All companies are required to submit two corporate income tax forms to IRAS every year:
| Form | Due Date |
|---|
| Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) | Within 3 months from the end of financial year, unless the company does not need to submit ECI |
| Form C-S/ C | 30 Nov; or 15 Dec (e-File) |
Filing of Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI)
New companies incorporated in 2017 are required to file the ECI within three months from the company's first financial year end.
If your company is incorporated in 2017 and closes its first set of accounts in 2017, no ECI filing notification will be sent to you in 2017 as most companies do not close their first set of accounts in the year of incorporation. However, you are still required to file the ECI within three months from your company's first financial year end, unless the company qualifies for the administrative concession and does not need to file the ECI.
As most companies have their financial year end on 31 Dec, a new company is required to inform IRAS if its financial year end is not 31 Dec. For details, please refer to
Updating Company Particulars.
Otherwise, you will receive the ECI notification from IRAS in Dec, starting from the year after the year of incorporation. If your company is incorporated in 2017 and closes its first set of accounts in Dec 2018, you will receive a ECI notification from IRAS in Dec 2018 reminding you to e-File your ECI by Mar 2019.
Example
| First financial period | ECI notification | File ECI for | File first ECI by | |
|---|
YA 2018 | YA 2019 | |
|---|
15 Jul 2017 to 31 Dec 2017 | No notification is sent in 2017 | 
| | 31 Mar 2018 | |
15 Jul 2017 to 31 Dec 2018 (See note below) | Notification sent in Dec 2018 |
|
| 31 Mar 2019 | |
Note :
As the company's first set of accounts covers a period of more than 12 months from the date of incorporation, its profit/losses must be attributed and declared under two Years of Assessment (YAs) as follows:
- YA 2018 covering the basis period from 15 Jul 2017 to 31 Dec 2017; and
- YA 2019 covering the basis period from 1 Jan 2018 to 31 Dec 2018.
Time apportionment basis may be used if the company is not able to directly identify income and expenses to the two periods.
Find out more about
Basis Period and Year of Assessment.
Companies That Do Not Need to Submit ECI
To reduce the compliance cost on businesses, IRAS has increased the annual revenue threshold for ECI waiver from $1 million to $5 million. Your company does not need to file its ECI for the particular YA if it meets the following criteria:
| Company's Financial Year end | Criteria for ECI waiver |
|---|
| In or before Jun 2017 | - annual revenue is not more than $1 million for the financial year; and
- ECI* is NIL for the YA.
|
| In or after Jul 2017 | - annual revenue is not more than $5 million for the financial year; and
- ECI* is NIL for the YA.
|
There is no need to inform IRAS if the company meets the conditions and does not need to file its ECI.
For details, please refer to the FAQs section of
Companies That Do Not Need to Submit Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI).
Filing of Form C-S/ C
Getting the Form C-S/ C
New companies will start to receive the Form C-S/ C e-Filing notification letter only two years after their year of incorporation, as most do not close their first set of financial statements in the year of incorporation. For example, a company incorporated in 2018 will receive its first e-Filing notification letter for YA 2020 in May 2020.
If your company closed its first set of financial statements in the year of incorporation and has commenced business or was in receipt of any income, please e-File your company's Income Tax Return for the YA immediately following the year of incorporation via the
File Form C-S/ C e-Service. For example, if your company was incorporated in 2018 and closed its accounts in 2018, please e-File your company’s Income Tax Return (Form C-S/ C) for YA 2019 if you have commenced business or received any income in 2018. The Form C-S/ C e-Filing service for a given YA will be made available in Jun of that year. Hence, you may e-File the company's YA 2019 Form C-S/ C starting from Jun 2019 (after the e-Filing service is made available) to 15 Dec 2019 (the e-Filing due date).
Find out whether you qualify to file the simplified Form C (Form C-S)
here.
e-Filing your company's first Income Tax Return (Form C-S/ C)
To
e-File the Form C-S/ C at
mytax.iras.gov.sg, please ensure that the company has authorised its staff or a 3rd party (e.g., the tax agent) in
CorpPass. Please have the following information on hand:
- Company's tax reference number (e.g. 200912345N, T12AA3456X, A1234567)
- CorpPass ID and CorpPass password
For assistance on
CorpPass setup, please refer to
Step-by-Step Guides.
For companies that are required to file their first Income Tax Return, please refer to this
step-by-step guide (2.65MB).
Some new companies operate more than 12 months before closing their first set of accounts. When this happens, the first set of accounts covers more than 12 months.
Generally, the basis period cannot exceed 12 months, so the profits or losses must be apportioned and attributed to two different YAs.
The company should directly identify the income earned and expenses incurred for each of the two YAs, based on the actual dates the income was earned and the expenses were incurred. If this cannot be done, time apportionment basis can be applied (i.e. apportion based on number of days in the corresponding YAs).
Example
| Date of Incorporation | 15 Apr 2017 |
| Financial Year End | 30 Jun every year |
| Accounts Closed On | 30 Jun 2018 |
| Revenue | $120,000 |
| Expenses | $60,000 |
| 1st YA | 2018 |
| Basis Period for 1st YA | 15 Apr 2017 - 30 Jun 2017 |
| Revenue for 1st YA | ($120,000 / 442 days) * 77 days |
| Expenses for 1st YA | ($60,000 / 442 days) * 77 days |
| 2nd YA | 2019 |
| Basis Period for 2nd YA | 1 Jul 2017 - 30 Jun 2018 |
| Revenue for 2nd YA | ($120,000 / 442 days) * 365 days |
| Expenses for 2nd YA | ($60,000 / 442 days) * 365 days |
Generally, expenses incurred before a business starts its operations are not tax-deductible as these are incurred for the purpose of setting up the operations and not 'wholly and exclusively' for the production of income.
To assist business in enterprise development, revenue expenses incurred one year prior to the deemed date of commencement of business will be deductible for tax purposes.
For more details on the deductibility of expenses incurred before commencement of business and how to determine the actual date of commencement of business, please refer to the Tax Treatment of Business Expenses.