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What is seamless filling?

In consideration of helping SMEs stay relevant and competitive, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) have collaborated accounting software providers to co-create a new digital solution that allows SMEs to automate the preparation and filing of statutory Filings with ACRA and IRAS seamlessly.

The seamless filing solution integrates the requirements for filing tax and annual returns into the accounting software and supports businesses with the recording of their operating transactions and submit the required statutory filings by using the accounting software. The software is linked to ACRA and IRAS via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which companies conveniently file their statutory filings without the need to log in to ACRA and IRAS portals.

Benefits

At present, smaller companies can approximately spend on 9 hours to manually prepare and file the annual and tax returns with both ACRA and IRAS. When this new seamless filling initiative is applied, it takes about thirty minutes to prepare and file Annual Return with Financial Statements in Simplified XBRL format with ACRA, and Corporate Income Tax Return (Form C-S) with IRAS at once. SMEs can be saved more than 90% of the amount of time that they are able to improve efficiency and productivity. Any errors in the annual return and tax filings would be minimized as the filings are automatically generated using the accounting data within the software, and submitted directly to both agencies.

Who is it for

The seamless filing solution is suitable for smaller companies with simple tax affairs and accounting transactions. These are the following types of companies encouraged to adopt the seamless filing solution:

1. Companies filing annual and tax returns with both ACRA and IRAS

(a) Company has revenue of S$500,000 or less for the financial year; and total assets value of S$500,000 or less as at the financial year-end
(b) Company maintains Singapore dollar as company’s functional/presentation currency
(c) Company is not an investment holding company and service company which provides only related party services
(d) Company does not own subsidiaries, associates and/or joint ventures
(e) Company has no investment in intangibles and has not discontinued its operations
(f) Company is NOT
– Listed or is in the process of issuing its debt or equity instruments for trading on securities in Singapore;
– Listed on a securities exchange outside Singapore;
– A financial institution; and
– A company limited by guarantee registered under the Charities Act (Cap. 37).
(g) Company meets the qualifying condition for submitting Form C-S, such as:
– Incorporated in Singapore
– Derives only income taxable at prevailing tax rate (currently 17%)
– Not claiming or utilizing carry-back of current year capital allowances/losses, group relief, investment allowance or foreign tax credit and tax deducted at source
(h) Company is not an investment holding company; prepared tax computation on a trading basis

2. Companies filing only Annual Return with XBRL financial data (in Simplified XBRL format) with ACRA

(a) Company has revenue of S$500,000 or less for the financial year1; and total assets value of S$500,000 or less as at the financial year-end
(b) Company is NOT
– Listed or is in the process of issuing its debt or equity instruments for trading on a securities exchange in Singapore
– Listed on a securities exchange outside Singapore; and
– A financial institution.

Adopting the seamless filing solution

The list includes the seamless filing solution partners updated on the ACRA website, It helps companies keening on the seamless filing solution that can conveniently follow and contact. Besides, it will be updated periodically to add more software solutions that increase the value of the seamless filing feature.

Grants Available

SMEs can make use of existing government grants such as the Productivity Solutions Grant, SMEs Go Digital Programme and Digital Resilience Bonus to be successful in going digital as detailed below

In light of the above Smart Nation initiative, Singapore has created the seamless filing solution to helps Singapore company incorporation can spend less time on preparing and filing the annual and tax returns with both ACRA and IRAS. 

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