Self-employed, sole-proprietors and precedent partners have to prepare statement of accounts. IRAS provides guides and samples to help business owners learn more about preparing statement of accounts.
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Requirement to prepare statement of accounts

Under the law, business owners have to prepare statement of accounts so that their business income and expenses can be readily determined.

'Statement of accounts' comprises:

  • Profit and loss account; and
  • Balance sheet.

The information will also be useful for you to know whether your business is making a profit or a loss. In addition, you will be able to report your income in the tax return easily during tax filing period if you have prepared your statement of accounts.

Guides and working sheets

If you need help in preparing the statements of accounts, please refer to the following sample template:

You can also refer to the page on Tax obligations by industry, trade or profession or engage an accounting professional to assist you in your tax filing.

Pointers on preparing statement of accounts and 4-line Statement

Description:Pointers:
Statement of accounts

Statement of accounts comprises the Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet.

If your business revenue is $500,000 or more

Please submit your certified* statement of accounts by uploading it as a single attachment under the ‘Consolidated Statement’ page of the e-Form B/ B1.

*'Certified' means signed by the sole-proprietor of the business, self-employed person or precedent partner of the partnership, indicating that the accounts are true and correct.

If you are unable to submit the certified statement of accounts via e-Filing, please email to us via myTax Mail (Email Us) or mail it to IRAS at:

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
55 Newton Road
Revenue House
Singapore 307987

You are only required to submit your certified statement of accounts once to IRAS. If you have uploaded your accounts in the e-Form B/ B1 when e-Filing your Income Tax Return, you are NOT required to submit it to IRAS again via email or mail.

 

If your business revenue is less than $500,000

You need not submit the certified statement of accounts if your business revenue is less than $500,000. However, you must still prepare the accounts and keep proper records of your business transactions as IRAS may request for them to be submitted for verification.

Assets in the Balance Sheet

You must maintain a fixed assets schedule to record details of the assets used in your business.

If your revenue is $500,000 or more and you are claiming capital allowances on your business asset, please submit a fixed asset schedule showing full details of the assets acquired and disposed of in the year.

The details required are:

  1. A description of the asset
  2. Cost of the asset;
  3. Payment details, e.g. in cash or on hire-purchase terms;
  4. Date of purchase;
  5. Date of sale

Grouping of certain expenses

Certain expenses may have been grouped together and presented as one item. For example, you may have grouped the staff salary, Central Provident Fund (CPF), Foreign Worker’s Levy (FWL) and Skills Development Levy (SDL) as one expense item in your Profit & Loss Account.

It is not correct to group different expenses as one item in the Profit & Loss Account. Please state each item separately.

Expense items subject to statutory rates

Certain expense items such as employer’s CPF contributions, FWL and SDL are subjected to statutory rates.

Such claims cannot exceed the statutory contribution rates.

Amounts exceeding the statutory contribution rates are not allowable as deductions.

If excess employer's CPF, FWL and SDL contributions have been included in the Profit & Loss Account, please add back the amount to the net accounting profit/ loss to arrive at the Adjusted Profit/ Loss.

Expense classified as "General" in the Profit & Loss Account
Aside from "General", expenses may also be classified as "Operating", "Miscellaneous" and "Others".

If expenses are classified under "General", "Operating", "Miscellaneous" or "Others" in the Profit & Loss Account, please give a breakdown of the expenses with a detailed description of the amount applicable to each item.

Please note that private and capital expenses should not be included as they are not allowable business expenses.

If disallowable expenses have been included in the Profit & Loss Account, please add back the amount to the net accounting profit/ loss to arrive at the Adjusted Profit/ Loss.

For details on the allowable and disallowable business expenses, please refer to Business expenses and deductions.

Expenses that are not deductible
Private and domestic expenses and capital expenses should not be deducted for income tax purposes.

Please do not include private and domestic expenses and capital expenses in the Profit & Loss Account. For details on the allowable and disallowable expenses, please refer to Business expenses and deductions.

If disallowable expenses have been included in the Profit & Loss Account, please add back the amount to the net accounting profit/ loss to arrive at the Adjusted Profit/ Loss.

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