Budget 2025: SG60 gifts with up to S$800 in vouchers, 60% personal income tax rebate; arts, hawkers support

• Those aged 21 to 59 to receive S$600 in SG60 vouchers; 60 and above to get S$800
• 60 per cent personal income tax rebate for YA2025, capped at S$200
• S$100 SG Culture Pass credits for heritage activities; S$100 ActiveSG credit top-up

THE government has announced a package to celebrate Singapore’s 60th birthday this year, including SG60 Vouchers and a personal income tax rebate.

The SG60 Vouchers refer to a one-time voucher of S$600 for those aged 21 to 59 in 2025, and S$800 for those aged 60 and above, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (Feb 18) in his Budget speech.

These vouchers will be disbursed in July and will expire on Dec 31, 2026.

The SG60 Vouchers can be claimed digitally on RedeemSG via Singpass, or claimed with assistance from community centres and clubs – similar to the Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers.

They can be used at all businesses that accept the CDC Vouchers, as well as donated to those with greater needs.

Tax rebate, baby gift

The government will also provide a personal income tax rebate of 60 per cent, capped at S$200, for the year of assessment (YA) 2025.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore will compute and grant the rebate automatically to all tax resident individuals.

Wu Soo Mee, executive director at professional services firm BDO, pointed out that only tax resident individual taxpayers who earn an annual chargeable income of above S$33,800 will benefit from the full rebate.

Singapore Management University Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan noted that the rebate is a “token gesture” that seeks to recognise the contribution of income tax payers, but believes there will be calls for a larger rebate.

Meanwhile, all Singaporean babies born in 2025 will be entitled to an SG60 Baby Gift, with details to come soon.

Hawkers, arts get boost

As part of the package, hawkers and the arts will also get more support as the government seeks to strengthen the nation’s “cultural core and community bonds”, said PM Wong.

Hawkers and market stallholders in stalls managed by government and government-appointed operators will receive a one-time rental support of S$600 this year.

The government will also allocate up to S$1 billion over the next 20 to 30 years to upgrade and build hawker centres.

An SG Culture Pass will be introduced to encourage Singaporeans to attend local arts and heritage activities.

Those aged 18 and above will receive S$100 worth of credits for eligible activities from September 2025 to end-2028.

As for sports, ActiveSG members will receive S$100 in credits to book ActiveSG facilities and programmes.

Charity fund matching

To increase support for charity fundraising and social causes, the government and Tote Board will set aside more than S$600 million in matching funds, pointed out PM Wong.

A S$100 million top-up will be given to the Cultural Matching Fund, which provides dollar-for-dollar matching grants for registered arts and heritage charities, with the programme extended for five years until end-FY2029.

Secondly, the government and Tote Board will provide a S$270 million top-up to the Enhanced Fund-Raising Programme, which offers dollar-for-dollar matching grants for fundraising projects of Singapore-registered charities. The programme will be extended for three years until end-FY2027.

The government will also introduce a S$250 million SG Gives matching grant to provide dollar-for-dollar matching for donations made through platforms supporting social causes such as Community Chest.

Donors who commit to donations of at least S$250,000 per year for a minimum of three years will be matched S$1.50 for every dollar donated.

Separately, self-help groups – such as Yayasan Mendaki and the Eurasian Association – will also receive additional funding of S$60 million over the next five years.

Announcement details will be provided at the upcoming Committee of Supply debates.

Overall, Prof Tan said that the suite of support in Budget 2025 was “quite unexpected in terms of its scope and coverage”.

He added: “We tend to think of Budget goodies (as) for daily needs – for example, CDC vouchers – but this goes further to embrace what defines Singapore in this milestone SG60 year – culture broadly conceived and philanthropy.”

Meanwhile, the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce said that the Budget “rewards Singaporeans with goodies (that) go way beyond the fact that this is also an election year”.

For more Budget stories, visit businesstimes.com.sg/singapore-budget-2025