The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) is engaging in a public consultation on the draft Goods and Services Tax (GST) Guide on Customer Accounting for Prescribed Goods.

According to the existing GST rules, a GST-registered supplier will generally charge GST (output tax) on its local sale of goods, unless the goods are exempt. The GST-registered customer will then be able to claim the GST, which is paid as a pre-tax credit on local purchases and/or imports, subject to meeting the conditions for making the input tax claim.

Under the Draft Guide, from 1 January 2018, customer accounting will be implemented to better address non-compliance relating to transactions involving the prescribed goods (i.e., mobile phones, memory cards and off-the-shelf software). The responsibility for accounting for output tax on the sales of the prescribed goods will shift from the GST-registered supplier to the GST-registered customer. The supplier needs to issue a customer accounting tax invoice to the customer, indicating that the customer has to account for the output tax.

A GST-registered supplier will have to apply customer accounting on a local sale of the prescribed goods made to a GST-registered customer if the GST-exclusive value of the sale exceeds $5,000.

Comments are invited on the Draft Guide before the deadline of 2 June 2017. Electronic submission is encouraged. The comments are to be sent to the Goods and Services Tax Division on the IRAS. The IRAS will provide a summary of responses to the feedback received on the draft guide by 31 August 2017.