This article was written in collaboration with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. All views expressed are the independent opinion of DollarsAndSense.sg. It was updated on 1 Apr 2025 to reflect the YA2025 information.
While the deadline for personal income tax submission in 2025 is 18 April, you can (and should) file your taxes earlier if you can. In fact, individuals can start to e-File their personal income tax via e-Filing from 1 March onwards.
Before getting started on your income tax filing, it’s important to understand which group you fall under, based on the classification from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS).
Group 1: You receive a notification from IRAS informing you that you do not need to file your income tax return (No-Filing Service)
If you are not required by IRAS to file your income tax, you will receive a notice via letter, email or SMS informing you that you have been selected for No-Filing Service (NFS). You are reminded to check the income and tax reliefs that IRAS has prefilled in your tax return and amend any information that is incorrect, especially given the changes in criteria for dependant-related tax reliefs effective from YA2025. For example, if you have additional income to declare other than your auto-included employment income or pre-filled trade/business income, or if you qualify for parent reliefs as the annual income threshold of your parent has increased from $4,000 to $8,000. In such cases, you’ll need to make the relevant changes and file your income tax return via myTax Portal. This will help ensure you tax assessments are accurate and to avoid the inconvenience of potential tax adjustments, while ensuring that you maximise you tax relief claims.
Check out the IRAS website for more details on No-Filing Service. For selected self-employed persons under the Pre-filling of Income scheme, please refer to the No-Filing Service (NFS) for Self-Employed Persons (SEPs) under the Pre-filling of Income scheme for more information.
However, if all the information in your tax return is correct after you have checked them and you need not make any adjustments, you can simply wait for your Notice of Assessment (NOA) or tax bill (in digital or paper format), which will be sent to you from end April.
Do check your tax bill to ensure that it is in order. Otherwise, please inform IRAS of any discrepancy through the “Amend Tax Bill” digital service in myTax Portal within 30 days from the date of your tax bill.
Group 2: You receive a notification from IRAS informing you to file your income tax
This means you are required to file your income tax return, which you can do so via myTax Portal from 1 March to 18 April 2025.
If your employer participates in the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS) for Employment Income, information regarding your salary will be auto-included. If you are a self-employed commission agent or private hire car driver, and your organisation submits your income information to IRAS, your commission/driving income will be pre-filled. More details can be found at Pre-filling of income for self-employed persons initiative. However, you will still need to verify the pre-filled income and complete the rest of the tax return (additional income outside your employment, relief claims, etc.) and submit it.
Check if your employer is participating in the AIS here.
Check if your commission agency has submitted commission income records to IRAS here.
Group 3: You did not receive any form of notification from IRAS
If you didn’t receive any filing notification from IRAS, you will still be required to file a tax return if:
1) Your total annual income (including net trade income, employment income and gross rental income) from 1 January to 31 December 2024 is more than $22,000; or
2) Your net trade income (i.e. Revenue minus Allowable business expenses) for the accounting year ending in 2024 is more than $6,000.
You can also use the Filing Checker on the IRAS website to check if you need to file.
Selected taxpayers on the No-Filing Service will receive a Direct Notice of Assessment (D-NOA), meaning they will not receive a notification from IRAS during tax filing season but will instead receive their tax bill directly from mid-March. The D-NOA initiative will be extended to more taxpayers progressively over the next few years.
How To File Your Income Tax In 2025
There are three main components to personal income tax filing that you need to know about. The 1) income you earn; 2) deductions that you qualify for; and 3) reliefs you are eligible for.
#1 Income that you earn
All income earned in or derived from Singapore is chargeable to income tax. Generally, overseas income received in Singapore is not taxable, except in some circumstances. It’s important to understand this because you do not want to pay taxes on non-taxable income, or commit an offence by not reporting taxable income.
Types of taxable income include employment income, business income (including income from gig work, online activities and freelance work), property income (e.g. rental).
Types of non-taxable income include interest income from approved banks and financial institutions, dividend income from Singapore resident companies, capital gains from properties, shares or financial instruments, annuity income.
Do note the listed items above are not an exhaustive list. You can find out more about what’s taxable and what’s not from the IRAS website.
Read Also: 10 Types Of Company Benefits That Employees Have To Pay Income Tax On
#2 Deductions that you qualify for
Deductions refer to any allowable expenses you incurred or approved donations you made during the year.
Types of deductions include deductions for employees if they incur expenses because of the nature of their work, for example, if they use their own money to pay for business expenses.
If you were working from home in 2024, you can claim expenses incurred for work purposes, such as electricity charges and telecommunication charges, that were not reimbursed by your employer. There are also deductions for rental expenses against your rental income and donations to approved Institutions of a Public Character.
For self-employed persons, deduction can be claimed on allowable business expenses incurred in the course of running the business. Check out the IRAS website for more details on the allowable and disallowable business expenses.
#3 Reliefs that you qualify for
To encourage certain social and economic objectives, tax reliefs are offered to certain groups of taxpayers in Singapore.
Types of reliefs include CPF Cash Top Up Relief, CPF Relief, Earned Income Relief, Sibling Relief (Disability), Life Insurance Relief, NSman (Self) Relief, Parent Relief/Parent Relief (Disability), Supplementary Retirement Scheme Relief.
You can find the full list of reliefs on the IRAS website. It’s important to understand all the different types of reliefs because you want to make sure you do not miss out on any reliefs that you qualify for or claim reliefs that you do not qualify for (which may attract penalties!).
Here are some worked examples to show how different tax reliefs and rebates can help to lower your tax bill:
Example 1:
Mark, a 30-year-old Singaporean, earned $62,000 from his job in 2024. As the sole breadwinner, he supports both retired parents (both aged 70), who live separately, while his wife is a homemaker caring for their two young children. He performed NS activities in the previous work year. Additionally, he has a remaining balance of $2,500 in his Parenthood Tax Rebate account.
Mark’s tax bill for Year of Assessment 2025:
| Total Income | $62,000 | |
| Less Reliefs Earned Income Relief Parent Relief Spouse Relief Qualifying Child Relief NSman Relief CPF Relief |
$1,000 $11,000 $2,000 $8,000 $3,000 $12,400 |
$37,400 |
| Chargeable Income | $24,600 | |
| Tax on the first $20,000 | $0.00 | |
| Tax on the next $4,600 at 2% | $92.00 | |
| Tax Payable (before rebates) | $92.00 | |
| Less: 60% Tax Rebate (capped at $200) Parenthood Tax Rebate |
$55.20
$36.80 |
|
| Total Tax Payable | $0 ($92 – $55.20 – $36.80) |
Example 2:
Amy, a 34-year-old Singaporean, earned $70,000 from her job in 2024. She and her husband lives together with Amy’s parents both aged 57, who are not working and help to look after her Singaporean child (born on 31 Jan 2024). Additionally, she and her husband agreed to let her have $2,000 of Qualifying Child Relief and for him to claim the full amount of Parenthood Tax Rebate.
Amy’s tax bill for Year of Assessment 2025:
| Total Income | $70,000 | |
| Less Reliefs Earned Income Relief Parent Relief Qualifying Child Relief Working Mother’s Child Relief Grandparent Caregiver Relief NSman Wife Relief CPF Relief |
$1,000 $18,000 $2,000 $8,000 $3,000 $750 $14,000 |
$46,750 |
| Chargeable Income | $23,250 | |
| Tax on the first $20,000 | $0 | |
| Tax on the next $3,250 at 2% | $65 | |
| Tax Payable (before rebates) | $65 | |
| Less: 60% Tax Rebate (capped at $200) | $39 | |
| Total Tax Payable | $26 ($65 – 39) |
Read Also: 8 Ways You Can (Legally) Reduce Your Income Tax For YA 2025
Make Your Declaration And Save A Copy Of The Acknowledgement
Once you declare that all the information you provided in the tax return form is correct and click the submit button, you’re done. You should see an Acknowledgement Page, which you can save or print for your own records. You may also retrieve a copy of the Acknowledgement Page from the “View Individual Tax Notices” digital service at myTax Portal.
To check your tax return status after submission, visit myTax Portal and go to ‘File Income Tax Return’ under the ‘Tax Matters at a Glance’ section.
Wait For Your Tax Bill, And Pay Promptly!
Once you have filed your taxes for YA2025, you will receive your tax bill, from end April.
As soon as you receive your tax bill, check it carefully. Do note that it is your responsibility to ensure that your NOA is accurate.
If you see any mistakes or discrepancies, please make your amendments within 30 days through the “Amend Tax Bill” digital service at myTax Portal. This has happened to us before because silly mistakes (on our part) do happen and IRAS will revise the assessment accordingly.
Notwithstanding any objection or pending amendment to your tax bill, do make sure that you pay your income tax payable within 1 month from the date of your tax bill to avoid any penalties. You may pay your tax via secured digital payment methods like GIRO and PayNow QR.
If you experience difficulties in paying your taxes, you can arrange for a longer payment plan with GIRO. Should there be any excess tax collected after your tax bill has been amended, IRAS will refund you any excess tax paid, if any.
On behalf of Singapore, we want to thank you for doing your part to contribute to nation-building!
The post Complete Guide To Filing Your Personal Income Tax For YA2025 appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
