SINGAPORE: Singapore’s tax authority has said it will increase the number of the audits it carries out on large companies over the next two years to improve their compliance with the country’s goods and services tax.
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore will focus on how large businesses implement the consumption tax through their display of prices to the public, including plans for on-site inspections.
“In the next two years, IRAS will step up audits on large businesses and checks on businesses’ display of GST-inclusive prices to the public,” IRAS said in an Oct. 14 web post. Most cases of non-compliance with GST “arise from negligence or insufficient understanding of tax matters,” it added.
Receipts from GST—a self-assessed tax levied on the import of goods, as well as nearly all supplies of goods and services in Singapore—make up almost a quarter of the Singapore government’s total tax collection, according to data compiled by Bloomberg BNA. Large businesses form just 2 percent of Singapore’s GST tax base, but they contribute more than 50 percent of the total GST paid to IRAS.
