Simpler.TaxLocal tax engine What it prepares Download
  1. Simpler Tax
  2. Reverse charge on imported services
Answers · GST · box 14 · imported services

Imported services and reverse charge: does it apply to me?

Probably not, if yours is an ordinary trading company. Reverse charge reaches a business that is not entitled to claim its input tax in full: one with exempt supplies beyond the De Minimis limit, a charity, an investment holding company living on dividends. A fully taxable company that buys software or consulting from overseas and claims all of its input tax generally has no reverse charge to account for.

Where it does apply to a GST-registered business, you account for the GST on the overseas purchase yourself in box 6 and declare its value in box 14, and in boxes 1 and 5. A business that is not registered has no box 14 to fill, but imported services can by themselves make it liable to register; that threshold is not on this page. Simpler Tax does not compute the reverse-charge return: a period with a reverse-charge purchase in it is refused, with the arithmetic it could do and the reason it stopped.

Checked by hand, figures from the rulebook Edition YA-2027 · sources verified through 24 Jul 2026

Who is in scope

The test is entitlement to full input tax recovery. A business that recovers all of its input tax is outside reverse charge whatever it buys from overseas; one that cannot is inside it. Buying services from overseas is the occasion, not the test.

Registration is the other half, and this page holds only part of it. A GST-registered business in scope accounts for the tax in box 14. A business that is not registered has no box 14, but reverse charge on imported services and low-value goods can by itself make it liable to register: IRAS names that population in its InvoiceNow guidance, as businesses registered solely because of reverse charge. The threshold for that limb is not held here; ask IRAS or your accountant before assuming an unregistered company is outside it.

Full recovery survives if either of these holds for the period:

  • The De Minimis Rule (Regulation 28): exempt supplies of no more than S$40,000 a month on average and no more than 5% of total supplies. Both limbs, not either.
  • Only regulation 33 exempt supplies: incidental financial supplies such as interest on the company's bank deposits, and the business is not a regulation 34 business (a bank, an insurer and the like).

Fail both and the business is partially exempt, cannot claim all of its input tax, and must account for GST by reverse charge on services it procures from overseas suppliers. IRAS names the usual population: businesses making exempt supplies, charities and voluntary welfare organisations, and investment holding companies whose income is dividends. IRAS's test has two further limbs no set of books can show, whether the business carries out non-business activities and whether it belongs to a GST group whose members lack full credit; if either is you, the answer is yes whatever the arithmetic below says.

The De Minimis test is applied to each prescribed accounting period and then re-tested over the longer period, so a quarter that passes can still fail at the year's end. That is one reason this page shows the test and does not settle it.

What box 14 is

Box 14 of the GST F5 is the line labelled imported services subject to reverse charge: a yes or no, and if yes, the value. It is not a separate tax. The value of the reverse-charged purchase goes in three places at once: box 5 as a taxable purchase, box 1 as if you had supplied it to yourself, and box 14 as the declaration. The GST on it, computed at the rate in force because the overseas supplier charged none, goes in box 6 as output tax. Whatever part of that GST your recovery rules let you claim back goes in box 7. For a business that has failed the De Minimis test, that part turns on which supplies the purchase is attributable to and on a recovery ratio, and it is the accountant's computation.

Two edges of the box. Since 1 Jan 2023 it covers imported low-value goods as well as services. And box 11 carries the other direction: a refund claim for reverse-charge GST you accounted for where the overseas supplier went unpaid for 12 months, in force since 1 Jan 2020. See every box of the F5, with a worked quarter.

A worked quarter the engine refused: 1 Apr 2026 to 30 Jun 2026

The documents

A trading company that also lets a flat

A GST-registered trading company with a December year end. It owns one residential flat and lets it, which is an exempt supply outside regulation 33. In the quarter it makes two local sales, buys stock locally, and pays an overseas software subscription on which no GST was charged. GST is at 9%.

DateDocumentNet, S$GST, S$
8 Apr 2026Tax invoice to a local customerSale, code SR40,000.003,600.00
16 May 2026Tax invoice to a local customerSale, code SR20,000.001,800.00
1 Apr 2026Rent on a residential flat the company owns, the quarterSale, code ESN33: exempt, not a regulation 33 supply9,000.000.00
5 May 2026Supplier invoice, stock, localPurchase, code TX10,000.00900.00
11 Jun 2026Overseas software subscription, no GST chargedPurchase, code SRRC: reverse charge4,000.000.00
The scope test

Is this company entitled to full input tax recovery?

TestArithmeticResult
Exempt supplies in the quarter (box 3)9,000.00
Total supplies for the test: the sales plus the rent. The reverse-charged subscription is left out, though it sits in box 160,000.00 + 0.00 + 9,000.0069,000.00
Limb (a): exempt supplies no more than S$40,000 a month on average9,000.00 against 3 × S$40,000 = 120,000.00met
Limb (b): exempt supplies no more than 5% of total supplies9,000.00 is 13.0% of 69,000.00; 5% would be 3,450.00not met

Limb (b) fails: the rent is 13.0% of the quarter's supplies, and the limit is 5%. The rent is not a regulation 33 supply, so the other route to full recovery is shut too. This company is partially exempt, is not entitled to full input tax recovery, and reverse charge applies to its S$4,000.00 overseas subscription.

The fold

Where the S$4,000.00 lands, and where the engine stops

BoxWhat the engine didS$
5The subscription is a taxable purchase, beside the 10,000.00 of stock4,000.00
1The same value again, beside the 60,000.00 of sales4,000.00
14The declaration: yes, and the value4,000.00
6The document states 0.00 of GST, because the supplier charged none. Box 6 must carry the self-accounted output tax: 4,000.00 × 9%360.00
7The claim back is bounded by the company's recovery ratio under Regulations 28 and 29. The engine does not model the ratio and puts nothing hererefused

These five documents were put through the engine when this page was built, and it refused the quarter rather than sign a box 7 it could not vouch for. The refusal names the boxes it stopped over, box 6, box 7 and box 14, states the S$360.00 of output tax and the 9% it used, and says what to do next.

What Simpler Tax does with such a period

The moment any document in a period carries the reverse-charge code, SRRC in the PINT-SG category list the rulebook carries (the Singapore bookkeeping code) or AE on an EN16931 invoice, the period is refused. Not held with a warning: refused, no return is produced for the period, and the reason is stated. The refusal says how many reverse-charge purchases there were and their value, where the value went, the output tax box 6 must carry at the rate in force, and that the box 7 claim rides a recovery ratio the engine does not model. It offers two cures: file the quarter from your accountant's figures and record it as filed so the year map stands down, or, if the purchase was really prescribed goods from a local supplier under customer accounting, recode the document SRCA-C and re-import it.

The opposite silence gets a sentence too. If nothing in a period is coded for reverse charge but the books themselves say the company is partially exempt, box 3 over the De Minimis limit with exempt supplies that regulation 33 does not cover, the pack holds with a note: box 14 stands at zero on silence, not on an answer. If the company bought nothing from overseas, the zero is right. If it did, the fix is to code those purchases SRRC and re-import them, which sends the period into the refusal above.

What the engine cannot see, said plainly: a business in scope whose overseas invoices are coded as ordinary purchases (TX) and whose box 3 is empty, an investment holding company on dividends, a charity, gets no hold at all, because nothing in its books says the regime applies. Out-of-scope receipts are not exempt supplies and leave no trace in the return. If that is your company, the answer to this page's question is yes, and the pack's silence is not evidence otherwise.

What to do instead

The figure the engine will not produce is the box 7 claim, and behind it the recovery ratio. That is an accountant's computation over the longer period, from your exempt-supply profile and any fixed recovery rate. Give them the refused quarter's cover: the value in boxes 1, 5 and 14, the 9% output tax for box 6, and the documents. They file the return; you record it as filed.

IRAS's own guidance is the e-Tax Guide on taxing imported services by way of reverse charge, and the e-Tax Guide on partial exemption and input tax recovery, both linked under Sources. The scope test on this page is drawn from them. Elections, such as testing reverse charge liability only at the end of the longer period, are IRAS declarations your accountant handles; Simpler Tax has no place to record one.

If the company is fully taxable and the code was a mistake, the fix is at the source: recode the document and re-import it. The engine trusts the code on the document; it does not second-guess it. See the purchases whose GST is never claimable, whatever your ratio.

Do it in Simpler Tax

A quarter the engine will not sign

Post the quarter's documents. If none carries a reverse-charge code, the GST F5 pack issues with box 14 at zero and a note saying why it is zero; if the books say you are partially exempt, a hold says so. If one does, the pack is refused with the value placed, the box 6 tax computed at 9%, and both cures on its cover. Simpler Tax files nothing and never guesses a recovery ratio.

Download for Windows Simpler-Tax_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe · 55 MB · not signed yet · free · SHA-256 on the home page

Questions people ask

My company is an ordinary trading company. I pay overseas suppliers for software and advertising. Do I have to reverse charge?

Generally no. Reverse charge reaches a business that is not entitled to claim its input tax in full. A fully taxable, GST-registered trading company that claims all of its input tax has no reverse-charge obligation on overseas services, and its box 14 stays at zero. The test changes if the company also makes exempt supplies, such as letting a residential flat, beyond the De Minimis limit. If the company is not registered at all, the question is a different one: imported services can by themselves make it liable to register, and that threshold is not on this page.

What goes in box 14?

Box 14 is a yes-or-no question with a value: the value of services (and, since 1 Jan 2023, low-value goods) bought from overseas suppliers on which you account for the GST yourself. The same value goes in box 1 and box 5 as well. The GST you account for goes in box 6, and whatever part of it you may claim back, under your recovery rules, goes in box 7.

At what rate do I account for the GST?

The rate in force, 9% since 1 Jan 2024. The overseas supplier charges nothing, so the tax is not on the invoice: you compute it on the value. On the worked quarter's S$4,000.00 subscription that is S$360.00.

What is the De Minimis Rule?

The test that decides whether a business with some exempt supplies still recovers all of its input tax. Both limbs must hold for the period: exempt supplies of no more than S$40,000 a month on average, and no more than 5% of total supplies. Pass it and you are entitled to full recovery, which takes you outside reverse charge. A business whose only exempt supplies are regulation 33 incidental financial supplies, such as interest on its bank deposits, keeps full recovery whatever the amounts, unless it is a regulation 34 business such as a bank or insurer.

Why does Simpler Tax refuse the period instead of computing it?

Because half of the answer is a fact the books do not hold. The value side is fixed: the same figure in boxes 1, 5 and 14, and the output tax on it at 9% in box 6. The input tax you may claim back in box 7 depends on your input tax recovery ratio under Regulations 28 and 29, which is a fact about your exempt supplies over the longer period, not about any document. A return filled in without it would be wrong in box 7 with the engine's seal on it, so the engine stops and says why.

What do I do with the quarter Simpler Tax refused?

File it from your accountant's figures: the recovery ratio is theirs to compute, and the refusal states what the engine did settle, the value and the box 6 tax, to hand over. Then record the quarter as filed in Simpler Tax so the year map stands down. If the purchase was not an overseas service at all but prescribed goods from a local supplier under customer accounting, the document should carry SRCA-C rather than a reverse-charge code: correct it at source and re-import it.

I never paid the overseas supplier. Can I get the GST back?

IRAS's box 11 covers refund claims for reverse-charge GST you accounted for where the overseas supplier was not paid within 12 months, a limb in force since 1 Jan 2020. The conditions are IRAS's and the figure nets off the input tax you claimed, so it is one for your accountant; Simpler Tax does not compute box 11.

Sources

Statutory figures on this page are read from the Simpler Tax rulebook at build time, edition YA-2027, every source last checked 24 Jul 2026. The rulebook entries named below are the ones this page was computed from; the IRAS pages are what they were verified against.