19 September 2016

On 19 September 2016, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) issued the third edition of the e-Tax Guide, “GST: Guide on Exports (3rd Edition)”.

This Guide explains the various circumstances and documentary requirements for which a supply of goods can be zero-rated.

A general principle for zero-rating exports of goods is that the supplier must, at the point of supply (to be determined based on the time of supply rules), be certain that the goods supplied will be/ has been exported, and the supplier has/ will have the required export evidence to substantiate the zero-rating of this supply.

The onus is on the supplier who zero-rates his exports of goods to support his GST declarations with export evidence. This includes:

• Commercial transaction documents (e.g. customer’s order, sale invoice, delivery note, packing list, insurance documents, and payment received), and
• Commercial transport documents (e.g. bill of lading, air waybill, export permit, or any other documents specified by the Comptroller in the Guide).

However, the Comptroller may request for documents and/ or impose conditions not specified in the Guide to support the zero-rating of supplies if it is assessed to be necessary.

In the third edition, the requirement regarding the indication of vehicle number in the export permit for exports via land was updated. For exports via land, the vehicle number should be indicated at the time the export permit is declared. If the vehicle number is not known at the point of the export permit declaration, the vehicle number could be stated on the supporting documents (e.g. invoice, delivery order, packing list upon collection of the goods) subsequently after the permit declaration.

The previous edition was published on 11 February 2016.

For full details, please refer the e-Tax Guide on the IRAS website.

Source: This article was extracted from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s (IRAS) website. Visit http://www.iras.gov.sg/ for more information.