GST - Claiming Input Tax
When purchasing from GST-registered suppliers or importing goods into Singapore, you may have incurred GST (input tax). You can claim the input tax incurred when you satisfy all of the conditions for making such a claim.
Conditions for claiming input tax
You can claim input tax incurred on your purchases only if all the following conditions are met:
You are GST-registered;
The goods or services are supplied to you or imported by you;
The goods or services are used or will be used for the purpose of your business;
Local purchases are supported by valid tax invoices addressed to you, or simplified tax invoices, at the time of claiming of the input tax;
Imports are supported by import permits that show that you are the importer of the goods;
The input tax is directly attributable to taxable supplies (i.e. standard-rated supplies and zero-rated supplies), or out-of-scope supplies (e.g. third country sale of goods), that would be taxable supplies if made in Singapore;
The input tax claims are not disallowed under Regulations 26 and 27 of the GST (General) Regulations; and
You have taken reasonable steps to ascertain and concluded that the goods or services were not part of a Missing Trader Fraud arrangement and the conclusion is one that a reasonable person would have made.
Examples of invalid tax invoice
Some common examples of tax invoices which are not valid are:
Missing details on the tax invoice | - The supplier's name, address and GST registration number are not shown. |
Supplier is not GST-registered | - Your supplier does not have a GST registration number or the GST registration number shown has expired/is not valid. |
If the invoice issued by your supplier contains the above errors or has any other missing details, you should request that your supplier re-issues you a valid tax invoice before you proceed to make the input tax claim. You do not need IRAS’ approval to make the request from your supplier for a valid tax invoice.
Common GST claiming scenarios
GST on expenses incurred by employees on behalf of the company, i.e. under staff expense claims may not be addressed to your company. However GST is claimable as long as the employee is acting as an agent of the company and the expense is a business expense (and not a personal expense).
The following article contains many other GST claiming scenarios, however the team at Harvest will review your accounts for more complex situations.
GST - Do I Need to Register for GST? | Charging GST to Customers | Claiming GST