FDW levy relief (2x levy paid).
Relief (2x levy)
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Tax saved
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Your breakdown
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Who can actually claim this
Foreign Domestic Worker Levy relief is one of the most misread reliefs in the IRAS system, because the name suggests anyone who employs a helper can claim it. They cannot. The relief is reserved for a married woman whose income is assessed in her own name, a divorcee, or a widow with children she is supporting. A single woman cannot claim it, and a man cannot claim it, even if he is the one who pays the levy. If you are a married working mother, you can claim it whether you or your husband paid the levy, but only on one foreign domestic worker, and only for the months the levy was actually paid in that calendar year.
This tool is built for that working mother sizing her reliefs before filing. Enter the monthly levy you paid, the number of months it covered during the year, and your marginal tax rate, and it returns both the relief and the tax it shaves off.
Double the levy, not the levy
The mechanic that trips people up is the doubling. The relief is twice the total levy paid in the year, not the levy itself. Many domestic-worker employers qualify for the concessionary levy of $60 a month rather than the normal rate, usually because there is a young child, an elderly person, or a person with disabilities in the household. At $60 a month across a full twelve months, you pay $720 of levy, and the relief is twice that, $1,440. Here is how the default case resolves.
Notice the relief reduces your chargeable income, it is not a cash rebate. The $166 figure is simply $1,440 multiplied by your marginal rate of 11.5 percent. Push the levy higher, say you pay the full non-concessionary rate, and both the relief and the saving scale up in proportion.
What the relief is worth in tax
Because relief works through your marginal band, its cash value depends entirely on your income. A working mother in the 7 percent band saves about $101 on the same $1,440 relief, while one in the 15 percent band saves $216. That is why two mothers paying identical levies can see very different tax savings. The relief itself is fixed by the levy you paid, but the benefit is geared to your top tax rate.
When stacking reliefs stops helping
Here is the edge case worth knowing. Singapore caps total personal income tax relief at $80,000 a year. A working mother who already claims Working Mother’s Child Relief, the Foreign Maid Levy relief, CPF relief, and perhaps an SRS contribution can find herself pressed against that ceiling. If you are already at or above $80,000 of total reliefs, this FDWL relief adds nothing to your tax bill, because the excess above the cap is simply ignored. This calculator deliberately does not model the $80,000 cap, so treat its tax-saved figure as the value in isolation. Before you assume the saving is real, total all your reliefs and check you are under the ceiling. The common mistake is claiming a relief in good faith and expecting a refund that never comes because the cap had already been reached.
Can I claim if my helper started halfway through the year?
Yes, but only on the levy actually paid. If you employed your helper for seven months, enter seven in the months field. The relief is twice the levy across those seven months, not a full year. The tool scales it for you the moment you change the month count.
My husband pays the levy. Who claims the relief?
The relief belongs to the wife and is claimed on her tax return, even when the husband is the one paying the levy from his account. A husband cannot claim FDWL relief on his own assessment. If you are the working mother, claim it against your income regardless of whose bank account the levy left from.