July 2023 / Singapore

As announced in Minister of Finance’s Budget 2022, the GST rate will increase from 8% to 9% on 1 January 2024. The rate change affects any GST-registered business that sells or purchases goods or services that are subject to the standard rate of GST. To ensure a smooth transition, businesses must follow some transactional rules to be prepared for the rate adjustment.

Update Price Display

All price displays with effect from 1 Jan 2024 must be inclusive of GST at 9%. This necessitates updating prices across all sales channels. Businesses have the option to present two prices:

• One applicable before 1 Jan 2024 showing prices inclusive of GST at 8%; and
• One applicable from 1 Jan 2024 showing prices inclusive of GST at 9%.

If prices remain unchanged, businesses are not required to revise displayed prices, but they must still account for GST (9/109) on sales from January 1, 2024, onwards. Update Accounting and Billing Systems 

To comply with the substantial changes associated with the GST rate adjustment, businesses should prepare the invoicing systems to accurately calculate taxes, issue invoices, and file GST returns in accordance with the new requirements.

Reverse Charge Business

GST-registered businesses subject to reverse charge (“RC business”), must account for GST at 9% on the services you procure from overseas suppliers (“imported services”) on or after 1 Jan 2024.

Diacron Assistance for a smooth Transition

Failure to account for GST on your supplies at the correct rate may attract penalties. Being prepared for GST rate change will help you avoid such increases to your business and compliance costs.

Diacron expertise can help you understand the implications and guide you through an efficient and effortless update to the new GST requirements, ensuring compliance.

For further information and assistance please contact us at info@diacrongroup.com

Changes to verification requirement

With the implementation of COMPASS, post-secondary diploma and above qualifications declared to MOM will have to be supported with a verification proof. This requirement applies to new EP applications from 1 September 2023, and renewals from 1 September 2024.

Employers who need points from these qualifications in COMPASS have to declare them in the EP application. Otherwise, there is no need to declare qualifications.

Verification proof requirements

Employers must ensure that their candidates’ qualifications are authentic and were awarded by accredited institutions.

If the qualification's	You need to provide verification proof for
Awarding institution cannot be found in application dropdown list	Both: Authenticity of the qualification Accreditation status of the institution
Awarding institution can be found in dropdown list	Authenticity of the qualification

Authenticity checks confirm that the candidate was awarded the qualification. Accreditation checks confirm the qualification is recognised by the local government authority.

Only verification proof from the sources listed below will be accepted:

• Background screening companies who are able to verify qualifications from most countries/regions:
  • Avvanz International Background Checks
  • Cisive
  • Dataflow
  • eeCheck
  • First Advantage
  • HireRight
  • Risk Management Intelligence (RMI)
  • Sterling RISQ
  • Veremark
  • Vero Screening
• Background screening companies who are able to verify qualifications from selected countries/regions:
  • GPC Gateway (Japan)
  • Verity Intelligence (Australia, Malaysia, United Kingdom, United States)

A variable fee will be charged for the verification check purposes by these listed companies. 

List of acceptable institutions is available here 

Source: mom.gov.sg