Hi, I have a total pay of $110k this year before CPF deduction, looking to lower my tax for 2021?

Hi Clement,

If you have maximized your CPF contributions from work (quite likely, looking at your income), then you will have to look at other avenues to reduce chargeable income, which is how much your income tax is based on.

Your tax relief based on donations is 250% of what you donate and the eligible donations can be found here:

https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/Individuals/Lo...

There is no cap on how much you can donate, but there is an overal tax relief cap of $80K. With $20.4K utilized by CPF, you'll have to also check what other reliefs you are eligible for (earned income relief, NS relief, parent relief, etc), and factor that in accordingly. Then you'll be able to gauge how much you can donate without going over the tax relief cap of $80K.

Consider SRS and Retirement Sum Topping Up schemes as well which also help you to get tax relief while preparing you for retirement eventually.

The 2.5x donation amount is deducted from the chargeable income assessment and not from the actual amount of income tax payable.

There is a maximum of $80,000 of personal tax relief per YA.

For $110,000, you will need to deduct all your eligible tax reliefs before arriving at the final chargeable income amount. From there, depending on the tax bracket that the figure is in, the tax rate applies.

Use the calculator that is available online at IRAS to do a rough calculation. Under individual income tax for YA 2020.

https://www.iras.gov.sg/IRASHome/Quick-Links/Ca...

If you do a donation and provide the IPC with your IC number, the information is provided to IRAS. Do keep the receipts in case it is missed out and you can add in your tax return.