This year’s tax filing rate is a record high of 95%.

About 900,000 taxpayers e-filed their returns by 18 April. Including 27,000 taxpayers who filed paper returns and 1.13 million taxpayers who were on the No-Filing Service (NFS) this year, the overall filing rate is up from last year’s 94%.

IRAS is pleased that more taxpayers are now filing on time.

Assistant Commissioner, Taxpayer Services Division, Wang Teck Leng said: “We make it convenient for taxpayers to fulfil their filing obligations. Besides the No-Filing Service that made filing a non-event for more than one million taxpayers this year, we had e-Filing service centres located island-wide, and many online channels for taxpayers to self-help”.

Tax Help at the Heartlands 

About 22,000 taxpayers received filing assistance from IRAS officers stationed at e-Filing service centres located island-wide. These centres provided greater accessibility to taxpayers and encouraged them to e-File. Another 43,000 taxpayers received tax filing help at Revenue House during office hours.

Online Filing Assistance Tools Simplified the Filing Process

Over the years, IRAS has introduced a number of self-help services to facilitate tax filing. This tax season, about 32,000 taxpayers checked out the interactive online filing guides at the new e-Learning Portal (eLearn.iras.gov.sg). These guides allowed taxpayers to find out how to go about reporting income or claim reliefs under various scenarios. 

Stand a Chance to Win $50,000 Cash in the “GIRO Your Tax” Lucky Draw

Taxpayers will receive their Notices of Assessment (i.e. tax bill) from May onwards. Unless they are on GIRO, payment is due within 30 days from the date of the tax bill. This year, taxpayers have one more reason to pay by GIRO – they stand to win the top prize of $50,000 cash in the “GIRO Your Tax” Lucky Draw in May 2013! If they sign up for GIRO before 30 Apr, they also stand a chance to win an iPad-mini in our weekly draw!

Taxpayers may sign up for GIRO through the following modes:

1. Any AXS station (for DBS/POSB customers);
2. Online internet GIRO application (for DBS/POSB or OCBC customers);
3. Complete the payment voucher that comes together with your tax bill (for DBS/POSB, UOB, OCBC and HSBC customers); or
4. Complete a GIRO application form. The form with return address can be downloaded at  www.iras.gov.sg.

Penalties for Filing Late

IRAS would like to remind taxpayers who have not filed their tax returns to do so immediately.  A late filing penalty of up to $1,000 will be imposed for late filing.  Taxpayers who need assistance can call 1800 356 8300 or email IRAS via Contact Info > Email Us at  www.iras.gov.sg.

More Taxpayers to Benefit from Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS) by 2015

Under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS) for employment income, employers with 15 or more employees are required to send the salary information of their employees to IRAS electronically. Taxpayers whose employers participate in the AIS enjoy the convenience of not having to manually enter their salary information when they file their returns.

Over the next two years, IRAS intends to extend the AIS to employers with 12 or more employees. This means by 2015, another 100,000 taxpayers will join the existing 1.3 million employees who are already on the scheme, and enjoy the convenience of a simple tax filing process. The table below shows the number of employers and employees under the AIS from 2008 to 2013:

The continued expansion of the AIS will enable IRAS to extend the benefits of the No-Filing Service (NFS) to an even larger group of taxpayers in future. Those who are eligible for the NFS will not need to file their tax returns unless they have additional income to declare or changes to make to their personal reliefs.

All employers, regardless of the number of employees they have, are welcome to join this Scheme any time. Employers can call 1800 3568015 or email  [email protected] to find out more about the Scheme.

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore