Goods and Services Tax reaches a Singapore business owner before corporate tax does: the registration test measures turnover, and profit plays no part in it. A consulting practice with two contracts crosses S$1 million long before it shows a meaningful margin. GST is also the one layer of the Singapore tax system that reaches a structure carrying on no commercial activity at all — holdings and funds are pulled in by the reverse charge on services bought abroad.
The rates, thresholds and deadlines below were checked against the IRAS general guide to GST for businesses (Seventeenth Edition, published 30 January 2026) as at 31 August 2026. The corporate layer follows its own logic: rates compared with Hong Kong and filing and audit obligations are covered separately.
Concept
GST is charged on taxable supplies of goods and services made in Singapore by a taxable person in the course of business, and on imports, which are charged as if the tax were customs duty (s.8 GSTA 1993). A registered business collects the tax; the final consumer bears it. Registration is what makes a person a taxable person: before it, a business may neither charge GST nor recover input tax.
| Regulator and Act | IRAS; Goods and Services Tax Act 1993 |
|---|---|
| Rate | 9% from 1 January 2024 |
| Who is caught | A taxable person: a business making taxable supplies in Singapore, and a holding or fund importing services |
| Registration threshold | Taxable turnover above S$1 million in a calendar year or over the next 12 months |
| Notification deadline | 1–30 January after the year end; 30 days from the date of the forecast |
| Filing | F5 return and payment one month after the end of the accounting period |
| Tax effect | Zero-rating preserves input tax recovery; exemption closes it off |
| As at | IRAS general guide of 30 January 2026; checked 31 August 2026 |
The rate: 9% and how it got there
The rate has moved through three steps, and all three are recorded in the IRAS general guide of 30 January 2026.
| Period | Rate |
|---|---|
| To 31 December 2022 | 7% |
| Calendar year 2023 | 8% |
| From 1 January 2024 | 9% |
IRAS publishes no later rate as at 31 August 2026 and describes standard-rated supplies as taxed at 9%. Singapore runs no differentiation by product category: the fine-tuning happens through zero-rating and exemption.
The S$1 million threshold: four ways in
The threshold is a single figure, but there is more than one door into it, and each door runs on its own calendar.
| Basis | What is measured | When to apply | Registered from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retrospective test | Taxable turnover for the calendar year | 1–30 January of the following year | 1 March of the following year |
| Prospective test | Expectation above S$1 million over 12 months | 30 days from the date of the forecast | 2 months after the date of the forecast (liabilities arising on or after 1 July 2025) |
| Reverse charge, para 1B | Imported services and low-value goods over 12 months | 30 days from the liability arising | date of liability |
| OVR, para 1A | Global turnover above S$1 million and Seventh Schedule supplies above S$100,000 | 30 days from the liability arising | date of liability |
The retrospective test leaves a calm window to prepare; the prospective test fires on the day a contract is signed that pushes the annual forecast past the threshold. For that second case a two-month grace period runs before GST must be charged: per IRAS, it applies where the date of forecast falls on or after 1 July 2025.
Taxable turnover is the sum of standard-rated and zero-rated supplies; exempt supplies, out-of-scope supplies and sales of capital assets are excluded. A sole proprietor aggregates the turnover of all businesses carried on in his own name, while a company counts only itself. Late notification is expensive: the registration date is backdated to the day the liability arose, GST on past sales must be paid out of the owner's own pocket, and on top of that comes a fine of up to S$10,000 and a penalty of 10% of the GST due.
Voluntary registration: a two-year commitment
Below the threshold, registration is available on application, and its conditions have the force of law — stated in terms in the IRAS e-Tax Guide "Conditions for GST Voluntary Registration" (First Edition, 30 January 2026). Before applying, the business must complete the IRAS e-Learning course "Overview of GST" with its quiz, apply for GIRO, and provide a guarantee if the Comptroller requires one. After registration it must remain registered for at least two years, begin making taxable supplies within two years, and comply with the GST InvoiceNow Requirement. Hence the decision rule: the benefit is assessed over a two-year horizon.
Zero-rated against exempt
The two ways of escaping the 9% work in opposite directions on input tax. Zero-rating (s.21) covers exported goods and international services — a statutory list that includes international transport, services directly connected with land or goods situated outside Singapore, and specified services supplied to persons belonging outside Singapore. The supply stays taxable at a nil rate, so input tax remains fully recoverable.
Exemption (the Fourth Schedule to the Act) covers financial services, the sale and lease of residential property, digital payment tokens (from 1 January 2020) and investment precious metals — the last from 1 October 2012 under paragraph 1A of Part I of the Fourth Schedule. There is no output tax and no recovery of the input tax attributable to those supplies: a bank or insurer prices the irrecoverable GST into its fees, while a software exporter gets the money back. Mixed businesses apportion input tax between the two baskets.
Reverse charge and OVR: who the import rules reach
The reverse charge applies to GST-registered persons in Singapore that are not entitled to full input tax credit — from 1 January 2020 on services procured from overseas suppliers, and from 1 January 2023 on low-value goods. Such a person accounts for GST as if it were the supplier and claims it as input tax under the normal rules; whoever recovers only partially is left with the difference as a cost. An unregistered structure enters through para 1B of the First Schedule: if it would not be entitled to full input tax credit and receives more than S$1 million of imported services and low-value goods over 12 months, it must register.
On the other side of the counter sits overseas vendor registration: an overseas supplier of remote services or low-value goods to non-GST-registered customers in Singapore must register once a double threshold is crossed — global turnover above S$1 million and Seventh Schedule supplies above S$100,000. Low-value goods are non-dutiable goods valued no higher than the S$400 import relief threshold, delivered into Singapore by air or post.
Private capital: holdings, funds, property
A holding company living on dividends and interest makes no taxable supplies and, on the ordinary reading of the threshold, sees nothing. What it needs to count is the volume of imported services: that is what opens the registration liability under para 1B, and for structures with an external manager, an offshore administrator and foreign counsel the bill mounts faster than it appears at the point of incorporating the company.
Funds have been given their own concession: a GST remission runs to 31 December 2029 and lets a qualifying fund — including a VCC and the sub-funds of an umbrella VCC — recover GST incurred on the expenses of its qualifying investment activity at an annual fixed recovery rate. The conditions are management by a prescribed Singapore fund manager and satisfaction of the relevant income tax concession as at the last day of the preceding financial year; the Statement of Claims is filed quarterly, within one month of the quarter end.
Buying a home carries no GST: the sale and lease of residential property is exempt, and the fiscal weight of the transaction sits in stamp duties. Commercial property is standard-rated, while the question of whether resale proceeds are trading or capital in nature is settled in the income tax layer. GST does not touch payroll at all: employment costs live in the employee's income tax and in CPF contributions, and a spouse's right to work is determined by the Dependant's Pass regime.
Deferment schemes and the tourist refund
The gap between paying import GST at the border and recovering it through a return is bridged by two schemes.
- The Major Exporter Scheme allows approved businesses to import non-dutiable goods with GST suspended (Form GST F10, approval usually valid for three years, a bank guarantee may be required).
- The Import GST Deferment Scheme defers payment of import GST to Singapore Customs until the monthly return is due, and the same return claims it as input tax (Form GST F22).
The eTRS tourist refund is open to persons aged 16 and above who are neither citizens nor permanent residents of Singapore and are not Specified Persons: that category takes in every MOM work pass holder, along with Dependant's Pass, Long Term Visit Pass and Student's Pass holders. From the day a pass is issued, the airport refund is closed to the relocating family.
Filing, InvoiceNow and penalties
The F5 return and the payment are both due one month after the end of the accounting period.
| Accounting period | Due date |
|---|---|
| January–March | 30 April |
| April–June | 31 July |
| July–September | 31 October |
| October–December | 31 January |
Under GIRO the deduction falls on the 15th of the following month. The late submission penalty is S$200 immediately and a further S$200 for every completed month outstanding, capped at S$10,000 per return; the late payment penalty is 5%, including on the estimated assessment IRAS raises in place of a return that was never filed.
The distinct 2026 development is the GST InvoiceNow Requirement: transmission of invoice data to IRAS over the Peppol-based InvoiceNow network. From 1 November 2025 it applies to companies registering voluntarily within six months of incorporation, from 1 April 2026 to all new voluntary registrations, from 1 April 2028 to new compulsory registrations and existing businesses with total supplies up to S$200,000, and thereafter in ascending order of turnover until 1 April 2031.
Q/A
When must a company register for GST?
When taxable turnover for a calendar year has exceeded S$1 million — the application is filed between 1 and 30 January of the following year and registration takes effect on 1 March. Or at any point when there are reasonable grounds to expect turnover above S$1 million over the next 12 months: the application is still due within 30 days of the forecast, but for a liability arising on or after 1 July 2025 registration takes effect two months after the forecast date.
Does a holding company or fund with no revenue have to register?
It may have to. A structure that would not be entitled to full input tax credit and receives more than S$1 million of imported services and low-value goods over 12 months must register and account for GST under the reverse charge. For a holding with an external manager and foreign advisers, that figure is worth tracking separately from revenue.
Is voluntary registration below the threshold worth it?
The minimum registration period is two years and there is no early exit. It usually pays for a zero-rated exporter, since input tax comes back, and does nothing for a business making exempt supplies. Before applying, the IRAS course and quiz must be completed and GIRO arranged; after registration, the InvoiceNow Requirement applies, and from 1 April 2026 it catches every new voluntary registrant.
What are the consequences of missing a registration or filing deadline?
For late notification of the registration liability, the registration date is backdated, GST on past sales must be paid by the business itself, and a fine of up to S$10,000 plus a penalty of 10% of the tax applies. For a return that is not filed, S$200 falls due immediately and a further S$200 for each completed month, capped at S$10,000, with a 5% late payment penalty on top. Voluntary disclosure normally removes the penalties, but never the tax.