Singapore Withholding Tax Information for Companies and Individuals

A Guide to Withholding Tax for Singapore Companies or Individuals

Withholding tax is levied on payments made to non-residents including employees, business partners and overseas agents.

A non-resident is liable to pay income tax on Singapore-sourced income. Under the law, a person has a legal obligation to withhold a percentage of the payment, when he makes payments of a specified nature under the Singapore Income Tax Act, to a non-resident. In the event that you make payments of a specified nature to a non-resident, you must withhold a certain percentage of that payment as “withholding tax”.

The Types of Payments that are Subject to Withholding Tax are the following

1. Any payment listed under S45 of the Singapore Income Tax Act.
2. Types of payment include:

   payment of commission fees to overseas agents
   payment of director’s fees to non-resident directors
   payment of professional fees to offshore accountants

You must pay the withholding tax by the 15th of the month following the date of payment.

Withholding Tax Amount

The amount of withholding tax you have to pay would depend of the type of payment you are making and to whom you are paying it to.

• For management fees, technical and other service fees paid to a non-resident company, the withholding tax rate is the same as corporate tax rates. The current corporate tax rate is 18%. For payments made to non-resident individuals, tax is to be withheld at 20% of the gross payment.
• For time charter fees, voyage charter fees and bareboat charter fees, the withholding tax rate is 1% – 3%.
• For other types of payments, the withholding tax rate is 10% or 15%.

Where a double tax agreement is applicable, the rates specified in the agreements of the respective countries would apply.