You will rebuild your own notice of assessment from your records and confirm each figure.
Reading your notice of assessment tells you what IRAS worked out. Rebuilding it tells you whether you agree. The second is more work, about 20 minutes the first time, but it's the only way to be sure every figure is right, and it leaves you with a sheet you can reuse every year with new numbers.
Wei Jie did his rebuild the week after he filed his objection in lesson 4.3. He wanted to know whether the missing parent relief was the only problem, or just the one he happened to notice. This exercise follows his rebuild step by step.
You need four things for the Year of Assessment on your notice:
your IR8A, or the 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.
Open a spreadsheet and set out the same steps as the notice, one per row, with your figure in one column and the notice's figure in the next.
Row by row: employment income from your IR8A, any other income, total income, approved donations, assessable income, then each relief on its own row, total reliefs, and finally chargeable income. Use formulas, not typed totals, so that changing one figure updates everything below it. For example, chargeable income is assessable income minus total reliefs.
Here are Wei Jie's figures, the same example figures used throughout this module. Employment income S$60,000, matching his IR8A. No other income and no donations, so assessable income S$60,000. Earned income relief S$1,000. CPF relief S$10,800, which he checked against the employee CPF on his twelve payslips. Total reliefs S$11,800. Chargeable income S$48,200, matching the notice.
Next, work out the tax on chargeable income using the resident rates. The IRAS table gives the tax on each band, and you can build it into one formula or set it out band by band in a few rows. Band by band is easier to check.
Wei Jie's worked example uses the invented practice table from lesson 4.1: 0% on the first S$20,000, 3% on the next S$20,000, and 6% above S$40,000. These aren't the real rates. With chargeable income in cell B12, one formula that applies that invented table is =MIN(MAX(B12-20000,0),20000)*3%+MAX(B12-40000,0)*6%. On S$48,200 it gives S$600 plus S$492, which is S$1,092.
When you do yours, use the real table for your Year of Assessment and set out each band in its own row. Then check the top band. The rate on your highest band is the rate any extra income or relief affects, which is useful to know for next year.
If the notice shows a rebate, add a row for it below the tax and subtract it. Check the rebate rules for that year on the IRAS website, because rebates aren't given every year, and when they are, the amount and cap vary.
Now put your figure and the notice's side by side on every row and mark each one: same, or different with a reason.
Wei Jie's rebuild matched the notice on every row. That told him something useful. The only problem with his assessment was the relief he'd already found. Then he added a row for parent relief, using the example figure of S$5,000, to see what the objection should change. His chargeable income fell to S$43,200 and his tax, on the invented table, to S$792. He noted the S$300 difference and the date he'd filed the objection.
Not every difference is an error. Some come from rounding, some from a rebate you didn't include, and some 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.
You finish with a sheet that runs from income to tax payable, with your figures and IRAS's figures side by side and each row marked. Under it is one line for each difference: what it is, why it happened, and what you'll do about it, whether that's nothing, an objection, a word with your employer, or a relief to claim next year.
Save the sheet in your document file and keep its structure. Next year, you change the inputs and the tax table, and the rebuild takes ten minutes.
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.
Complete the notice of assessment rebuild sheet and write one line on any difference and what you will do about it.
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