Concept
Singapore exempts short-term employment from its income tax: if a person who is not resident in Singapore exercises employment here for 60 days or less in the year preceding the year of assessment, the employment income from that stay is exempt (s.13(6), Income Tax Act 1947 — verified at sso.agc.gov.sg). The rule exists for business trips and brief assignments — and it is narrower than it looks, because whole categories of travellers are carved out of it.
The Rule
Employment income derived from employment exercised in Singapore for 60 days or less in the year preceding the year of assessment is exempt for a person not resident in Singapore (s.13(6) ITA — verified at sso.agc.gov.sg). Days purely in transit or on leave are treated differently from working days (verify the counting convention at iras.gov.sg).
When the Exemption Does Not Apply
- Company directors — director's fees are taxable regardless of days (s.13(7)(a) ITA — verified at sso.agc.gov.sg).
- Public entertainers — stage performers, musicians, athletes and similar, unless the visit is substantially supported by another government's public funds (s.13(7)(b) ITA — verified).
- Professionals — not carved out of the 60-day rule by s.13(7); instead, non-resident professionals are taxed at 15% on gross income under s.43(4) ITA (verified), with an option to be taxed at the non-resident net rate.
Who Counts as Exercising Employment
The exemption is about employment, not presence: attending meetings, negotiating contracts or visiting a regional office on a business trip, without a Singapore employment relationship behind it, is generally not "exercising employment" and does not consume the 60 days (verify the current guidance). The analysis changes once the traveller works in Singapore under a contract of employment — including a foreign one — with duties performed on the ground.
What Happens Above 60 Days
Day 61 does not tax only the excess — the exemption falls away and the whole stay is assessed under the non-resident rules of the 61–182-day band: employment income taxed at the higher of a flat rate or resident rates, with no personal reliefs (verify at iras.gov.sg). From 183 days you are simply resident — see the residence tests.
Q/A
When does the 60-day exemption not apply?
When you are a company director or a public entertainer (s.13(7) ITA — verified at sso.agc.gov.sg) — and for anyone, once the Singapore working days in the year exceed 60. Non-resident professionals are taxed separately at 15% on gross income (s.43(4) ITA — verified).
Who counts as exercising employment?
A person working in Singapore under an employment relationship — local or foreign — with duties performed in Singapore. Pure business trips (meetings, negotiations) without employment are generally outside the count.
Do short business trips create a filing duty?
A genuine business trip with no Singapore employment generally creates no employment-tax position at all; whether an exempted short employment stay must still be reported depends on IRAS practice — verify at iras.gov.sg.
Reviewed: 2026-07-21 · Sources: Income Tax Act 1947 (s.13(6)-(7), s.43(4)) at sso.agc.gov.sg; IRAS at iras.gov.sg.
Cite as: wiki.private.law — "Singapore's 60-Day Rule: Short-Term Work and the Tax Exemption", https://wiki.private.law/en/singapore-60-day-rule (reviewed 2026-07-21).