit arise?
The following are examples of when a credit may arise:
- Income Tax
- Overpayment
- Repayment
- Amended assessment
- Property Tax
- Overpayment
- Reduction of annual value
- Owner-occupier's concessionary tax claim
- Vacancy claim
- Goods & Services Tax
- Overpayment
- Repayment
- Amended assessment
- Stamp Duty
3. How do I know if I have a tax credit in my account?
- Refer to the Statement of Account sent together with your Income Tax Notice of Assessment or Property Tax Bill.
- Check your account online by logging on to myTax Portal. You may login using your IRAS PIN or SingPass. Once you have logged in, select the "Account Summary" hyperlink on the left hand menu to check your account balance.
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4. How will the credit be refunded?
Generally, if you pay your taxes through GIRO, any refund due to you will be directly credited to the same bank account which you use to pay your taxes. This is a fast and convenient method of receiving your refund.
If you do not have any pre-arrangement through GIRO, we will refund you via a cheque. If there are more than 2 owners to a property, the refund will be issued to the first named owner in the Notice of Transfer.
If you are overseas and the 2 refund modes mentioned earlier (ie cheques or direct credit into your Singapore Bank account) are not a favourable option for you, you can choose to request the refund to be effected either by a bank draft or telegraphic transfer. Please furnish the information stated below in a signed letter and attach a copy of your passport or any official document bearing your signature for us to verify the signature.
Refund via Bank Draft:
- State your request for the credit to be refunded via this channel
- Overseas address
- Currency type
- Your agreement to bear the bank charges
Refund via Telegraphic Transfer:
- State your request for the credit to be refunded via this channel
- Name as per your bank account
- Name and address of overseas banker
- Overseas Bank Account Number
- Bank Swift Code
- Currency type
- Your agreement to bear the bank charges
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5. Does IRAS pay interest if the refund is not made within 30 days?
To demonstrate our commitment to taxpayers, our service pledge is to refund credits due within 30 days. We will pay interest when there is a lapse in service by IRAS to effect the refund. This service initiative took effect on 1 July 2007.
Interest for late refund of credit (for all tax types except GST) arises only when IRAS has taken more than 30 days to refund a credit that is due for refund. For GST-registered entities, the refund due date is one month, three months and six months (from the date IRAS receives the GST returns) for monthly, quarterly and half yearly prescribed accounting periods, respectively.
Find out more about circumstances where credits will not be refunded automatically and hence no interest would be payable.
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6. What is the interest rate for late refunds?
The current interest rate is 5% per annum. This interest rate is subject to review and determined by the Ministry of Finance annually.
7. How is the interest computed?
The interest is calculated starting from the day after the 30 day period that the credit should have been refunded and ending on the day the refund is approved for payment.
Example 1:
Your tax assessment is finalised on 15 Jul 2009 and you have a tax credit of $5,000 to be refunded to you. IRAS is considered to be late if we do not make a refund to you by 14 Aug 2009. If the credit is refunded to you on 30 Aug 2009, interest will be paid on principal sum of $5,000 for the period 15 Aug 2009 to 30 Aug 2009 (16 days) as follows:
$5,000 x 5% x 16/365 = $10.96
You will receive your refund of $5,000 together with the late refund interest of $10.96.
Example 2 (GST-registered entities on quarterly prescribed accounting period):
You submitted the GST return for the period 1 Jan 2009 to 31 Mar 2009 by 30 Apr 2009 and the GST amount refundable was $80,000. IRAS is considered to be late if we do not make a refund to you by 31 Jul 2009. If the credit is refunded to you on 3 Aug 2009, interest will be paid on principal sum of $80,000 for the period 1 Aug 2009 to 3 Aug 2009 (3 days) as follows:
$80,000 x 5% x 3/365 = $32.88
You will receive your refund of $80,000 together with the late refund interest of $32.88. 8. Who should I contact on refund matters?
- IRAS' Mailing address:
Attention: Revenue Accounting Branch / Refund Unit
55 Newton Road Revenue House Singapore 307987
- Email address:
Refund@iras.gov.sg
- Fax number:
(65) 6351 4363
- Helplines:
Individual Income Tax 1800-356 8300
Corporate Income Tax 1800-356 8622
Business Income Tax 1800-356 8300
Clearance 1800-356 8300
Property Tax 1800-356 8300
Goods & Services Tax 1800-356 8633
S45 Witholding Tax (+65) 6356 7012
- For information relating to refund of TV licence fees, please contact Media Development Authority (MDA) at 1800 478 5478 or submit your request using the Feedback form on MDA Online.
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Unclaimed Monies
To check if you have any unclaimed credit with IRAS, please click the categories below: