The IRAS has updated their website on 1 September 2020 and provided guidance on whether expenses incurred for employees to support them during the Covid-19 pandemic can be claimed as input tax.

This is a welcome move by the IRAS as it provides clarity on the claiming of input tax. However, before you go around and tell your colleagues to submit or put in the claim through the company’s claim system, one has to be mindful of the conditions involved and put in a process to ensure that the conditions are met and proper documentation is maintained.

In the said guidance, GST incurred on the employees’ utilities bills and house telephone bills can be claimed by taking the difference in the amount of expenses your employee incurred before and after working from home AND apportion it equally among the working individuals in the same household. 

Furthermore, the utilities bill must be contracted in your employee’s name and not any other person living in the same household.

If you are the one deciding whether it is worthwhile to set up a process to claim the GST incurred on employees’ utilities bill during this Covid-19 period, you should say “Thank you very much, but I will pass this time round.”

But if your company has more than 1,000 employees and is willing to pay a service fee, we may have a solution for you.

Contact us if you are interested to find out more.

Eddie is the co-founder and Tax Director of Jed Tax Consulting Pte Ltd. Jed Tax Consulting is an independent GST consulting firm in Singapore, provides support to clients with all aspects of GST matters (e.g. MES renewal, ASK and ACAP review, IRAS audit queries, tax codes review and set-up, GST advisory, GST return filing and in-house training etc). Jed Tax Consulting is supported by a team of accredited tax practitioners and advisors with vast experience in IRAS and Big 4 accounting firms. 

We also work with audit and accounting firms to advise on their clients complex GST matters and in-house training.  Share This Page