Common Errors Made by Payers

The date of payment is defined as the earliest of the following dates:

1. When the payment is due and payable based on the agreement or contract, or the date of the invoice in the absence of any agreement or contract (credit terms should not be taken into consideration);
2. When payment is credited to the account of the non-resident or any other account(s) designated by the non-resident, not necessary a bank account;
3. The date of actual payment.

You are required to take into consideration all the above-mentioned dates and declare the earliest date as the date of payment in the WHT form.

The date of payment is defined as the earliest of the following dates:

1. When the payment is due and payable under the following scenarios:
   1. Director's fees approved in arrears
      For director's fees approved in arrears, the director has already rendered the requisite services for the accounting year concerned. However, the director's fees must be disclosed to and approved by members of the company before they can be paid to him. Hence, the earliest date on which the director is entitled to the director's fees, is the date the fees are voted and approved at the company's AGM.
   2. Director's fees approved in advance
      For director's fees approved in advance, the director may not have rendered the requisite services for the accounting year concerned when the fees are approved at the company's AGM. Hence, the earliest date on which the director can be entitled to the director's fees, is as and when he renders his services.
2. When payment is credited to the account of the non-resident or any other account(s) designated by the non-resident, which need not necessarily be a bank account
3. The date of actual payment.

You are required to take into consideration all the above-mentioned dates and declare the earliest date as the date of payment in the WHT form.

You should only indicate Yes under Tax Borne by Payer in the WHT form when you are contractually liable to bear the WHT on the payment to a non-resident.

Paying the tax withheld from payment to a non-resident to IRAS is not considered ‘tax borne by payer’ as the payment is made on behalf of the non-resident who bears the tax.

To submit multiple forms under one submission, please follow these steps:

1. Select File more forms /Approve more forms after preparing or approving the last form instead of clicking Submit.
2. Under the S45 tab, click on Submit S45 Forms and perform a wild search without keying in any search criteria. The search results will show all the forms you have filed/ approved.
3. Check all the forms that you wish to submit to IRAS.
4. Complete the Declaration and proceed to submit. 

You should declare the name of the non-resident based on its legal name/ registered name. The non-resident’s name should be stated in full without abbreviations (i.e. short form), prefix or suffix unless it is part of the legal/ registered name. Avoid adding spacing or punctuation marks such as full stop, comma.

If you are claiming Double Taxation Relief, then you must make sure that the name of the non-resident stated in the Certificate of Residence is the same as the name declared in your WHT filing.

Failing to upload the ODE file into mytax.iras.gov.sg and prompted with the message:

'A previous version of the Offline Data Entry Application has been detected. Please update your application by re-launching it'.

Please delete the ODE application, and then re-install the latest version of the ODE application from the IRAS website.

To delete the existing ODE application, please follow the steps below: 

1. Launch Configure Java in your computer's Start Menu
2. In Java Control Panel, under the tab General, click on View... button
3. Java Cache Viewer will be launched:
   1. Choose Show: Applications
   2. Select S45 Offline Data Entry Application
   3. Click to delete the ODE application
4. After deleting, click Close in the Java Cache Viewer
5. Click OK in Java Control Panel

You are required to file WHT even if you are claiming tax exemption (i.e. 0% tax rate) under the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) or Approved Royalties Incentive (ARI).

To claim tax relief under the DTA, please select the Double Taxation Relief option under the Relief/ Incentive section in the WHT form and ensure that the Certificate of Residence (COR) is submitted by the due date.

Due date to file and pay WHT

As a payer, you are required to file and pay WHT to IRAS by the 15th of the second month from the date of payment to the non-resident.

Due date to submit COR

1. 31 Mar of the following year if the claim is for the current year.
2. Within 3 months from the date of WHT submission if the claim is for preceding calendar years.

Therefore, you may file and pay WHT based on the reduced rate available in the relevant DTA and submit the relevant COR subsequently.

However, if you are uncertain whether the non-resident will provide you with the COR or whether the non-resident is a tax resident of the DTA treaty country/region, please withhold and pay WHT at the prevailing domestic rate to avoid late payment penalties for underpayment of WHT. If you manage to obtain the COR from the non-resident subsequently, you may submit an online filing amendment form with the COR uploaded to request for a refund.

The COR should cover the period of payment declared in the WHT form. Examples are provided in the table below.

No other documents will be accepted as a substitute for COR. The COR must meet the following requirements to be accepted:

1. Certified by the foreign tax authority of the non-resident
2. Be in English
3. Clearly state that
   • the non-resident company is a resident of the foreign country/region for DTA purposes and
   • the year(s) that the COR is applicable for.

One COR may be accepted for multiple years if the relevant years are clearly stated in the COR.

The COR will not be accepted if the name of the non-resident stated in the COR is different from the name declared in the WHT filing.

You should file the WHT form before making any payment. If you are not under GIRO for payment of WHT, you should quote the 14-digit payment slip number found on the filing acknowledgement page when making payment.

If you receive an outstanding payment letter even though you have already made payment, you may write to us at [email protected] with a copy of the payment advice and/ or bank statement and the related acknowledgement page of the filed WHT form.

For every 14-digit payment slip number that you get after filing, you should make a separate electronic payment. Only one payment slip number should be quoted in each electronic payment to IRAS.

To avoid having multiple payment slip numbers when you submit multiple WHT forms, please follow the steps below so that only one payment slip number will be generated for multiple WHT forms submission:

1. Click File more forms/Approve more forms after validating the details at the consolidated page.
2. Continue with the remaining records.
3. Select File more forms/Approve more forms after preparing or approving the last form instead of clicking Submit.
4. Under the S45 tab, click on Submit S45 Forms and perform a wild search without keying in any search criteria. The search results will show all the forms you have filed/ approved.
5. Check all the forms you wish to submit to IRAS.
6. Complete the Declaration and proceed to submit.
7. A single payment slip number will be generated for all the records that were submitted together.

Technical assistance fees
A non-resident company issued an invoice dated 26 Apr 2021 to a payer for technical assistance fees in respect of services rendered. The invoice stated that the amount must be paid within 30 days. The payer received the invoice on 30 Apr 2021 and paid the non-resident on 19 May 2021

Royalty payment
The agreement stated that royalties at 5% of sales shall accrue to the non-resident person at the end of each quarter.

In this instance, the royalty period from Jul to Sep 2021 was accrued on 30 Sep 2021 (end of quarter), and the royalty payment was made to the non-resident on 15 Oct 2021.

Director’s fee
The director’s fee of $50,000 for period 01 Jan 2020 to 31 Dec 2020, was voted and approved in the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 2 Aug 2021. However, the fee was only paid to the director on 29 Sep 2021.