Corporate tax after partial exemption.
Corporate tax payable
—
Exempt amount
—
Effective rate
—
Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| Layer | Working | Result |
|---|
The 17 percent headline rate is rarely what you pay
Singapore advertises a flat 17 percent corporate income tax, and for a large, profitable company that is broadly what bites. For everyone smaller, the partial tax exemption pulls the effective rate well below 17 percent. The mechanism is simple: IRAS exempts 75 percent of the first $10,000 of chargeable income and 50 percent of the next $190,000, then taxes whatever remains at 17 percent. Because the exemption is front-loaded onto the first $200,000 of profit, the smaller your profit, the lower your effective rate. This tool applies that exemption automatically and reports the effective rate so you can see the gap between the headline and reality.
A company with $300,000 of chargeable income
Consider an established private company, past its start-up years, with $300,000 of chargeable income for the year. The partial exemption works in two layers, and only the income above $200,000 is fully taxed.
The bill is $33,575, an effective rate of 11.19 percent on $300,000 of profit, not 17 percent. The chart shows how the exemption carves a third of the profit out of charge before the rate is even applied.
Start-ups, dividends, and the one-tier system
This tool applies the ordinary partial exemption that most companies use. A qualifying new start-up gets a more generous scheme in its first three years of assessment, exempting 75 percent of the first $100,000 and 50 percent of the next $100,000, which can cut the early effective rate to low single digits. If your company is in that window, the figure here is conservative. Note too that chargeable income is profit after deducting allowable expenses and capital allowances, not turnover, so the input you enter should already be the taxed base. One point that surprises overseas founders: Singapore runs a one-tier system, so corporate profits are taxed once at the company level and dividends paid to shareholders are not taxed again in their hands. A founder who pays themselves a $200,000 dividend from after-tax profits receives it tax free personally, which changes the usual salary-versus-dividend calculation that applies in many other countries. There is also no capital gains tax, so a genuine capital gain on selling an asset or shares usually falls outside the charge entirely, though gains that are really trading profits are taxable. A practical reminder is to claim every capital allowance and deductible expense before applying the exemption, since lowering chargeable income compounds with the front-loaded relief.
When must my company register for GST?
Separately from income tax, GST registration becomes compulsory once your taxable turnover exceeds $1 million in a 12-month period, or is expected to. GST at 9 percent is a tax you collect on sales and offset against input tax, not a tax on profit, so it is unrelated to the corporate tax this tool computes. Many small companies cross the GST threshold long before their profit is large.
Do I still file if my company made a loss?
Yes. Every company must file an annual Corporate Income Tax Return with IRAS even with no profit, and dormant companies file too unless granted a waiver. Trading losses can be carried forward to offset future profits, subject to the shareholding and same-business tests, so filing a loss year protects relief you can use later.