Singapore updates CRS e-Tax Guide

Inland Revenue Service of Singapore (IRAS) updates Singapore CRS e-Tax Guide

On January 12, 2024 the Inland Revenue Service of Singapore (IRAS) published updates on the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) e-Tax Guide. This is the third edition of the CRS e-Tax Guide, a document issued by the IRAS that outlines Singapore’s adoption of CRS and provides guidance to Singaporean Financial Institutions (SGFIs) in understanding the CRS framework and their CRS compliance obligations.

CRS e-Tax Guide covers:

• Categorization of types of entities including financial institutions (FIs), reporting Singapore financial institutions (SGFIs), non-reporting SGFIs and non-financial entities (NFEs) under the CRS framework
• Classification of types of financial accounts in scope and excluded financial accounts, as well as outlining the due diligence procedures reporting SGFIs must apply to identify Reportable accounts
• Tax Specific information that must be reported by Reporting SGFIs
• Registration requirements of Reporting SGFIs

Summary of CRS e-Tax Guide Updates

Changes from 2nd Edition IRAS e-Tax Guide to the 3rd Edition IRAS e-Tax Guide include:

• Clarification of the definition of “Participating Jurisdiction” and “ReportableJurisdiction” under the Glossary (Section 3.1) and paragraph 4.4.1 to align with the CRS framework.
• Removal of the paragraph on the transitional approach for participating jurisdictions due to its expiration. This paragraph originally stated that Singapore recognizes participating jurisdictions as those that have officially committed at the government level to adopting CRS (Paragraph 4.4.2).
• Clarifications on the obligations to collect valid self-certifications for new accounts for Reporting SGFIs. Reporting SGFIs should have strong processes in place to ensure the collection and validation of self-certifications for each new account. Example of a strong measure may include effectively closing or freezing accounts after the expiration of 90 days, in accordance with the OECD’s CRS FAQ 22 (Paragraph 10.5.8).
• Revision of references to Singapore’s Acts of Parliament, throughout the CRS e-Tax guide, to accurately reflect their current names.

Key 2024 CRS Obligations and Updates for Singapore Financial Institutions:

Singapore Financial Institutions should take note of the following key CRS compliance updates and dates listed below.

• CRS Registration with IRAS: Under the CRS Regulations, the CRS registration deadline for an Entity that became a Reporting SGFI between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023 is 31 March 2024
• CRS Tax Reporting: CRS filing deadlines on the 31 May 2024 (for reporting year 2023
• On 1 February 2024, the IRAS published the List of Reportable Jurisdictions for 2024 CRS reporting
• On 1 February 2024, the IRAS published an updated List of Participating Jurisdictions. Key updates include; Kenya and Thailand being added to the list and, Niue being removed from the list

How can TAINA Help?

Many financial institutions in the Asia Pacific region face common CRS compliance challenges associated with tax form collection and validation, data error remediation, manual tax operations and poor customer experience.  CRS reportable information is gathered during due diligence at account opening through the collection of a self-certification form provided by the reportable account holders.

TAINA specializes in optimizing customer onboarding due diligence processes. The TAINA platform streamlines workflows, ensuring the maintenance of excellent data quality and generating multiple efficiency gains throughout the customer lifecycle. The TAINA  platform incorporates a variety of form collection modules, enabling clients to effortlessly collect and validate the complete suite of CRS Self-Certs in various formats including,  Forms CRS-E, CRS-I, and CRS-CP. TAINA also offers a CRS/FATCA dual form journey ensuring compliance to the major Tax regimes financial institutions must follow.

The TAINA platform is already being used at scale by the world’s largest and most sophisticated financial institutions to transform their regulatory compliance and customer experience.  TAINA has helped its clients eliminate the pain and risk associated with manual tax form validation, whilst achieving significant cost savings, efficiency gains, and improved customer experience. 

For more information on how our fully automated FATCA and CRS Validation platform can add value to your business, get in touch or request a demo to see it in action.