If you wish to know the basics of GST, this is a good read. If you are a finance person (CFO, FC, Tax Director) in charge of filing GST returns for your company, this is MUST READ!

2. How it all started
• On 1 April 1994, the Singapore government
stepped into a new era of tax system by
introducing a Goods and Services Tax
Singapore.
• As of 2015, GST in Singapore is 7% and will be
maintained at this level.

3. What is GST (Goods and Services Tax)?
GST is actually a tax levied by the government on all the import of goods into Singapore and
the supplies of goods and services in the country, but not levied on exports
The standard rate of GST is 7% and a business must register for GST if their revenue for the
fiscal year exceeds $1 million or is expected to exceed $1 million.
Businesses are required to pay two kinds of GST: input tax, which they pay on goods and
services that they buy and output tax, which they collect on goods and services that they
sell; and
Input GST is paid to the seller at the point of sale, Output GST is paid to IRAS, and
Rebates on input GST can be claimed on certain expenses.
Failure to pay GST to IRAS in an accurate or timely manner can lead to financial penalties, or
even imprisonment.

4. Various Singapore GST Schemes to Help Businesses
Approved Marine Fuel trader (MFT) Scheme – In this scheme, a company is not required
to pay GST on purchase of marine fuel oil from a local GST registered supplier.
Approved Contract Manufacturer and Trader (ACMT) Scheme – For this scheme, the
companies cannot charge GST when asked by a foreign client to deliver your finished goods
to his customers in Singapore.
Goods and Services Tax Assistance Scheme: This is for small and medium sized enterprises
companies (SMEs) who has volunteered to register for GST in Singapore.
Major Exporter Scheme (MES): This scheme essentially helps companies to ease the cash
flow of major exporters who has considerably high exports.
Third Party Logistics Scheme: The approved third parties are not required to pay GST,
because they are seen as providing logistic services to foreign clients, who only use the
Singapore company for logistics purposes.
Zero-GST Warehouse Scheme: This scheme allows the company to make their zero GST
warehouses, approved by the Singapore customs department for storage of non-dutiable
goods, and free of Goods and Services Tax.

5. How to know if you are paying the right amount of GST
every quarter?
• Most companies would generally rely on their GST compliance team to
work out the correct amount of GST to pay IRAS and leave it at that if
there are no calls or queries from IRAS thereafter. But this would mean
putting the company at risk of either over paying GST (company loses
revenue/cahsflow which could be put to better use) or underpaying GST
(Company would face stiff penalties if discovered by IRAS).
• The safer way would be to get a 3rd party tax agent to come in to review
their GST returns after the internal team has done their jobs. Typically
these would be the larger accounting firms who would charge a fee for
this job and give that extra assurance to the company paying for the
service.

6. What if there was a better solution now? A FREE service
with a possibility of getting a refund cheque?
• Recently there is a new company in Singapore (with our HQ in USA) which
offers a service at no upfront cost to review all your Accounts Payable
• We charge based on a success fee basis and you don’t pay us unless you
have a successful refund from the authorities.
• In any event, you will still get a FREE 5-year financial health check of your
GST returns to ensure that you have not overpaid or underpaid your GST.
Anything identified GST recoveries will be a bonus to you.
• If you have not heard about us, its time to meet us and have a free
consultation

7. • For more information about this topic and
further discussion, please contact me below: