Within 3 months from the end of their Financial Year, all Singapore companies are required to report their estimated taxable income for each financial year, also known as Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI). Companies are to submit the ECI  through an ECI Form provided by IRAS.

Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) is the company’s estimated income after deducting tax allowable expenses for the preceding financial year.

IRAS regulation exempts companies from reporting ECI if:

1. The ECI is Nil
2. Annual revenue does not exceed S$1 million

Companies must file an Income Tax Return with IRAS , after submitting the estimated chargeable income. The deadline for filing the tax return is either November 30 for paper filing or December 15 for e-filing. The Income Tax Return provides a calculation of the actual tax that is due to be paid to the tax authority.

Under the Singapore taxation system, companies have to file their tax returns in the current year based on the profits of the company in the preceding year

An income tax return filing waiver is available from IRAS for companies that are dormant (zero business activity) and do not have any income for the financial year.

Latest Update from IRAS: Filing of corporate taxes for YA2020 will become easier via a new simplified Form C-s Lite. IRAS will launch the Form C-s lite in July 2020 and it’s possible for companies with simple structure (minimal transaction or simple MA) to file taxes by filing out 6 essential fields. Companies filing Form C-s lite are not required to submit their financial statements and tax computations. However these companies will still need to prepare these documents and are ready to submit in the event that IRAS requested for them.

The requirements for the simplified filing are:

• Company has an annual revenue of $200,000 or below
  • Excluding separate source income like interest
• Company only derives income taxable at prevailing corporate tax rate ot 17% and
• Company not claiming the following in the YA:
  • Carry-back of current year capital allowances or losses
  • Group relief
  • Investment allowance
  • Foreign tax credit and tax deducted at source

Also from this year there will be no more physical filing and e-filing is compulsory. The extended tax filing due date of 15 Dec will not be available from YA 2021 and companies will require to e-file their YA2021 by 30 November 2021.

More information on Form C-S (Lite) can be found on IRAS.