You will bring the course together into a tax plan you run once a year.
Shu Ting's tax workbook had grown a tab at a time over the course: a rebuild sheet, a relief list, a top-up decision, an SRS model, an income sheet and a foreign income note, each of which worked on its own. What it lacked was a front page. She wanted one place, opened twice a year, that said what to check, what to decide and by when, and that is what this project builds.
Set aside about fifty minutes. Have every tab from this course open, along with your IRAS account and your calendar.
Your yearly tax plan is a workbook you reuse every year. It's built around two moments. In spring, when filing opens, you check what IRAS has against your own figures and file. In early December, you make the decisions that only count if they happen before 31 December.
A finished plan answers five questions in a few minutes. What is my marginal rate this year? Which reliefs do I claim, and who in the family claims the shared ones? Am I topping up CPF or contributing to SRS, how much, and by what date? What income beyond my salary must I declare? Where are the records for each figure?
Start with the three foundation tabs. First comes your rebuild sheet from lesson 1.4, Rebuild your tax bill from scratch, updated with this year's expected income, your reliefs and the current IRAS rate bands; make sure the cell for "tax saved by a further S$1,000 of relief" still works. Next, the relief list from lesson 2.5, List every relief you qualify for, with this year's changes and every shared relief agreed and dated. Third, the income classification sheet from lesson 5.4, Classify every income line, copied forward to the current year.
Then the decisions. Your top-up decision from lesson 3.4, Decide your top-up for the year, goes in with its amount, tax saved, date and reason. Your SRS model from lesson 4.5, Model one SRS contribution over its life, follows, with this year's choice written beside it, even when the choice is no.
If you're doing both, run them together through your rebuild sheet. A relief that crosses into a lower band makes the next one worth less, which is exactly what Shu Ting found in lesson 3.4. Trust the combined figure, not the two separate ones.
Last, add your foreign income note from lesson 6.4, Write your foreign income note, even if it's a single line, and a short tab describing your records: where each year's folder lives, what goes in each subfolder, and how long IRAS requires you to keep it.
On the front page, write a December checklist. Every item gets an action and a date, and every date sits well before the real cut-off. Lesson 7.3, Records to keep and the year-end routine, gives you the five standing questions. Add your own items to them: the top-up and SRS payments, the family conversation about shared reliefs, any record still missing.
Under it, write a spring checklist. When filing opens, check pre-filled income and reliefs against your records. Add anything IRAS doesn't have, such as rent, side income or a new relief. Then file, and diary the deadline the day IRAS publishes it.
Finish the front page with a list of figures to check on the IRAS and CPF Board websites before you use the plan next year:
the resident rate bands the amount and conditions of each relief on your list, and the relief cap the CPF top-up relief limits and your MediSave room the SRS contribution limit, and the withdrawal rules once withdrawals are near the rules on rental expenses, if you let property the filing deadline
You won't find any of those numbers in this course. That's deliberate. They change, and a plan should never carry last year's figure into this year's decision.
Shu Ting's front page fits on one screen. Her marginal rate and the room left below the relief cap sit at the top. Her relief list follows in short form, with Parent Relief marked "agreed with Darren". Two decisions come next: a S$4,000 top-up to her mother by 5 December, and an SRS contribution with a net benefit of about S$1,459 under her example assumptions, both run together through her rebuild sheet. Then the income she must declare, her half of the rent from the room. Her two checklists and the lookup list close the page. A note at the top of the foreign income tab says the Jakarta posting would mean revisiting the whole plan.
Darren's is shorter. There's no top-up this year, SRS gets another look next year, and his tuition income is logged every Saturday.
Remember that this course teaches how the system works and gives no tax advice. If your plan involves large sums, a move abroad or anything you're unsure about, take it to a tax adviser. For the activity, write your own plan, set the December reminder, and list the figures you'll look up again next year.
Write your yearly tax plan, set the December reminder, and list the figures you will look up again on the IRAS website next year.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).