You are posted to Singapore, sit on a Singapore board, or live there on investment income. You assume that your pass, or a count to 183 days, settles your tax residency in Singapore. Often it does not.
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) applies its own tests, a local version of tax residency and what it triggers. The status changes the rate on your Singapore income and your access to reliefs and treaties. It leaves one thing untouched: which income Singapore taxes at all.
Tax residence is not a single international status. Each State defines it in its own law. A tax treaty only arbitrates when two domestic laws claim the same person.
In Singapore the status decides three things: the rate on your income, your access to personal reliefs, and your access to treaty benefits. It does not decide whether your foreign income is taxed. The base is territorial for residents and non-residents alike.
Singapore taxes this year the income you earned last year.
Year of Assessment (YA) 2026 covers income earned from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.
A company is a separate matter: its residence follows where its control and management is exercised.
The law sets two limbs. According to Singapore's note to the OECD (accessed October 2026), section 2(1) of the Income Tax Act 1947 covers a person who “resides in Singapore except for such temporary absences therefrom as may be reasonable”. It includes anyone present, or employed other than as a company director, for 183 days or more in the year preceding the Year of Assessment.
IRAS reads it this way. A Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident who normally resides there is resident; so is a foreigner who stayed or worked there for at least 183 days in the previous calendar year. “At least”, not “more than”.
| Days in Singapore in the calendar year | Status | Treatment of employment income |
|---|---|---|
| 60 or less | Non-resident | Exempt |
| 61 to 182 | Non-resident | Higher of 15% and resident rates, no reliefs |
| 183 or more | Resident | Progressive resident rates |
The three bands for a foreign employee, as IRAS tabulates them (2026).
Weekends and public holidays count. So do overseas leave and business trips.
IRAS gives two dated cases. A stay from 3 July 2025 to 31 December 2025 is 182 days: non-resident for YA 2026. An employment from 1 June 2024 to 31 December 2024 lasts 214 days, 164 on overseas business trips and 50 in Singapore: resident for YA 2025, the whole income taxable.
A work pass valid for at least 1 year means IRAS treats you as a tax resident. That treatment is reviewed at tax clearance: if your stay turns out shorter than 183 days, you are a non-resident.
A foreigner who stayed or worked in Singapore for at least 183 days in the previous calendar year is resident. The number of days in the calendar year sets the status, and the status sets how employment income is treated.
The 183-day count is not the whole rule. IRAS applies two administrative concessions: practices of the tax authority, not extra statutory tests.
| Period in Singapore | Days by calendar year | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stay or work, 3 November 2023 to 7 May 2025 | 59, 366 and 127 | Resident, YA 2024 to YA 2026 | Three-year concession |
| Work, 3 November 2024 to 7 May 2025 | 59 and 127, 186 in total | Resident, YA 2025 and YA 2026 | Two-year concession |
| Work, 4 August 2024 to 29 December 2024, then stay until 7 April 2025 | 150 and 97 | Non-resident, both years | The employment does not straddle 2 years |
| Work, 3 November 2024 to 28 February 2025 | 59 and 59 | Non-resident, both years | Employment income exempt in both |
The four cases are IRAS's own examples (2026).
The last line shows the 60-day rule: a non-resident employed in Singapore for 60 days or less in a year has that short-term employment income exempt. It does not apply where your absences are incidental to the Singapore employment, nor where the stay covers three continuous years or more.
Company directors, public entertainers and professionals (IRAS lists foreign experts, foreign speakers, consultants, trainers and coaches) are outside the two-year concession and the 60-day exemption alike.
A resident is taxed on income earned in Singapore, after deductions and personal reliefs. According to IRAS (2026), the rates run from 0% to 24% from YA 2024 onwards, in Singapore dollars.
| Chargeable income (SGD) | Rate | Tax on the band | Cumulative tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 20,000 | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| Next 10,000 | 2% | 200 | 200 |
| Next 10,000 | 3.5% | 350 | 550 |
| Next 40,000 | 7% | 2,800 | 3,350 |
| Next 40,000 | 11.5% | 4,600 | 7,950 |
| Next 40,000 | 15% | 6,000 | 13,950 |
| Next 40,000 | 18% | 7,200 | 21,150 |
| Next 40,000 | 19% | 7,600 | 28,750 |
| Next 40,000 | 19.5% | 7,800 | 36,550 |
| Next 40,000 | 20% | 8,000 | 44,550 |
| Next 180,000 (320,000 to 500,000) | 22% | 39,600 | 84,150 |
| Next 500,000 (500,000 to 1,000,000) | 23% | 115,000 | 199,150 |
| Above 1,000,000 | 24% | N/A | N/A |
As a non-resident, your employment income is taxed at the higher of a flat 15% and the tax on the resident scale, with no personal relief. “15% flat” is a shorthand that misstates the rule.
Director's fees and other income, such as rent from property or pensions, are generally taxed at 24%. That rate was 22% before YA 2024.
Take SGD 120,000 of Singapore employment income in one year. The first five bands of the resident scale give 0, 200, 350, 2,800 and 4,600: SGD 7,950, an effective 6.6%. Under the non-resident rule, 15% is SGD 18,000, the higher of the two. The gap is SGD 10,050.
| Singapore employment income (SGD) | Resident scale | Effective rate | 15% flat | Non-resident pays | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120,000 (lead case) | 7,950 | 6.6% | 18,000 | 18,000 | 10,050 |
| 250,000 | 30,700 | 12.3% | 37,500 | 37,500 | 6,800 |
| 500,000 | 84,150 | 16.8% | 75,000 | 84,150 | 0 |
Figures computed from the IRAS scale (YA 2024 onwards), not IRAS figures. The two computations meet at about SGD 369,286: below it a non-resident pays 15%, above it the resident scale applies to both.
The Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR) scheme, a time apportionment of Singapore employment income, has ceased. The last status granted ran from YA 2020 to YA 2024, and those who already qualified kept the concession until their status expired.
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Begin Your Journey With UsResidence does not widen the base. A resident is taxed on income earned in Singapore, and foreign-sourced income brought into Singapore is tax-exempt, unless received through a partnership in Singapore. A non-resident is likewise taxed on income earned in Singapore.
Overseas income is taxable in five cases:
| Item | IRAS position | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Gains on property, shares and financial instruments | Generally not taxable | May be taxable where property is bought and sold with a profit-seeking motive, or you are deemed to be trading |
| Dividends from a Singapore resident company (one-tier system); foreign dividends received in Singapore by a resident individual | Generally not taxable | Not through a partnership in Singapore; co-operatives excepted |
| Interest on deposits with approved banks and licensed finance companies in Singapore | Not taxable | Deposits with non-approved banks, and loans to companies or persons, are taxable |
| Estates | Estate Duty removed for deaths on and after 15 February 2008 | N/A |
To judge trading, IRAS looks at frequency of transactions, reasons for buying and selling, financial means to hold for the long term and holding period.
None of this binds another State. Your other State of residence, or of citizenship, may tax the same income, gain or estate; a US citizen keeps a US filing position wherever they live. Where your money is held is a separate question: see how Singapore compares as a banking jurisdiction.
A resident is taxed on income earned in Singapore, and so is a non-resident. Foreign-sourced income brought into Singapore is tax-exempt, with exceptions that the tax authority lists.
| Profile | What decides residence | Rate on the typical income |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | Days of stay or work in the calendar year, plus the two concessions | Resident scale; as a non-resident, the higher of 15% and the scale |
| Board director | Physical presence of 183 days or more in the year preceding the Year of Assessment | Non-resident: 24% withheld on remuneration |
| Investor without a local job | A stay of at least 183 days, or residing in Singapore apart from reasonable temporary absences | Non-resident: 24% on rent from Singapore property |
The bands and concessions above are written for you. Your work pass presumption is reviewed when you leave, at tax clearance.
With fewer than 183 days of presence, a Singapore tax resident company withholds tax on your remuneration, then files and pays by the 15th of the second month from the date of payment. In IRAS's words, “It does not matter where the board meeting was held”.
Directors stand outside both the two-year concession and the 60-day exemption. An executive director's employment income is not subject to withholding and is reported in a tax return.
Residence does not require an employment: the IRAS test speaks of a foreigner who has “stayed or worked” at least 183 days. Property traded with a profit-seeking motive is taxable, and income received through a Singapore partnership follows different rules.
Family office regimes and immigration programmes are separate subjects, and tax status is one input among others when you live between countries, next to planning your finances as an expatriate.
The Certificate of Residence is a letter certifying that you are a tax resident in Singapore, for claiming benefits under a double taxation agreement. You submit it to the foreign tax authority; non-residents do not enjoy these benefits. You apply online, by email as a foreign employee without Singpass, or on a physical form where an overseas tax form needs IRAS endorsement. Processing takes between 2 and 3 weeks.
The Singapore-UAE income tax agreement, in force since 30 August 1996, defines a resident by the taxation laws of each State. Between Dubai and Singapore, you are therefore tested under each domestic law first: the IRAS rules above, and the UAE Cabinet's Decision No. 85 of 2022, effective 1 March 2023.
You can meet two domestic tests at once; the agreement, not the certificate, then arbitrates, which is where reading a double taxation agreement begins.
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The Income Tax Act 1947 treats as resident a person who resides in Singapore except for reasonable temporary absences, including anyone physically present or employed there (other than as a company director) for 183 days or more. The year tested is the one preceding the Year of Assessment.
The higher of 15% and the tax on the resident scale, with no personal reliefs; 60 days or less is exempt. On SGD 120,000: 15% = SGD 18,000. Above about SGD 369,286, the scale gives more. Contact us for more information.
Yes for residents, from YA 2024, on chargeable income after reliefs: the first SGD 20,000 at 0%, income above SGD 1,000,000 at 24%. A non-resident's other income is generally taxed at 24%.
Each has limits. Begin your journey with us.
For a foreigner, IRAS recognises four situations:
This guide is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice.
