Transforming the Taxpaying Experience – IRAS as the single source of truth for Self-Employed Persons’ data 

The problem statement: How can government agencies simplify income declaration for Self-Employed Persons (SEPs) so that they can easily access assistance schemes and also consolidate accurate income data for policy analysis and administration of future schemes?

More than 45,000 applicants for Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) declared their net trade income to IRAS during the COVID-19 pandemic period to qualify for the relief payouts for SEPs. These applicants were not in IRAS’ active tax base. This resulted in a spike in inquiries at both IRAS and the Central Provident Fund Board (CPF Board).

Previously, SEPs had to declare their income to different agencies, depending on their tax status and income level:

- SEPs report their income to IRAS if they are liable to pay income taxes;

- SEPs report their income to CPF Board to apply for government benefits such as Workfare Income Supplement or refunds from Contribute-As-You-Earn (CAYE).  

The downside of SEPs reporting their income to two different agencies? No centralised source of accurate income data, fragmented data and cumbersome processes for both taxpayers and agencies i.e. IRAS and CPF Board.

Positive impact of IRAS’ innovation project

Single source of income declaration - By making this change to become more citizen-centric, some 300,000 SEPs will now only need to declare their income to one agency i.e. IRAS. This unified single view of SEPs and their income information is then shared with different agencies for the administration of schemes and policy analysis (provided it is allowed legislatively, or express consent have been obtained from the SEPs).

Government can better implement help schemes - The readily available information on SEPs' income and status enables the government to better understand the SEP landscape and implement assistance schemes more swiftly and effectively

Simpler tax filing or income declaration for SEPs – This initiative has made it simpler for SEPs to declare their income and improved the accuracy of income declarations by consolidating all SEP income data within one organisation, i.e. IRAS.

_{IRAS Commissioner, Ow Fook Chuen (left) presenting the certificate to team members – (2nd from left to right) Koh Mengxin, Director; Sundarason Soocelaraj, Senior Manager; Nancy Ng, Deputy Director; Tan-Hoon Lee Eng, Assistant Director; Lum Mei Yoke, Deputy Director; and Christopher Yip, Manager.}