Background - Reporting remote sales in Singapore
The University is now GST registered in Singapore and reports quarterly. The GST return to be filed requires the University to report:
- Box 1: Total value of standard-rated supplies
- Box 4: Total value of (1) + (2) + (3)
- Box 6: Output tax due
- Box 8: Net GST to be paid to IRAS = (6) – (7)
- Box 17: Imported low-value goods
The Tax Team would like to receive from all departments details of your supplies of “remote services” made to customers currently residing in Singapore (individuals not businesses) for each quarter. These include:
- Online courses with or without human intervention
- Online lectures, seminars, conferences and events
- Downloadable digital content such as images or e-books
As well as “remote services” we are also required to disclose the delivery of “low value goods” to customers in Singapore. These are goods with a UK value of under £250 delivered to customers living in Singapore.
We are aware that there are currently multiple methods for making and recording these transactions within the University. It will therefore be the responsibility of the department to gather the sales information and submit their figures directly to our overseas agent who will then submit the University’s GST return.
What information do we require?
In order for us to ensure we are submitting the right data we would like from departments the following information.
- Customer Name
- Details of remote services delivered to individuals in Singapore
- Date of payment (this could be the invoice date)
- Details of “low value goods delivered to individuals in Singapore
- Value of the supply
Singapore GST is currently 8% and will be calculated on top of the total sales value. The cost of the GST will be re-charged to each department’s main account where it can then be redistributed to the relevant cost centre.
Any questions, please contact the Tax team through the VAT enquiries inbox.
Annex 1
Sent by Cashiers to online store users 8th December 2022
“Good Morning
This item appeared in the recent newsletter from the Tax Team and we wanted to bring it to the attention of all our Online Store users, as this may apply to courses or events you have run or services you have supplied.
We have been asked to set up booking pages to collect payments for various events which have either been held fully online or include a mix of online and in person attendees. Please can you consider the events you have hosted recently and if they have included online attendees as detailed above, or if you are involved with any of the other types of supply they are investigating, then please contact the Tax Team by emailing VAT Enquiries”
A Changing Attitude Towards Digital Services
Previously it was believed that as long as an element of ‘human involvement’ was part of an online supply it would fall outside the scope of what could be defined as a digital service. Since the pandemic many countries have changed their approach. No longer will human involvement prevent this from becoming digital supply, instead it will become an in-country supply. So what is the risk? Where we are supplying digital services to individuals we may be creating an overseas tax liability with an obligation to VAT register and submit VAT returns in that country. The Tax Team are keen to hear from all departments that might be making online supplies to overseas individuals domiciled outside of the UK. The types of supply we will be investigating include online courses, education, CPD, training, workshops, images, databases supplied to individuals as the end user.
