We refer to the letter by Mr. Stanley Jeremiah (“Taxman, cut the red tape" ST Online Forum, 31 Dec).

Parent relief is a gesture to recognise taxpayers who put effort and resources into supporting their elderly parents. The parent relief is designed as a fixed amount for each elderly parent being supported, and is to be allowed only to one claimant in any year of assessment. As the duty for caring for the parent is often shared in varying ways among family members, it is not practical to apportion the relief in an equitable manner to all. Each family can decide on the one person to claim the parent relief in any year of assessment and make its own arrangement to benefit from parent relief.

A taxpayer who meets the conditions for claiming the parent relief may make the claim when he files his tax return. For those who have been allowed the relief in the past, we would pre-fill the relief in the electronic tax return for them on the assumption that they continue to meet the conditions for claim; if they no longer meet the conditions for the relief, they should indicate so by removing the pre-filled relief from their tax returns.

Mr. Jeremiah suggested that we give the claimants a reasonable time, say 14 days, to get back to IRAS as to who among them would be claiming the relief, before IRAS take action to withdraw the relief.

We audit tax assessments to ensure that claims are correctly allowed to all taxpayers. If the conditions for claim have not been met, like in Mr Jeremiah's case where more than one sibling had claimed the relief, we would withdraw the wrongful claims from all the claimants and send them letters to explain why the claims were disallowed. The family members may then decide who among them would claim the relief and inform us accordingly.

This has been found to be a more effective way to get claimants to agree on the person to claim the relief. Nevertheless, we will review and improve the existing way of administering the parent relief. We thank Mr. Jeremiah for his feedback.

We will allow the parent relief to either Mr. Jeremiah or his brother as soon as we receive their confirmation as to who would be claiming the parent relief.