On this page:
Sales in foreign currency (charging and reporting GST)
Purchases and imports in foreign currency (claiming and reporting GST)
Reporting exchange gains/ losses
Sales in foreign currency
For such sales with GST, you must convert the following items in the tax invoice into Singapore dollars using approved exchange rate for GST purpose (67kB):
- Total amount payable excluding GST
- Total GST payable
- Total amount payable including GST
These amounts in Singapore dollars may be shown separately beside their respective amount in foreign currency on your tax invoice. In your GST return, you should report the amounts in Singapore dollars shown in your tax invoice for “value of standard-rated supplies” and “output tax due”.
Examples of the approved exchange rates are exchange rates published by local banks or locally circulated newspaper. This exchange rate must be updated at least once every three months and be used consistently for internal business reporting, accounting and GST purposes. The source must also be used consistently for at least one year from the end of the accounting period in which the method was first used.
Back to Top
Purchases and imports in foreign currency
For such purchases with GST, your supplier has to indicate the GST payable on the tax invoice in Singapore dollars at the approved rate of exchange determined by him. You should claim input tax on such purchases based on the Singapore dollar amounts shown in the tax invoices. This requirement applies even if you have recorded the purchases at different exchange rate in your books.
For your imports, you should claim input tax based on the Singapore dollar amounts shown in the import permits issued by Singapore Customs.
Back to Top
Reporting exchange gains/ losses
You may sell goods to your customers and invoice them in a foreign currency (e.g. US dollars). When your customers make payment in foreign currency and you exchange the foreign currency for Singapore dollars, exchange gains or losses may arise. You should report the absolute value (i.e. drop negative sign, if any) of net realised exchange gain/ loss for each prescribed accounting period in Box 3 of your GST return.
Example:
Your prescribed accounting period is from Oct to Dec 2009.
| |
Realised exchange gain/ (loss) |
| Oct 2009 |
($150) |
| Nov 2009 |
$100 |
| Dec 2009 |
($200) |
Net realised foreign exchange loss for the period = ($250)
Absolute value of net realised foreign exchange loss for the period = $250
In addition, you received $400 interest from fixed deposit in December 2009.
Total value of exempt supplies (Box 3) = $250 + $400 = $650
Unrealised exchange gains/ losses (e.g. from sales which payment is still outstanding) and translation gains differences (i.e. year-end conversion from foreign currency to local currency for statutory reporting purposes) should be excluded from GST reporting as they do not give rise to any supply.
If it is administratively cumbersome for you to separately track realised and unrealised exchange gains/losses, we are prepared to allow you to report total value of realised and unrealised gains/losses. This is subject to the following conditions:
- Your accounting practices conform to proper accounting and reporting standards.
- You adopt same basis of reporting value of exempt supplies from foreign currency and derivative transactions consistently.
However, you should also be aware that reporting unrealised gains/losses may affect your input tax claims when applying the De Minimis Rule. Thus, you are advised to weigh the reduction in tracking efforts against the impact on input tax claims.
Back to Top