When you assign your employee to work for another company under a secondment arrangement, you may recover salary and staff related costs from that company. The secondment is regarded as a provision of human resource services i.e. there is a supply. Generally, the recovery of expenses relating to the secondment is subject to GST.
On this page:

Concession

As it is not uncommon for companies within a corporate group to second staff to each other, IRAS allows companies not to charge GST when all the following conditions are satisfied:

  1. No extra fees are charged to the company that the staff is seconded to;
  2. Both the seconding company and the company which the staff is seconded to  are related under Section 6 of the Companies Act (e.g. parent and subsidiary);
  3. The seconded staff is working only for one company at any point in time;
  4. The company which the staff is seconded to has total control over the staff;
  5. No input tax that relates to the secondment of staff is claimed.

Example: Concession for Secondment of Staff

Your company assigns its employee, John, to work for Company A. The total employment cost incurred by your company is $10,000.

Your company is related to Company A under the Companies Act. John is working under Company A's instruction and is only working for Company A.

Your company need not charge GST for the provision of John's services when you recover the $10,000 from Company A.

FAQs

I second my staff to my related company and charge a mark-up. What is the GST treatment?

When you charge a mark-up to your related company, the concession does not apply as you have not satisfied this condition: "No extra fees are charged to the company that the staff is seconded to".

GST is chargeable on the full value of the staff cost (i.e. salary, CPF contribution and other related staff expenses) and the mark-up  recoverable by you.

I provide service to my related company. If I bill for the service, as well as recover the staff related cost together as a lump sum, what is the GST treatment?

The recovery of staff related cost will follow the GST treatment for the main supply of service.

E.g. You provide consultancy service to your subsidiary. In the midst of providing this service, you also incur some staff related expenses which you will bill as a lump sum to your subsidiary. If the provision of consultancy service is a standard-rated supply, the entire lump sum will be subject to GST.

Related Content