Over 332,000 taxpayers have signed up to pay their taxes through GIRO ^[1] at the conclusion of IRAS’ three-year ‘GIRO Your Tax’ campaign. This brings the total number of taxpayers who pay taxes through GIRO to 1.5 million.

About 60% or $27 billion of Singapore’s annual tax revenue is collected through GIRO. This also represents the lion share of tax payment transactions, accounting for some 12.9 million payments or 87% of the total. 

Launched in 2010, the ‘GIRO Your Tax’ campaign aimed to promote the payment of tax by GIRO. Individuals who are already on GIRO or who signed up for GIRO to pay their income tax and property tax during the campaign had the chance to win attractive cash prizes in three yearly lucky draws from 2011 to 2013.

To bring the campaign to a successful close, a grand lucky draw cum GIRO carnival was held at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park this morning. Gracing the event as its Guest-of-Honour was Ms Jessica Tan, Chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance, Trade and Industry.

Benefits of Paying by GIRO

Speaking at the event, Ms Tan encouraged taxpayers to make the switch from paying by cash or cheques to GIRO. Doing so allows them to enjoy the convenience of GIRO while contributing towards Singapore’s productivity by streamlining how taxes are collected. Eliminating the laborious task of manually processing cash or cheques, electronic GIRO payment frees up resources and improves the efficiency of the tax payment process. This translates to the better use of taxpayers' dollars.

With an annual average collection cost of $2.86 for a GIRO taxpayer, compared to that of $5.32 for other payment modes like cash/cheques, GIRO is a more cost effective payment mode.

Top Three Grand Prize Winners

Three GIRO taxpayers have won themselves the top three cash prizes of $50,000, $25,000 and $15,000 at the ‘GIRO Your Tax’ Grand Draw 2013. The event’s Guest-of-Honour, Ms Jessica Tan, presented the prizes to the three lucky winners.

The top three winners are:

• 1st Prize- Mr Lew Hone Tick (30, Procurement Executive)
• 2nd Prize- Mr Yew Cheng Soon (44, Remisier)
• 3rd Prize- Mr Kwon Jae Youn (41, Lecturer)

Top prize winner, Mr Lew Hone Tick said, “I used to pay my tax using internet banking. My friend told me to pay by GIRO as it’s very convenient. This is my first time winning a lucky draw, I’m really surprised! I plan to donate part of the winnings to charity.”

"GIRO Your Tax"; Grand Draw top 3 prize winners (from left to right): Mr Yew Cheng Soon, Mr Kwon Jae Youn and Mr Lew Hone Tick,
with the Guest-of-Honour, Ms Jessica Tan (Chairperson, Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance, Trade & Industry), and
Dr Tan Kim Siew (Commissioner of Inland Revenue).

Apart from the three top winners, 300 taxpayers each won a $200 cash prize with another 300 winners bringing home $100 each. GIRO taxpayers may wish to refer to the winners' list ^[2]  to see if they are one of the lucky winners. The list of winners will also be published in The Straits Times on 28 May 2013.

With the final grand draw, IRAS would have given out a total of $360,000 in cash prizes to 1,209 lucky winners over three years.

Easy ways to sign up for GIRO

To encourage more taxpayers to sign up for GIRO payments, IRAS has made the process as simple and convenient as possible. For example, payment slips attached to the tax bills are pre-filled with taxpayers’ particulars. All these taxpayers need to do is add in their bank account number before sending it back to IRAS via a pre-paid postage form. Taxpayers can also enjoy instant approval when they apply for GIRO at any AXS station (for DBS/POSB customers) or through Internet banking (for DBS/POSB or OCBC customers).

Next step: Encouraging corporate taxpayers to pay by GIRO

For the road ahead, IRAS will focus its efforts on encouraging corporate taxpayers to pay their taxes by GIRO. Currently, only 23% of the 57,000 taxable companies, or 13,500, are on GIRO. Collectively, they pay a total of $8.5 billion of taxes through GIRO. Growing the number of GIRO corporate taxpayers would lead to greater productivity gains which ultimately benefits taxpayers.

Acknowledging e-Filing Volunteers

At today’s event, awards of recognition were also presented to IRAS' volunteers for their excellent service and dedication. This year’s Volunteer e-Filing Service (VES) saw 13 volunteers given the Outstanding Volunteer Award, while 10 received the Commendation Volunteer Award.  Another eight volunteers were honoured with the Long Service Award.

For media queries, please contact:

Walter Lim
Director (Corporate Communications Branch)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
Tel: 6351 2076
Fax: 6351 3050
Email: [email protected]