When it comes to settling your income taxes in Singapore, one particularly important document that you’ll be required to follow is the Notice of Assessment. It turns out the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) sends both individuals and corporations an income NOA for the sake of tax processing.
Now, to help you understand what’s subsequently expected of you, this article explains what the income tax notice of assessment entails, and then proceeds to walk you through the application process, as well as the resultant document details.
What is a Notice of Assessment (NOA)?
The Notice of Assessment, or NOA in short, is a document prepared by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore to act as the official tax bill for both individuals and registered companies. It essentially spells out your chargeable income plus the corresponding tax amount that’s payable to the IRAS.
As an individual taxpayer, you should expect to receive your NOA right after you fill in and submit your final personal income tax filing. The IRAS typically reviews the filed particulars and then proceeds to dispatch the tax bills from the end of April, in both digital and hardcopy format.
Please note, however, that when it comes to corporate income tax filing, the IRAS happens to issue four different types of Notices of Assessment:
- NOA Type 1: This is prepared after your company successfully files its Estimated Chargeable Income for the tax year in question.
- NOA Type 2: You’ll be receiving this from the IRAS if you fail to file your company’s Estimated Chargeable Income within three months from the end of its financial year; fail to meet the IRAS deadline for Form C and Form C-S submissions; or end up declaring a low Estimated Chargeable Income. What’s more, the IRAS generates this type of notice for advance tax assessments.
- NOA Type 3: The IRAS prepares this after you successfully file your company’s Form C and Form C-S.
- NOA Type 4: This acts as the final notice after the IRAS conclusively assesses your company’s chargeable income and the accompanying payable tax amounts. It’s worth noting, though, that you can file a formal objection within two months from the date of issue.
All these Notices of Assessment provide not only the tax bill, but also the corresponding payment instructions. That means you also get to find out the tax payment modes, plus the settlement deadlines.
And speaking of which, the IRAS normally prefers to have the tax bills settled via telegraphic transfer, cashier’s order, cheque, NETS, cash, online banking, and GIRO. This should be done within 1 month as expressed in the NOA deadline statements. Otherwise, you stand to attract a late payment penalty of up to 5% of the payable tax amount.
The Importance of NOA
The income tax NOA is an invoice of sorts in Singapore. Once the IRAS analyzes your filed income particulars, it generates a corresponding tax bill that provides all the tax settlement details - such as the amount due and the deadline dates.
As it turns out, however, the amount isn’t always fixed. Rather, the NOA gives you the chance to dispute the payable amount within 30 days. You can proceed by filing a formal objection that highlights all the issues you’ve identified.
How to Obtain a Copy of Tax Bills or the NOA
As we’ve stated, the IRAS happens to issue its tax bills in both hardcopy and softcopy forms. You can obtain the softcopy version from IRAS’s myTax portal, while companies additionally receive hard copies through their registered addresses.
Please note, however, that the IRAS doesn’t dispatch all its tax bills on the same day. It conducts assessments and then proceeds to send out the notices from the end of April, with some taxpayers potentially obtaining theirs earlier than others.
If you’d like to receive real-time updates about your NOA, you might want to update your mobile contact number on the IRAS portal. The system will then send you an SMS alert when the IRAS posts your tax bill on the portal.
In that case, you can access your NOA by:
- Logging in to myTax Portal using your SingPass ID or IRAS Unique Account (IUA) credentials.
- Going to the “Notices” section and then clicking on “Individual” followed by “View Individual Tax Notices”.
You should then be able to view all the tax bills you’ve received over the past three years in PDF form, plus possibly print them for future reference.
How to Read NOA for Singapore Companies
In your company’s income tax Notice of Assessment, you’ll find the following details:
- Assessable Income Amount: This refers to the total amount of income as stated in your Estimated Chargeable Income filing, or possibly Form C or Form C-S. You can think of it as the cumulative income amount before applying corporate tax deductibles.
- Chargeable Income Amount: This is the actual amount on which the IRAS levies its taxes. It’s derived by subtracting the deductibles from the Assessable Income Amount.
- Tax Payable: This is the amount of tax the IRAS demands from you. It’s established by applying the prevailing tax rates on the chargeable income amount.
- Tax Repayable / Discharged Amount: This is the refundable amount that appears in the final tax bill after the IRAS has analyzed and determined that the final tax payable amount is less than the tax already paid on the first NOA.
How to Read NOA for Individuals
As for individual taxpayers in Singapore, the income tax Notice of Assessment comes with the following details:
- Assessable Income: This is the total amount of income made from employment, investments, and other forms of taxable trades - including rental income.
- Personal Reliefs: While registered companies are entitled to deductibles, resident taxpayers in Singapore get tax benefits in the form of personal reliefs.
- Chargeable Income: In the NOA for individuals, chargeable income refers to the amount of income on which the IRAS charges your personal taxes. And just like we’ve seen with companies, the amount is determined by deducting reliefs from your Assessable Income.
- Tax Payable: You also get to find out the total amount of tax payable, which is calculated by evaluating the Chargeable Income against the applicable personal income tax rates.
Over to You
To get this and the rest of the tax filing processes in order, you should consider seeking the guidance of a well-qualified tax professional. Luckily for you, WealthBridge happens to have quite a number, and we're all excitedly waiting for you to reach out. Check our tax filing services here to help you with requesting a NOA or if you have any Singapore tax concerns.