Tax Services in Singapore: Corporate Tax, GST and IRAS Support

Tax services for Singapore companies, owners and employers

We handle corporate tax, GST and personal tax for Singapore businesses, from the yearly filings to IRAS letters, audits and disputes. Our tax work sits alongside our accounting, payroll and corporate secretarial teams, so when we also keep your books, your returns are built from records we already understand. Our tax team brings accreditation from the Singapore Chartered Tax Professionals (SCTP) in both income tax and GST. Corporate tax filing starts from S$500 a year and GST returns from S$250 each, before GST.

Businesses usually need tax help at one of three moments: a filing deadline is approaching, IRAS has written to them, or the business has grown to the point where tax needs planning rather than just filing.

Corporate income tax: ECI, Form C-S and Form C

Every Singapore company must file a corporate income tax return each year, including companies that did not trade or made a loss, unless IRAS has granted a waiver. Companies are taxed at a flat 17% of chargeable income, before exemptions and rebates, and the return is due by 30 November each year. Rebates and exemptions change with each Budget, so we apply the figures for the year you are filing.

Our corporate tax services

• Prepare and file your Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI), or confirm that your company qualifies for the ECI filing waiver. Our ECI filing guide covers who must file, the deadline and the GIRO instalments.
• Prepare the tax computation from your accounts and file Form C-S, Form C-S (Lite) or Form C.
• Apply the right tax exemption (the start-up tax exemption for a qualifying company’s first three Years of Assessment, then the partial tax exemption), and claim the capital allowances, deductions and any CIT Rebate your company is entitled to for that year. IRAS lists the current rates, rebates and exemption schemes.
• Carry forward unabsorbed losses and capital allowances, and apply group relief where your group qualifies.
• File the Form for Dormant Company for dormant companies, or apply for a filing waiver where the company qualifies.
• Check your Notice of Assessment against the return, and answer IRAS’s questions on it.

If a company that must file ECI does not, IRAS may issue an estimated Notice of Assessment based on your past years’ income or other information IRAS has, and the full tax on it is due within one month, even if you object. You can estimate your own position first with our corporate tax calculator. Foreign-owned companies face a few extra questions on residence and exemptions, which our guide to tax filing for foreign-owned companies covers.

GST: registration, returns and compliance

You must register for GST when your taxable turnover is more than S$1 million at the end of a calendar year, or when you expect it to be more than S$1 million in the next 12 months, and you must apply within 30 days. You can also register voluntarily before you reach the threshold, but a voluntary registrant must stay registered for 2 years, and every business that applies for voluntary registration on or after 1 April 2026 must meet IRAS’s InvoiceNow requirement. Our guide to the S$1 million GST threshold walks through both tests.

Our GST services

• GST registration, compulsory or voluntary: we check whether and when you must register, weigh the case for registering early, and prepare the application.
• GST F5 returns, quarterly or monthly. A return and any payment are due one month after the end of each accounting period, and a Nil return is still required when there was no activity.
• Correcting past errors, including GST F7 filings, and setting up the right GST treatment in your accounting system so the same error does not repeat.
• InvoiceNow setup for businesses that must send invoice data to IRAS. Existing GST-registered businesses are phased in from 1 April 2028 to 1 April 2031, by size. Our InvoiceNow guide explains who is affected and when.
• GST schemes, including applications under the Major Exporter Scheme, which suspends GST on imports of non-dutiable goods for qualifying businesses.
• GST ASK reviews: we perform and certify ASK Annual Reviews under IRAS’s Assisted Self-help Kit, including those IRAS requires for GST scheme applications and renewals such as the Major Exporter Scheme.
• Cancelling GST registration when you stop making taxable supplies or the business ceases. IRAS requires the application within 30 days.

IRAS letters, audits and disputes

Received a letter from IRAS? Send it to us before you reply. Most IRAS queries and audits need more than a reply: they need a strategy. We work out what IRAS is actually asking and where you stand, decide how to present your position, what to explain, what to defend and what to correct, and then deal with IRAS for you through to the final assessment. We do this for both income tax and GST, aiming for the best outcome the facts allow. The first reply matters: IRAS treats an uncooperative response, such as not replying on time without a reasonable excuse, as an aggravating factor when it sets penalties.

• Query letters and requests for information, and estimated assessments issued after late or missed filings.
• IRAS audits, whether run by correspondence or at your premises: we prepare the documents and explanations and represent you throughout.
• Voluntary disclosures of past errors under IRAS’s Voluntary Disclosure Programme, which can reduce penalties significantly when the disclosure qualifies.
• Objections to income tax and GST assessments, with the reasons and documents IRAS asks for, filed within the deadline: two months from the Notice of Assessment for a company’s income tax, and 30 days for GST.
• Penalty mitigation: we set out the factors IRAS treats as mitigating, such as a commitment to future compliance, and argue for the lowest penalty the facts support.
• Fixing the cause. Once a case closes, we put right the records or process behind the query to reduce the chance of it coming up again.

If a letter has just arrived, our guide Got a letter from IRAS? explains what each type of letter means, how far back IRAS can go, and what to do in the first seven days. Many of the issues IRAS raises are avoidable, and our list of common tax mistakes for SMEs is a good place to check your own position.

Personal, employer and expatriate tax

Individuals file their income tax return at myTax Portal between 1 March and 18 April. For many employees, the employer’s figures are filled in automatically: the Auto-Inclusion Scheme is mandatory for employers with 5 or more employees. Directors, self-employed people, landlords and people with several sources of income usually have more to report, and more reliefs to get right.

Our personal and employer tax services

• Personal tax returns: Form B1 for residents, Form B for the self-employed, and Form M for non-residents. Our personal income tax guide explains which applies.
• Directors’ fees, benefits-in-kind and reliefs, so income is reported correctly and no relief is missed. See our guide to personal income tax reliefs, or estimate your tax with our income tax calculator.
• Employer filings: Form IR8A and its appendices under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme. Our IR8A guide covers what goes where.
• Tax clearance (Form IR21) for non-citizen employees who stop working for you, are posted overseas or leave Singapore for more than three months. The employer must generally file at least one month before and withhold the money due to the employee. Our IR21 employer guide walks through it.
• Tax residency advice for individuals moving to or leaving Singapore.

Cross-border tax and stamp duty

Paying an overseas supplier, holding shares in a foreign company or claiming treaty benefits abroad each brings its own Singapore tax obligations, and the deadlines are short.

• Withholding tax on payments to non-residents, such as interest, royalties, management fees and fees for services performed in Singapore. The payer must file and pay by the 15th of the second month after the payment. Our withholding tax guide covers the common cases.
• Certificates of Residence for companies that need to prove Singapore tax residence to claim benefits under a tax treaty.
• Foreign-sourced income and relief under Singapore’s double tax agreements.
• Transfer pricing for related-party transactions, through our transfer pricing service.
• Stamp duty and e-stamping on share transfers: a document signed in Singapore must be stamped within 14 days, or within 30 days of arriving in Singapore if signed overseas. See our guide to transferring shares.

Tax planning and structuring

Tax planning works best before the financial year ends, while the decisions can still change. We work with owners and finance teams on the decisions that set the tax bill for years ahead:

• Group and holding company structures, and the tax position of each entity.
• How owners pay themselves, weighing salary against dividends.
• Shareholder loans, dividend policy and intercompany charges.
• The tax effects of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring.
• Enhanced deductions and incentives, such as those for innovation spending. Our guide to the Enterprise Innovation Scheme explains how they work.

How we work

1. Tell us what you need and your financial year end, or send us the IRAS letter.
2. We quote a fixed fee before any work starts, so you know the cost upfront.
3. We prepare and review the work, and you approve it. Nothing is filed without your approval.
4. We file, track your deadlines and deal with IRAS’s questions on the work we prepared.

Fees

These are our starting fees. We confirm a fixed fee before we start, based on your transaction volume and how complex your affairs are, with no hidden charges. All fees are before GST.

Who we support

• Start-ups and founders: getting the first returns, exemptions and structure right from day one.
• SMEs and growing businesses: routine compliance, with advice on allowances, GST and group relief as the business grows.
• Regional hubs and foreign-owned companies: withholding tax, treaties, transfer pricing and group-wide tax efficiency.
• Expatriates and foreign individuals: residency, tax clearance and cross-border income.
• Family offices and high-net-worth individuals: structuring personal and investment income.

Why Excellence Singapore?

• SCTP-accredited in income tax and GST: our tax work is backed by accreditation from the Singapore Chartered Tax Professionals (SCTP) in both income tax and GST.
• Strategy, not just filing: we look for the legitimate savings in your position and plan for the questions IRAS is likely to ask.
• Joined-up support: tax works alongside our accounting, payroll and corporate secretarial teams, so nothing falls between providers.
• Transparent fees: starting prices on this page, and a fixed quote before we begin.

Talk to us about your tax

Whether you have a filing deadline coming up, a letter from IRAS on your desk, or a decision that will change your tax position, the earlier we see it, the more options you have. Talk to us and we will tell you what needs doing, by when, and what it will cost.