Who is a Tax Agent?
An oversea prospect client was asking me yesterday about the significance of Tax Agent in Singapore : –
who are they & how are they working with Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore on tax compliances and tax obligations ?
Let me share some insights here…
A tax agent is a person who prepares the returns of income required to be filed for 10 or more taxpayers and is one of the following:
* a practitioner carrying on a professional public practice, or
* a person carrying on a business or occupation in which returns of income are prepared.
Tax Agents
* IRAS, recognizes tax agents as its partners in the administration of the Singapore tax system.
* Hence, IRAS works with Tax Agents on latter’s compliance with tax obligations and in providing better value to latter’s clients.
* As tax agents work closely with their clients, they also glean valuable insights into the business needs and concerns of their clients.
* They serve as a valuable channel of feedback for IRAS in the formulation and refinement of tax policies and practices.
* Given that IRAS and tax agents share the same objective of ensuring tax compliance by businesses& facilitating business growth, there are opportunities for closer partnership & collaboration particularly in the area of training & improving the competence of tax agents.
* IRAS has, thus, formulated a framework for enhanced IRAS-Tax Agent relationship. The framework is built on the following principles:
1. Mutually beneficial
2. Balanced
3. Underpinned by openness, transparency & trust
and is supported by four strategies:
1. Profiling Tax Agents
2. Facilitating Growth of Tax Agent Competence
3. Improving Communication and Service
4. Enhancing Consultation and Collaboration
As tax professionals, tax agents are expected to be competent, act ethically and professionally in providing quality service and advice to their clients.
Besides helping clients comply with their tax obligations, tax agents need to abide by certain expectations that the business community and clients have of them and be compliant in their own tax matters as well.
IRAS expects tax agents to be open and transparent in their dealings with IRAS and conduct their practice with utmost integrity.
As tax agents are well-acquainted with tax matters, they should provide tax advice within the jurisdictions of tax laws.
IRAS will not hesitate to take action against errant accountants or tax agents who are non-compliant in their own tax matters or provide objectionable tax advice to their clients.
There is a heavy penalty for assisting others to defraud the Government or citizens – such non-compliant actions include falsifying of records, resulting in under-declaration of income, etc.
Corporate BackOffice ( CBO ) is certified Tax Agent. We provide good quality and dependable tax compliant services to our value clients.
Very often, CBO exceeds our clients’ expectations in tax computations, managed to bring down our clients’ effective tax rates via detail analysis of our clients’ accounts for items which are / can be qualified for claims and / or approved government grants for our clients.
If you need help, feel free to contact us at :
(O) +65 63851011
(M) +65 90880669
