New initiative by IRAS, ACRA allows SMEs to seamlessly prepare, file returns

SMALL and medium enterprises (SMEs) can now automate the preparation and filing of their statutory returns with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) using dedicated accounting software, the agencies said in a joint statement on Thursday.

IRAS and ACRA have partnered accounting software providers to incorporate regulatory filing requirements into providers' software, which will automatically generate the required returns for companies with simple tax affairs and accounting transactions.

The software is also linked to the agencies' systems via application programming interfaces, enabling companies to file their returns without having to log in to two separate portals, namely ACRA's BizFile+ and IRAS's myTax Portal.

The initiative is in line with Singapore's Smart Nation push to help SMEs stay relevant and competitive by equipping them with innovative solutions to digitalise their operations and improve productivity, ACRA and IRAS said.

The automatic filing capability is currently available on two software, Netiquette O2O Business Suite and SME Cloud Exchange Network. It will be made available progressively on other software, including AutoCount Accounting, Realtimme Cloud Solutions and Deskera ERP.

Companies are required to file annual returns with ACRA and corporate income tax returns with IRAS annually. Smaller firms can take up to about nine hours to manually prepare these returns and file them with both agencies, ACRA and IRAS said in the statement.

With the new seamless filing initiative, this time is shortened to 30 minutes, with an estimated 200,000 SMEs potentially standing to benefit, they added.

Ang Siok Hui, ACRA's divisional director for customer experience, said the agency plans to extend the seamless filing solution to more statutory filings in due course through private and public partnerships.

Chow Wai Yee, assistant commissioner of IRAS's corporate tax division, said the seamless filing solution will "greatly simplify" the filing process for small companies.