e-file personal income tax

[Jennifer]

Canvas:

I received a letter saying that I still have to e file this year although I am a SAHM (probably due to my previous job) and they will send another letter about it to me but ah, I did not receive anymore information after that. Does that mean I can ignore it or just efile \"zero\"?


Will you also share how to increase the tax relief for DH? Last year he paid a lot because it was my first year staying at home (we filed separately all along) and he did not get much tax relief. What are the areas that can offer relief aside from insurance policies: spousal?

When doing e-filing, the 1st screen is standard with info populated from other agencies. Somewhere at the bottom of the screen, there is an option to declare other income or claim other reliefs. Do check this option to bring yourself to another screen. Then check the relief that are listed in this screen to make sure all possible reliefs are listed, if not, add in new ones on your own.

If spouse is not working, there is a standard relief given. Check if this is reflected in your hubby's e-file.

[Jennifer]

MMM:

The system appears to be very unstable.... after choosing singpass access, I got thrown out many times :mad: It was like that since last week. I managed to file mine this am and have trouble filing for dh as I just cannot access the site.... I gave up and ask him to try it at his end.


Wonder if it is driven by too many people filing????

I e-filed around 1pm today. No problem. Maybe this is lunch hour so less pple using the system?

[Harlequin]

Filed liao. :boogie:

[Jennifer]

Checked my status: not required to file my current year Income Tax Return


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However, if your total income in the year 2012 is more than S$22,000 or if your net trade income in the year 2012 is more than S$6,000, you are required to file a tax return.

[cherrygal]

Canvas:

I received a letter saying that I still have to e file this year although I am a SAHM (probably due to my previous job) and they will send another letter about it to me but ah, I did not receive anymore information after that. Does that mean I can ignore it or just efile \"zero\"?


Will you also share how to increase the tax relief for DH? Last year he paid a lot because it was my first year staying at home (we filed separately all along) and he did not get much tax relief. What are the areas that can offer relief aside from insurance policies: spousal?

I also e-filed for DH and myself separately. If you have no income at all, then your DH can claim for spouse relief. If you want to give him more relief since you won't need them, transfer the Qualifying Child Relief to him. For 2 kids, can get up to $8000 relief. Husband and wife can share this amount. So if you really don't need the QCR at all, let your DH use the full $8000. It helps a lot.

You can retain $1000 for each child if you are still claiming the Working Mother Child Relief (additional relief for working moms only) coz you need to claim a bit of QCR to be able to check the box for WMCR.

Your DH can also claim for any course fees he has attended (relevant to work). The insurance relief is only applicable for pple with no income or earn very little. Need to read.

This year, all Singaporeans under age 50 will get 30% discount in taxes.

And did you get the Parenthood tax rebate (think about $10K worth for 2 kids). You can transfer this amount to your spouse for him to use it to pay the tax (no need to use cash).

So if you want to change the reliefs to DH, you need to e-file for yourself even though you are now SAHM, just to update the reliefs you are getting. Otherwise, you will \"waste\" the reliefs since no income to tax.

[cherrygal]

Canvas,

Other reliefs to consider would be the Parent relief - only if his parents are not working and no rental income. This he has to check with his siblings coz only 1 child can claim the parent relief.

And if you guys have rental income, you can deduct any maintenance expenses such as repainting, aircon repair etc from the declared rental income.

If your DH is a businessman, he can also use many allowable expenses to offset the revenue. PM me if you need more help.

[MMM]

Canvas:

Will you also share how to increase the tax relief for DH? Last year he paid a lot because it was my first year staying at home (we filed separately all along) and he did not get much tax relief. What are the areas that can offer relief aside from insurance policies: spousal?

Yes the men just don't get it.... I mean the tax relief. My dh has been :stompfeet: why my tax payable is so much lower than his and why are they so unfair to working fathers.

Some considerations :
* Joint assessment if you are no longer earning a income. So that he is entitled to claim for spouse relief. Note that there is a cap, eg. my impression is that wife income cannot exceed $4k (this includes dividend income). But pls verify the details on IRAS website.
* Where applicable, let your spouse claim all the parents and qualifying child relief. But note that only 1 person can claim for parents relief (Eg. if you are supportng your parents and have siblings, need to align who is claiming. In addition, the parents cannot have income (including dividend) more than $4k. I am the only child and given that 60% of my income is exempted (3 kids), I let my hubby claim the parents and qualifying child relief.
* If one's chargeable income is less than 20k per annum, let your spouse claim all the relief (where applicable). No point hogging it.
* The 30% tax rebate is capped at $1500 only. But it's better than nothing.
* Donation - Considering the tax bracket and some? of the donations offer 2.5 times tax rebate. It might be worth considering doing more donation to organisations that provides tax exemption.
* SRS - Have not seriously explored this. But my impression is that you can park your income in SRS and it is non-taxable but there are alot of restrictions behind that.
* Expenses related to employment. My impression is that some of these may be claimable. Eg. he is a professional and he needs to subscribe to certain bodies to carry out his profession. This subscription is potentially claimable.

[MMM]

cherrygal:

And if you guys have rental income, you can deduct any maintenance expenses such as repainting, aircon repair etc from the declared rental income.

For rental income, another potential area is to look at the potential income split if it is for jointly owned property.

[Sun_2010]

MMM and cherrygal,

Thanks for sharing the pointers.
I did not know about transfering the Qualifying Child Relief to DH. I took a couple of years break a few years ago :slapshead: . Anyway, wiser now.

[atrecord]

MMM:

cherrygal:

And if you guys have rental income, you can deduct any maintenance expenses such as repainting, aircon repair etc from the declared rental income.

For rental income, another potential area is to look at the potential income split if it is for jointly owned property.

I thought that property that are jointly owned will automatically be 50% each?