Tax arrears is at a record low of 0.77% of the total net tax assessed and on-time tax return filing rates have improved across all tax types, says IRAS in its latest Annual Report for Financial Year (FY) 2013/14. ^[1]  On-time tax filing improved from 94% to 95.6% for individuals, and 80.9% to 82.5% for companies. More GST-registered businesses also filed their tax returns on time, with a high on-time filing rate of 93.9%.

Better Service, Improved Voluntary Compliance by Taxpayers

IRAS" continual efforts to make things simple and convenient for taxpayers have helped raise the voluntary compliance level of Singapore"s taxpayers. IRAS expanded the No-Filing Service (NFS) to 1.23 million taxpayers, including 15,000 first-time taxpayers, for the 2014 tax filing season. The mobile-friendly version of myTax.iras.gov.sg enabled users of mobile devices to use selected e-Services without having to download any application

Businesses that choose to switch to e-Filing the Simplified Form C (Form C-S) via myTax.iras.gov.sg are now less prone to errors when filing their tax returns, as they will be prompted to correct certain mistakes in their tax returns before submitting them to IRAS.

To further simplify tax matters for small businesses, eligible small businesses will no longer need to keep physical invoices and receipts with effect from Year of Assessment 2015.

Deterring Non-Compliance

While lowering compliance costs and simplifying tax filing processes, IRAS remained steadfast in deterring non-compliance. Through risk-assessment and data analytics, and coordinated audit and investigation programmes, IRAS uncovered a total of 15,233 non-compliant cases and recovered about S$387 million in taxes and penalties in FY2013/14.

“While we actively promote voluntary compliance, we continue to deter non-compliance and establish a strong presence. By balancing tough measures to recover outstanding taxes with softer methods to encourage voluntary compliance, we help the majority of taxpayers in Singapore pay their fair share of taxes. Through these measures, we seek to maintain the public"s trust in IRAS as a strong and fair tax authority.”

Dr Tan Kim Siew
Commissioner of Inland Revenue

Highlights of FY2013/14 at a Glance

Annual Report

The IRAS 2013/14 Annual Report is available at this link

Tax Statistics at A Glance

The latest tax Statistics are available on the Tax Statistics Webpage here

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore