We refer to the letter ‘Tax arrangements being worked out only now?’ (TODAY Voices, 21 Sep 2017) by Mr. Charlie Lau.  

All self-employed individuals including private-hire car drivers have to file income tax returns so long as their annual net income exceeds $6,000.   

Since 2015, IRAS has engaged the Sharing Economy Association and digital/sharing economy players like Uber and Grab to disseminate tax filing information to the private-hire car drivers for their compliance.  

The pre-filling of income information in the tax returns of self-employed taxpayers is an initiative to bring greater convenience for taxpayers in their tax filing. The collaboration with stakeholders to automate the transmission of income information directly into our tax systems is done on a progressive basis, sector by sector.  

We have collaborated with some sectors, such as the property agencies and insurance agencies, and it will be available for the private-hire car drivers. We will continue to explore collaborations with stakeholders/third parties, when they are more ready, to bring the tax filing convenience to more taxpayers.

Kelly Wee (Ms)
Director (Corporate Communications)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore