1 February 2013

On 8 January 2013, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (‘IRAS’) has issued the second edition of the e-Tax Guide, “GST: Pre-Registration Claims on Goods and Services”.

Pre-registration GST is the GST that businesses incur on supplies of goods or services made to them before they are registered for GST. Businesses may sometimes incur GST on supplies acquired before they are registered for GST. Based on the general input tax claim conditions, such GST incurred before registration would not be claimable as input tax.

However, exceptional relief may apply to allow businesses to claim the GST that they had incurred before they are registered for GST if certain conditions are satisfied.

In this edition, the revisions made are mainly on information and examples relating to the apportionment of pre-registration GST incurred on goods where administrative concession for immovable properties are put into use but no supplies made before GST registration. The amendments clarify that useful life commences from the date when property is made available to the business (eg date when temporary occupation permit is issued) as the date when the property is put into use by the business.

More details on pre-registration GST can be found here.

Source: This article was extracted from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) website.