Generally, overseas income received in Singapore on or after 1 Jan 2004 is not taxable. These include overseas income paid into a Singapore bank account.
You do not need to declare overseas income that is not taxable.
When is it taxable
Overseas income is taxable in Singapore if...
- It is received in Singapore through partnerships in Singapore.
- Your overseas employment is incidental to your Singapore employment. That is, as part of your work here, you need to travel overseas.
Tax treatment in Singapore
As a Singapore citizen or tax resident in Singapore, the income from your employment exercised outside Singapore on behalf of Singapore government is deemed to have derived from Singapore.
All your gains from such employment (including overseas allowances) are taxable in Singapore.
Your employer will send your employment income details (including all allowances paid to you while you are working outside Singapore) to IRAS electronically.
The tax on overseas allowances will be remitted if applications for tax remission are approved by Ministry of Finance (MOF).
Tax treatment outside Singapore
Generally, your gains from such employment will not be taxed outside Singapore.
Your gains from such employment will be exempted from tax in the foreign country where you worked if there is:
In event that your gains from such employment are taxed in foreign country, you may apply for double taxation relief or tax remission in Singapore, to avoid being taxed twice on the same income.
Please approach your employer for clarification on application for tax remission.
Service Income
Service income refers to income from professional, technical, consultancy or other services provided by a person in the course of its trade, profession or business. Service income received from overseas will be considered as Singapore-sourced if it is not rendered through a fixed place of operation in the foreign jurisdiction and if one is carrying on a trade, business or profession of providing such a service in Singapore. Such income is taxable in Singapore.
For more information on the taxability of foreign-sourced income, you can refer to the e-Tax Guides below.
How to report
You need to declare the taxable overseas income under 'employment income' and 'other income' (whichever applicable) in your tax return.
Find out more about how to submit your tax return.