taxBytes@iras

Tax Season 2018 - File Taxes Early from 1 Mar to 18 Apr

Plan ahead for greater certainty on your tax payment. #TaxAndYou

• From Year of Assessment (YA) 2018, the total amount of personal income tax reliefs for taxpayers is subject to an overall tax relief cap of $80,000 per YA. Taxpayers are encouraged to claim the personal reliefs as long as the qualifying conditions are met. ^New!
• Preview of Notice of Assessment for Taxpayers on No-Filing Service (NOA): Taxpayers who are not required to file tax, under the No-Filing Service (NFS) Scheme, can preview their tax bill and request an early assessment from March 2018. They will be able to view their tax bill at myTax Portal by the next working day.
• Instantaneous Notice of Assessment (NOA) for Taxpayers e-Filing Taxes: This initiative was successfully piloted in 2017 for about 70,000 taxpayers with assessable income less than or equal to $40,000. This initiative will be scaled up to a group of 200,000 taxpayers, with assessable income of less than or equal to $100,000, who will receive their finalised tax bill immediately upon filing tax return this year.

• For taxpayers who are also on the GIRO scheme, their GIRO instalment plan will be based on their actual tax payment instead of a provisional instalment plan, giving them greater certainty on their tax payments.  

File your taxes early from 1 Mar to 18 Apr at myTax Portal to avoid the last-minute rush or late filing penalties.                                                     

Precedent Partners Invited to File Form P from 1 to 28 Feb

Partners can enjoy the convenience of having their share of partnership income pre-filled in their individual income tax returns (Form B) by IRAS. The precedent partner also does not need to separately inform the respective partners of their share of the partnership income.  

Did you know? Last year, more than 5,000 partnerships filed business income early and enabled more than 10,000 partners to benefit from the income pre-filling service.

IRAS reminds precedent partners to file their business income (Form P) at myTax Portal by 28 Feb 2018 in order to enjoy this service initiative.

Pre-Filling of Self-Employed Income for Grab and Uber Drivers ^New!

IRAS has extended the service initiative to pre-fill self-employed income information to Grab and Uber drivers this year. In this pilot implementation, Grab and Uber drivers were invited to participate in the scheme through the Grab and Uber platforms. Some 9,000 drivers have opted to participate this year. They will enjoy the convenience of having their income and commission fees pre-filled by IRAS in their electronic tax returns, making the tax filing process simpler for them.  

Drivers who have opted in for this service initiative will be able to view and verify their pre-filled information at myTax Portal, and declare any other sources of income (e.g. rental income). They should amend their pre-filled information if their actual income or allowable expenses are different from the pre-filled information.  

The pre-filling of self-employed income information was first implemented in 2015 for individual commission earners such as property and insurance agents. IRAS will continue to collaborate with industry stakeholders to bring about greater convenience in tax filing for more self-employed taxpayers.