Rebuild your own notice of assessment from your records and check every figure.
To check your notice of assessment (NOA), rebuild it in a spreadsheet from income down to tax payable, with your figure beside IRAS's on every row. Rebuilding a notice means working out every figure on it yourself so you can see whether you agree with IRAS, where reading it only shows you what IRAS worked out. It takes more work than reading, but it is the only way to be sure every figure is right. The first rebuild takes about 20 minutes. Once the sheet exists, later years take about ten minutes, because you reuse it with new numbers.
Wei Jie, the running example in this module, filed an objection in Lesson 4.3 because parent relief was missing from his notice. The week after filing, he rebuilds the notice to find out whether the missing relief is the only problem or just the one he happened to notice.
You need four records for the Year of Assessment shown on the notice:
your IR8A, or an income statement from each employer you had that year your total employee CPF contributions for the year, from your payslips or your CPF transaction history records for any relief you claimed or think you qualify for the resident tax rate table for that Year of Assessment, from the IRAS website
If you had other income, such as rental income or freelance earnings, gather those records too. Most employees won't need them.
Lay out the spreadsheet in the same order as the notice, one step per row. Put your figure in one column and the notice's figure in the next. The rows run: employment income (from your IR8A), any other income, total income, approved donations, assessable income, each relief on its own row, total reliefs, and chargeable income.
Use formulas rather than typed totals, so that changing one figure updates everything below it. Chargeable income, for example, is a formula: assessable income minus total reliefs.
Wei Jie enters employment income of S$60,000 (an invented example figure, as are all his figures), which matches his IR8A. He has no other income and no donations, so his assessable income is S$60,000. He enters earned income relief of S$1,000 and CPF relief of S$10,800, checking the CPF figure against the employee CPF on his twelve payslips. His total reliefs come to S$11,800 (S$1,000 + S$10,800), and his chargeable income comes to S$48,200 (S$60,000 - S$11,800). That matches the notice.
Tax on chargeable income is worked out using the resident rates, and the IRAS table gives the tax on each band. You can build the calculation as one formula or set it out band by band over a few rows. Band by band is easier to check.
Wei Jie uses the practice table from Lesson 4.1, which is invented and not the real rates: 0% on the first S$20,000, 3% on the next S$20,000, and 6% above S$40,000. With his chargeable income in cell B12, a single formula for that table is `=MIN(MAX(B12-20000,0),20000)*3%+MAX(B12-40000,0)*6%`. Band by band, his tax is S$600 (3% of S$20,000) plus S$492 (6% of S$8,200), which is S$1,092.
When you do your own rebuild, use the real table for your Year of Assessment, with each band in its own row. Then check your top band: the rate on your highest band is the rate that any extra income or relief affects, which is useful to know when you plan for next year.
If the notice shows a rebate, add a row for it below the tax and subtract it. Check that year's rebate rules on the IRAS website first. Rebates are not given every year, and when they are, the amount and cap vary.
Compare your figure with the notice's on every row and mark each row either "same" or "different, with a reason". Not every difference is an error. A difference can come from rounding, from a rebate you didn't include, or from income you forgot, such as a short contract job early in the year. Trace each one until you can say which kind it is.
Only a difference you can't explain, or one where IRAS's figure is wrong, needs action. Depending on the cause, the action is nothing, an objection, a word with your employer, or a relief to claim next year.
Wei Jie's rebuild matches the notice on every row, so the relief he had already found is the only problem. He then adds a row for parent relief of S$5,000 to see what the objection should change. His chargeable income falls to S$43,200 (S$48,200 - S$5,000), and his tax falls to S$792 (S$600 plus 6% of S$3,200, which is S$192). He writes down the S$300 difference (S$1,092 - S$792) and the date he filed the objection.
A finished sheet runs from income to tax payable, with your figures and IRAS's side by side and every row marked. Under it, write one line for each difference: what it is, why it happened, and what you'll do about it. Save the sheet in your document file and keep its structure. Next year, change the inputs and the tax table.
Your own notice comes next. If your figures match on every row, that's a good result, and the one line you write can say so.
Fill in the notice of assessment rebuild sheet, then write one line on any difference and what you will do about it.
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