Filing your tax return in Singapore is mostly a 15-minute check, not a form-filling marathon. For Year of Assessment 2026, the e-Filing window runs 1 March to 18 April 2026 on the myTax Portal, and most employees never touch a form because IRAS pre-fills their income through the Auto-Inclusion Scheme. About 1 million taxpayers won't file at all in 2026 because they get a Direct Notice of Assessment from mid-March. This guide walks through who still has to file, how to do it in minutes, when your tax bill is due, and what late filing actually costs.
Plenty of people log into the myTax Portal in April, see their income already filled in, and click Submit without changing a thing. Whether you need to do even that depends on which IRAS bucket you land in. Between February and March 2026, IRAS sends an SMS, email or letter telling you exactly which one applies to you.
You are required to file a tax return for YA2026 if your total income for 2025 was more than $22,000, or if you carried on a trade or profession (self-employed), or if you received a letter or SMS from IRAS asking you to file. Note that $22,000 is the filing threshold, not the point at which you start paying tax. Tax only kicks in once your chargeable income exceeds $20,000 after reliefs, so it is common to file and still owe nothing.
Singapore taxes income on a preceding-year basis. The income you earned during calendar year 2025 is assessed in Year of Assessment 2026, which is what every IRAS notice for this round refers to.
Miss the 18 April e-Filing deadline and IRAS can raise an estimated assessment based on your past income or available data, which is usually higher than your real bill, and you still have to file afterwards. If you genuinely need more time, you can request an extension of up to 14 days through the portal before the deadline.
| What | When |
|---|---|
| e-Filing opens on myTax Portal | 1 March 2026 |
| D-NOA tax bills start arriving | Mid-March 2026 |
| e-Filing deadline | 18 April 2026 |
| Self-employed late e-Filing window (no notice received) | Until 31 October 2026 |
| Tax bill (Notice of Assessment) payable within | 1 month of the NOA date |
| GIRO 12-month instalment cycle | Roughly May 2026 to April 2027 |
If your employer is on the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS), it submits your salary, bonus and CPF details straight to IRAS, and the figures appear in your return already filled in. AIS is mandatory for employers with five or more employees, so the large majority of salaried workers never type their income anywhere.
The catch is that AIS only covers employment income from participating employers. Anything outside that, rental income from a property you let out, side-gig or freelance earnings, private tuition, dividends from foreign shares, will not be pre-filled. If you have any of it, you are responsible for adding it, even if the rest of your return is auto-populated. Leaving it out is the most common reason an otherwise simple return becomes a back-and-forth with IRAS later.
For most people the whole thing takes under 15 minutes. You file through the myTax Portal website or the IRAS app, logging in with Singpass.
Your tax bill is the Notice of Assessment (NOA). It lands in your myTax Portal inbox after IRAS processes your return, and it sets out your assessable income, the reliefs allowed, your chargeable income and the final tax payable. D-NOA taxpayers get theirs from mid-March without filing.
Check it line by line. If a relief is missing or income looks wrong, you have up to 30 days from the date of the NOA to file an objection or amend your return through the portal. After that, the assessment is treated as final. If everything is correct, the only thing left is to pay it.
Your tax is due within one month of the NOA date. The two practical ways to handle it are paying the full amount or spreading it over GIRO instalments. GIRO is the only way to split the bill interest-free, and the cycle for individuals runs across 12 months, normally May to April of the following year.
Set up GIRO before the payment due date. The application has to be approved before that date, otherwise late-payment penalties start even while your GIRO is pending. You can also pay in one go via PayNow QR, internet banking or AXS if you prefer not to commit to a plan.
| Method | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| GIRO (12 instalments) | Auto-deducted monthly, interest-free, roughly May to Apr | Spreading a larger bill without extra cost |
| GIRO (one deduction) | Full amount taken on one date | Auto-paying on time with no manual step |
| PayNow QR | Scan the QR in the NOA or portal | Paying the full bill instantly |
| Internet banking / AXS / app | Pay using your IRAS payment slip details | One-off full payment |
IRAS treats late filing and late payment as two separate problems with separate penalties, so missing the deadline can sting twice.
File late and IRAS can issue an estimated assessment plus offer you a composition fee to settle the offence, up to $5,000 depending on your compliance history. Ignore it for two years or more and you can be summoned to court, where conviction carries a penalty of twice the tax assessed plus a fine of up to $5,000.
If you overpaid (common when CPF top-ups or SRS contributions were not yet reflected), IRAS refunds the difference, usually to your PayNow-linked bank account within 30 days of the credit arising. Keeping PayNow linked to your NRIC is the fastest route.
Residency drives your rate. You are taxed as a resident at progressive rates up to 24% if you are a Singapore citizen or PR, or you stayed or worked here for at least 183 days in 2025. Non-residents pay a flat 15% on employment income or the resident rates, whichever is higher, with most other income taxed at 24%. To see how reliefs change next year's bill before you commit cash, run the numbers in our income tax calculator and compare a cash top-up against SRS versus a CPF top-up while you still have the year to act.
The e-Filing deadline for Year of Assessment 2026 is 18 April 2026 on the myTax Portal. Filing opens on 1 March 2026, and an extension of up to 14 days can be requested if you need more time.
Sometimes not. If your full income and reliefs are already with IRAS you may get a Direct Notice of Assessment and skip filing. Under the No-Filing Service you only file if you want to add reliefs or other income IRAS does not already have.
You must file if your total income for 2025 exceeded $22,000, if you were self-employed or carried on a trade, or if IRAS sent you an SMS, email or letter asking you to file. You can still owe no tax if your chargeable income is below $20,000.
IRAS can raise an estimated assessment that is usually higher than your real bill, and offer a composition fee of up to $5,000 to settle the offence. Persistent non-filing for two years or more can lead to a court summons and a penalty of twice the tax plus a fine.
Your tax is payable within one month of the Notice of Assessment date. You can pay in full or split it over a 12-month interest-free GIRO plan, but the GIRO application must be approved before the due date to avoid the 5% late-payment penalty.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.