Singapore Expats

Deciding to evade tax

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symbioticInTheory
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Deciding to evade tax

Post by symbioticInTheory » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 2:13 am

Story goes something like this:
In 2012 I arranged with my employer that I could work in Singapore remotely (due to personal reasons). Part of the deal was that my income would still be getting paid into an Australian bank account, which includes paying taxes in Australia, and that I would organise an EP with the company's Singapore branch which I was to visit a couple of days per week (even though there was no direct relationship to my department).

Last September I moved back to Australia and shortly thereafter resigned and accepted a job elsewhere (Europe).
Now last month I received an email from the office in Singapore stating that I have some urgent mail from the IRAS.

I finally receive the mail in the post here. They are demanding that I pay $8000 of tax for the previous year that I lived in Singapore, and not only that , there is a late fee of some amount applied on top of this amount accompanied with a stern warning that I will not be able to leave the country and/or that they might take legal action.

There is no way I will pay this even if I did just have this money lying around especially considering I payed over 40% of tax in Australia that year. Now my ex-employer made it clear previously that they will not deal with any tax issues so I cannot go to them for advice (even if I wanted to).

So I know it is never wise to burn your bridges, but in reality I hated Singapore and even before this tax issue occurred vowed never to return.
I'm also a dual passport holder so if I ever really need to return back there I could just use my alternate passport.

Now the main reason for posting this is that I'm just curious to hear different opinions on this matter, and if anyone else has done something similar?

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Post by Strong Eagle » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 5:08 am

symbioticInTheory wrote:Story goes something like this:
In 2012 I arranged with my employer that I could work in Singapore remotely (due to personal reasons). Part of the deal was that my income would still be getting paid into an Australian bank account, which includes paying taxes in Australia, and that I would organise an EP with the company's Singapore branch which I was to visit a couple of days per week (even though there was no direct relationship to my department).

Last September I moved back to Australia and shortly thereafter resigned and accepted a job elsewhere (Europe).
Now last month I received an email from the office in Singapore stating that I have some urgent mail from the IRAS.

I finally receive the mail in the post here. They are demanding that I pay $8000 of tax for the previous year that I lived in Singapore, and not only that , there is a late fee of some amount applied on top of this amount accompanied with a stern warning that I will not be able to leave the country and/or that they might take legal action.

There is no way I will pay this even if I did just have this money lying around especially considering I payed over 40% of tax in Australia that year. Now my ex-employer made it clear previously that they will not deal with any tax issues so I cannot go to them for advice (even if I wanted to).

So I know it is never wise to burn your bridges, but in reality I hated Singapore and even before this tax issue occurred vowed never to return.
I'm also a dual passport holder so if I ever really need to return back there I could just use my alternate passport.

Now the main reason for posting this is that I'm just curious to hear different opinions on this matter, and if anyone else has done something similar?
Your company should have been aware that if the EP is obtained by a Singapore company, then you are employed by that company, and therefore you must pay Singapore income tax.

It doesn't matter where you are actually paid from, and it doesn't matter which bank you put the money into. You earned it in Singapore because you worked for the Singapore company.

I know this to be the case because of people I know who were/are paid in USD by the home company in the USA. One deposited into a Singapore Citibank US dollar denominated account, the other into a US account. Both filed Singapore tax returns.

Your Singapore company ought to be in hot water as well, or you got in hot water because they filed what they were supposed to file. If you are on an EP, then you, like every other wage slave, should have had an IR8A filed to IRAS by the company, stating your income. If they did so, then fer sure the IRAS quickly picks up that you earned money and paid no tax.

It sounds like the HR departments of your company in both Australia and Singapore have/had their heads up their asses because this isn't any secret stuff. The other thing I can't figure out is why they didn't just follow AU rules with respect to payment of foreign income and income taxes. You would have gotten your Singapore tax deducted from your AU tax and the whole thing would be a wash. Maybe you can still do this with an amended return.

I think you should pay the taxes as they are legally due, and especially since you should be able to get foreign tax credits deducted from your AU tax.

And if I may critically add with this edit: Why the hell didn't you do your homework on this subject before diving in? Most expats take the time to become acutely aware of the tax consequences of their actions.
Last edited by Strong Eagle on Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by maneo » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 7:19 am

symbioticInTheory wrote:I'm also a dual passport holder so if I ever really need to return back there I could just use my alternate passport.
Last I checked, dual citizenship is not allowed by SG.
Not sure what you are assuming about re-entering (if you ever really need to) using your alternate passport.
ICA makes good use of their computers.
symbioticInTheory wrote:So I know it is never wise to burn your bridges, but in reality I hated Singapore and even before this tax issue occurred vowed never to return.
You could try keep your vow.
Strong Eagle wrote:You would have gotten your Singapore tax deducted from your AU tax and the whole thing would be a wash. Maybe you can still do this with an amended return.

I think you should pay the taxes as they are legally due, and especially since you should be able to get foreign tax credits deducted from your AU tax.
If you don't want to keep your vow and want to leave the door open for visiting SG again without any worry, then follow SE's advice.

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Re: Deciding to evade tax

Post by nakatago » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 7:38 am

I got a feeling OP would come back to delete his post.
symbioticInTheory wrote:Story goes something like this:
In 2012 I arranged with my employer that I could work in Singapore remotely (due to personal reasons). Part of the deal was that my income would still be getting paid into an Australian bank account, which includes paying taxes in Australia, and that I would organise an EP with the company's Singapore branch which I was to visit a couple of days per week (even though there was no direct relationship to my department).

Last September I moved back to Australia and shortly thereafter resigned and accepted a job elsewhere (Europe).
Now last month I received an email from the office in Singapore stating that I have some urgent mail from the IRAS.

I finally receive the mail in the post here. They are demanding that I pay $8000 of tax for the previous year that I lived in Singapore, and not only that , there is a late fee of some amount applied on top of this amount accompanied with a stern warning that I will not be able to leave the country and/or that they might take legal action.

There is no way I will pay this even if I did just have this money lying around especially considering I payed over 40% of tax in Australia that year. Now my ex-employer made it clear previously that they will not deal with any tax issues so I cannot go to them for advice (even if I wanted to).

So I know it is never wise to burn your bridges, but in reality I hated Singapore and even before this tax issue occurred vowed never to return.
I'm also a dual passport holder so if I ever really need to return back there I could just use my alternate passport.

Now the main reason for posting this is that I'm just curious to hear different opinions on this matter, and if anyone else has done something similar?
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Post by Wd40 » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 7:50 am

If you and your employer agreed that your salary will be paid to Australian account, then what income was mentioned in your EP application? An EP is given only to people who work and are paid in Singapore.

I think there is a major disconnect b/w your Singapore HR and your Australian HR. Your Singapore HR have probably filed returns stating that your income was paid to you for services originating in Singapore. Which is why IRAS sent you the tax bill.

Like Strong Eagle mentioned, see if you can claim refund of the $8000 from ATO under DTA. $8000 is nothing in the grand scheme of things. Regarding coming back to Singapore on your other passport, if you are lucky, you may be able to transit without getting caught but forget about getting an EP here ever.

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Post by PNGMK » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 9:37 am

What I don't understand is why you didn't make yourself non tax resident in Australia for the duration of that contract and enjoy the much lower Singapore tax rates?

As others have said there is a Dual Tax Agreement between Australia and Singapore.

You'll need some help but in essence the total amount of tax paid for that period should not exceed either countries assessment - not the sum of the assessments (which is your current situation). You should be able to reduce your Australian income tax by the amount paid or owing to IRAS. You may need a CPA to help work this out and refile with the ATO.

If you don't pay the IRAS there is a reasonable possibility that they will take court action, obtain a judgement and then engage an Australian debt collector to go after you (or more likely sell the debt off to one of the many legal loansharks in Australia). As the debt is proven in court this will be enforceable even in Australia and you life will be miserable for at least 7 years. What this means though is that you have had a negative court assessment against you! This will end up appearing on credit reports, credit bureaus - you will risk obtaining loans in the future.

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Post by Beeroclock » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 10:05 am

My understanding in your situation you will be considered as tax resident in both countries. So definitely you should have declared and paid Singapore income tax. I would settle the matter with IRAS, as you said no point burning a bridge and there is no valid defence. As for the Australian tax you should be able to apply for a foreign tax credit to avoid double taxation as mentioned above by SE & PNGMK. Even if your tax return already done, can still lodge an amendment and get the tax back to offset what you pay IRAS.

However, it's highly unlikely you would've qualified as Australian tax non-resident, the ATO tightened the laws considerably a few years ago to make such arrangements as difficult as possible. Especially as you were collecting your income in an Australian bank account, it is obvious that you still have close ties to Australia and the Singapore assignment is temporary/short-term. You would've had to structure it as a 3+ year contract and taken lots of other measures to demonstrate cutting ties with Australia to satisfy an ATO audit if they decided to test your claim of non residency.

So in conclusion, it might be a hassle but you should be able to resolve it without paying additional tax, which I think is worth doing to avoid having this hang over your head indefinitely.

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Post by symbioticInTheory » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 3:18 pm

Thanks for the replies guys.
Strong Eagle wrote: It sounds like the HR departments of your company in both Australia and Singapore have/had their heads up their asses because this isn't any secret stuff. The other thing I can't figure out is why they didn't just follow AU rules with respect to payment of foreign income and income taxes. You would have gotten your Singapore tax deducted from your AU tax and the whole thing would be a wash. Maybe you can still do this with an amended return.

I think you should pay the taxes as they are legally due, and especially since you should be able to get foreign tax credits deducted from your AU tax.

And if I may critically add with this edit: Why the hell didn't you do your homework on this subject before diving in? Most expats take the time to become acutely aware of the tax consequences of their actions.
Due to the fact that I strongly requested (with threats of resignation) that the company transfer me there, the employer made it clear that they will not deal will any paper work inc. tax issues. Annoyingly enough I was in a position to obtain a spouse visa instead of the EP but I wanted to make my employer happy and at least show my face in the office there (which I only did once).

I spent hours researching this issue beforehand and managed to get a tax ruling in Australia stating something along the lines of "You will not be taxed on any income earned outside of Australia..." which was pretty useless in my case since my income was still being paid by my Aus. employer into an Australian bank account.

I did consider amending my tax return but the fact is I do not even have the $8k readily available, and I do not trust the ATO enough that they will offset my tax by this amount (i.e. I may never see that money again).
maneo wrote:
symbioticInTheory wrote:I'm also a dual passport holder so if I ever really need to return back there I could just use my alternate passport.
Last I checked, dual citizenship is not allowed by SG.
Not sure what you are assuming about re-entering (if you ever really need to) using your alternate passport.
ICA makes good use of their computers.
If that is the case then I broke another law. They are not aware of my other nationality, which includes passport details etc.
Trust me when I say this, I will never willingly get an EP there again, hell even a tourist visa.
nakatago wrote:I got a feeling OP would come back to delete his post.
Err... no?
Wd40 wrote:If you and your employer agreed that your salary will be paid to Australian account, then what income was mentioned in your EP application? An EP is given only to people who work and are paid in Singapore.

I think there is a major disconnect b/w your Singapore HR and your Australian HR. Your Singapore HR have probably filed returns stating that your income was paid to you for services originating in Singapore. Which is why IRAS sent you the tax bill.
The income mentioned in the EP was what I said it was, that is all. They did not even check whether that was correct or not. In fact I got a raise during this period and the amount they are taxing me on is quite a bit less than what I earned during that period.
PNGMK wrote:What I don't understand is why you didn't make yourself non tax resident in Australia for the duration of that contract and enjoy the much lower Singapore tax rates?

As others have said there is a Dual Tax Agreement between Australia and Singapore.

You'll need some help but in essence the total amount of tax paid for that period should not exceed either countries assessment - not the sum of the assessments (which is your current situation). You should be able to reduce your Australian income tax by the amount paid or owing to IRAS. You may need a CPA to help work this out and refile with the ATO.

If you don't pay the IRAS there is a reasonable possibility that they will take court action, obtain a judgement and then engage an Australian debt collector to go after you (or more likely sell the debt off to one of the many legal loansharks in Australia). As the debt is proven in court this will be enforceable even in Australia and you life will be miserable for at least 7 years. What this means though is that you have had a negative court assessment against you! This will end up appearing on credit reports, credit bureaus - you will risk obtaining loans in the future.
As I said above, I was able to get a ruling from the ATO in regards to whether they will consider me a non-resident for tax purposes but they explicitly stated that this will only be valid for income earned outside of Australia.

In regards to the court action, I very much doubt that this will be the case considering this will probably be time consuming and costly. Even considering this I no longer live in Australia and have no valuable assets there so this will not really do them much good anyhow.

As stated a couple of times the only other option I have is to amend my tax assessment for that year in Australia and apply for a tax offset. In fact this is really only possible now anyway because I actually have the paperwork from IRAS. But I do not believe that I will ever see this money again if I do that. They may question the assessment now especially considering I am not employed in Australia anymore (so not paying tax in Aust. from this year onwards).

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Post by PNGMK » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 4:02 pm

symbioticInTheory wrote:Thanks for the replies guys.
Strong Eagle wrote: It sounds like the HR departments of your company in both Australia and Singapore have/had their heads up their asses because this isn't any secret stuff. The other thing I can't figure out is why they didn't just follow AU rules with respect to payment of foreign income and income taxes. You would have gotten your Singapore tax deducted from your AU tax and the whole thing would be a wash. Maybe you can still do this with an amended return.

I think you should pay the taxes as they are legally due, and especially since you should be able to get foreign tax credits deducted from your AU tax.

And if I may critically add with this edit: Why the hell didn't you do your homework on this subject before diving in? Most expats take the time to become acutely aware of the tax consequences of their actions.
Due to the fact that I strongly requested (with threats of resignation) that the company transfer me there, the employer made it clear that they will not deal will any paper work inc. tax issues. Annoyingly enough I was in a position to obtain a spouse visa instead of the EP but I wanted to make my employer happy and at least show my face in the office there (which I only did once).

I spent hours researching this issue beforehand and managed to get a tax ruling in Australia stating something along the lines of "You will not be taxed on any income earned outside of Australia..." which was pretty useless in my case since my income was still being paid by my Aus. employer into an Australian bank account.

I did consider amending my tax return but the fact is I do not even have the $8k readily available, and I do not trust the ATO enough that they will offset my tax by this amount (i.e. I may never see that money again).
maneo wrote:
symbioticInTheory wrote:I'm also a dual passport holder so if I ever really need to return back there I could just use my alternate passport.
Last I checked, dual citizenship is not allowed by SG.
Not sure what you are assuming about re-entering (if you ever really need to) using your alternate passport.
ICA makes good use of their computers.
If that is the case then I broke another law. They are not aware of my other nationality, which includes passport details etc.
Trust me when I say this, I will never willingly get an EP there again, hell even a tourist visa.
nakatago wrote:I got a feeling OP would come back to delete his post.
Err... no?
Wd40 wrote:If you and your employer agreed that your salary will be paid to Australian account, then what income was mentioned in your EP application? An EP is given only to people who work and are paid in Singapore.

I think there is a major disconnect b/w your Singapore HR and your Australian HR. Your Singapore HR have probably filed returns stating that your income was paid to you for services originating in Singapore. Which is why IRAS sent you the tax bill.
The income mentioned in the EP was what I said it was, that is all. They did not even check whether that was correct or not. In fact I got a raise during this period and the amount they are taxing me on is quite a bit less than what I earned during that period.
PNGMK wrote:What I don't understand is why you didn't make yourself non tax resident in Australia for the duration of that contract and enjoy the much lower Singapore tax rates?

As others have said there is a Dual Tax Agreement between Australia and Singapore.

You'll need some help but in essence the total amount of tax paid for that period should not exceed either countries assessment - not the sum of the assessments (which is your current situation). You should be able to reduce your Australian income tax by the amount paid or owing to IRAS. You may need a CPA to help work this out and refile with the ATO.

If you don't pay the IRAS there is a reasonable possibility that they will take court action, obtain a judgement and then engage an Australian debt collector to go after you (or more likely sell the debt off to one of the many legal loansharks in Australia). As the debt is proven in court this will be enforceable even in Australia and you life will be miserable for at least 7 years. What this means though is that you have had a negative court assessment against you! This will end up appearing on credit reports, credit bureaus - you will risk obtaining loans in the future.
As I said above, I was able to get a ruling from the ATO in regards to whether they will consider me a non-resident for tax purposes but they explicitly stated that this will only be valid for income earned outside of Australia.

In regards to the court action, I very much doubt that this will be the case considering this will probably be time consuming and costly. Even considering this I no longer live in Australia and have no valuable assets there so this will not really do them much good anyhow.

As stated a couple of times the only other option I have is to amend my tax assessment for that year in Australia and apply for a tax offset. In fact this is really only possible now anyway because I actually have the paperwork from IRAS. But I do not believe that I will ever see this money again if I do that. They may question the assessment now especially considering I am not employed in Australia anymore (so not paying tax in Aust. from this year onwards).
What amazes me is that people like you can actually get a job.

Secondly... the judgement will be made available for worldwide debt collection.

WE've had plenty of people on this forum try to run away from CC debt in Singapore to only discover it messes up their credit worldwide.

Everything is networked now.

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Post by Beeroclock » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 4:20 pm

It seems important to know, what exactly did your ATO ruling say ...
I spent hours researching this issue beforehand and managed to get a tax ruling in Australia stating something along the lines of "You will not be taxed on any income earned outside of Australia..." which was pretty useless in my case since my income was still being paid by my Aus. employer into an Australian bank account.
if it says income *earned* outside of Australia, then actually that is useful not useless I would think. You need to check carefully, but I'd interpret the income as earned in Singapore, even though it was received/paid into an Australian bank account. Don't confuse where income earned vs where money received.

As I said earlier, I'm quite surprised though if ATO gave you a non resident status based on the situation as you described, interesting!
As stated a couple of times the only other option I have is to amend my tax assessment for that year in Australia and apply for a tax offset. In fact this is really only possible now anyway because I actually have the paperwork from IRAS. But I do not believe that I will ever see this money again if I do that. They may question the assessment now especially considering I am not employed in Australia anymore (so not paying tax in Aust. from this year onwards).
I don't understand why you're so skeptical of getting money back from ATO. It's quite straightforward I would think, if you can prove you have subsequently paid income tax to Singapore on the same income declared in your Australian tax return, then it should be a straightforward credit under the double tax treaty. I don't think ATO can question Singapore has the first right to extract tax as the income was earned while working in Singapore, and ATO will collect the balance up to the Australian tax scale.

However, if you are thinking of substantially amending your tax position (i.e. change from resident to non-resident) then yes, that might well trigger some further questions or an audit.

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Post by symbioticInTheory » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 4:30 pm

PNGMK wrote:What amazes me is that people like you can actually get a job.

Secondly... the judgement will be made available for worldwide debt collection.

WE've had plenty of people on this forum try to run away from CC debt in Singapore to only discover it messes up their credit worldwide.

Everything is networked now.
No need to get personal.
How does my decision to evade tax have anything to do with my technical competence as a software engineer. I have been a valuable asset to every company I have been part of. Let's just say I am now employed for a very well known IT company in a country which is not in a tax treaty with Singapore and where my bank accounts are secure :P
You're forgetting Singapore have no knowledge of my dual citizenship and are not even aware that I have left the country.

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Post by symbioticInTheory » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 4:46 pm

Beeroclock wrote:It seems important to know, what exactly did your ATO ruling say ...
I spent hours researching this issue beforehand and managed to get a tax ruling in Australia stating something along the lines of "You will not be taxed on any income earned outside of Australia..." which was pretty useless in my case since my income was still being paid by my Aus. employer into an Australian bank account.
if it says income *earned* outside of Australia, then actually that is useful not useless I would think. You need to check carefully, but I'd interpret the income as earned in Singapore, even though it was received/paid into an Australian bank account. Don't confuse where income earned vs where money received.

As I said earlier, I'm quite surprised though if ATO gave you a non resident status based on the situation as you described, interesting!
As stated a couple of times the only other option I have is to amend my tax assessment for that year in Australia and apply for a tax offset. In fact this is really only possible now anyway because I actually have the paperwork from IRAS. But I do not believe that I will ever see this money again if I do that. They may question the assessment now especially considering I am not employed in Australia anymore (so not paying tax in Aust. from this year onwards).
I don't understand why you're so skeptical of getting money back from ATO. It's quite straightforward I would think, if you can prove you have subsequently paid income tax to Singapore on the same income declared in your Australian tax return, then it should be a straightforward credit under the double tax treaty. I don't think ATO can question Singapore has the first right to extract tax as the income was earned while working in Singapore, and ATO will collect the balance up to the Australian tax scale.

However, if you are thinking of substantially amending your tax position (i.e. change from resident to non-resident) then yes, that might well trigger some further questions or an audit.
I will have to try and find the document but as memory serves me, it said exactly that, "income earned" outside of Australia. I interpreted this as meaning an income from a non-Australian source. I believe I was lucky in regards to getting this ruling because I previously worked in Jakarta, Indonesia under a similar term which I made mention of.

If what you say is true, then I could have stated this in my previous tax assessment and possibly have had the benefit of not paying any tax in Australia. Do you think this would still be possible? I was trying to do the right thing by the book at least as far as Australia is concerned (because I actually want to continue to live there in the future).

You do give me some hope that ATO will indeed refund me the tax paid in Singapore.
My only issue is that I have left Australia and declared myself a non-resident and as I stated earlier am no longer employed by an Australian company. I will call ATO this week to determine if amending my assessment will not cause further headaches.

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Post by PNGMK » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 5:03 pm

symbioticInTheory wrote:
PNGMK wrote:What amazes me is that people like you can actually get a job.

Secondly... the judgement will be made available for worldwide debt collection.

WE've had plenty of people on this forum try to run away from CC debt in Singapore to only discover it messes up their credit worldwide.

Everything is networked now.
No need to get personal.
How does my decision to evade tax have anything to do with my technical competence as a software engineer. I have been a valuable asset to every company I have been part of. Let's just say I am now employed for a very well known IT company in a country which is not in a tax treaty with Singapore and where my bank accounts are secure :P
You're forgetting Singapore have no knowledge of my dual citizenship and are not even aware that I have left the country.
I can tell you this; I work for the one of the world's largest engineering firms and your complete lack of personal integrity in this matter would have you fired in a heartbeat REGARDLESS of your so called software skill, even though you may consider this a 'personal' matter it's not. It reflects grossly on your values as an individial and even worse on how you view your place in society. You need to get your head around this mate; your integrity is on the line here and this is a fork in the path of your life.

(And I laugh that a so called s/w engineer cannot afford a $8k bill. That's about one weeks wage for the better ones that I know).

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Post by Beeroclock » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 5:13 pm

symbioticInTheory wrote:
Beeroclock wrote:It seems important to know, what exactly did your ATO ruling say ...
I spent hours researching this issue beforehand and managed to get a tax ruling in Australia stating something along the lines of "You will not be taxed on any income earned outside of Australia..." which was pretty useless in my case since my income was still being paid by my Aus. employer into an Australian bank account.
if it says income *earned* outside of Australia, then actually that is useful not useless I would think. You need to check carefully, but I'd interpret the income as earned in Singapore, even though it was received/paid into an Australian bank account. Don't confuse where income earned vs where money received.

As I said earlier, I'm quite surprised though if ATO gave you a non resident status based on the situation as you described, interesting!
As stated a couple of times the only other option I have is to amend my tax assessment for that year in Australia and apply for a tax offset. In fact this is really only possible now anyway because I actually have the paperwork from IRAS. But I do not believe that I will ever see this money again if I do that. They may question the assessment now especially considering I am not employed in Australia anymore (so not paying tax in Aust. from this year onwards).
I don't understand why you're so skeptical of getting money back from ATO. It's quite straightforward I would think, if you can prove you have subsequently paid income tax to Singapore on the same income declared in your Australian tax return, then it should be a straightforward credit under the double tax treaty. I don't think ATO can question Singapore has the first right to extract tax as the income was earned while working in Singapore, and ATO will collect the balance up to the Australian tax scale.

However, if you are thinking of substantially amending your tax position (i.e. change from resident to non-resident) then yes, that might well trigger some further questions or an audit.
I will have to try and find the document but as memory serves me, it said exactly that, "income earned" outside of Australia. I interpreted this as meaning an income from a non-Australian source. I believe I was lucky in regards to getting this ruling because I previously worked in Jakarta, Indonesia under a similar term which I made mention of.

If what you say is true, then I could have stated this in my previous tax assessment and possibly have had the benefit of not paying any tax in Australia. Do you think this would still be possible? I was trying to do the right thing by the book at least as far as Australia is concerned (because I actually want to continue to live there in the future).

You do give me some hope that ATO will indeed refund me the tax paid in Singapore.
My only issue is that I have left Australia and declared myself a non-resident and as I stated earlier am no longer employed by an Australian company. I will call ATO this week to determine if amending my assessment will not cause further headaches.
Strong Eagle has said the same in his earlier post. Where you earn the income is different from where you are paid/receive the money.

I think you should be able to amend your return. Check the time limit on ATO website but 2012 is still recent so should be fine. Especially as you have the tax ruling too, you can reference this and say earlier return was submitted erroneously on the basis of tax resident.

As I said earlier though, it's quite a substantial change and might trigger ATO investigation. They might want to verify if your situation was actually as per the information given and consistent with the ruling they gave you. Did you tell the ATO about the pay arrangement (paid by the Aust company and rcvd in your Aust bk account ?? IMO this does not look good). Difficult to know really, the only way is to try.

I would think the fact you now left Australia and reside abroad supports your claim of non residency. If you went straight back to Australia and stayed there, it would open more questions/doubt.

I agree you should call ATO and also re-read very carefully the ruling you got and if it would stand up to scrutiny based on your actual situation/ circumstances.

But regarding your Singapore situation, that is very clearcut and if it were me, I would find any means possible to get hold of the $8k and clear this rather than be a tax evader in Singapore.

symbioticInTheory
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Post by symbioticInTheory » Thu, 13 Mar 2014 6:04 pm

PNGMK wrote:
symbioticInTheory wrote:
PNGMK wrote:What amazes me is that people like you can actually get a job.

Secondly... the judgement will be made available for worldwide debt collection.

WE've had plenty of people on this forum try to run away from CC debt in Singapore to only discover it messes up their credit worldwide.

Everything is networked now.
No need to get personal.
How does my decision to evade tax have anything to do with my technical competence as a software engineer. I have been a valuable asset to every company I have been part of. Let's just say I am now employed for a very well known IT company in a country which is not in a tax treaty with Singapore and where my bank accounts are secure :P
You're forgetting Singapore have no knowledge of my dual citizenship and are not even aware that I have left the country.
I can tell you this; I work for the one of the world's largest engineering firms and your complete lack of personal integrity in this matter would have you fired in a heartbeat REGARDLESS of your so called software skill, even though you may consider this a 'personal' matter it's not. It reflects grossly on your values as an individial and even worse on how you view your place in society. You need to get your head around this mate; your integrity is on the line here and this is a fork in the path of your life.

(And I laugh that a so called s/w engineer cannot afford a $8k bill. That's about one weeks wage for the better ones that I know).
I misread your post hence the edit: Well that makes your company extremely "special" then, maybe they possess mind reading devices. I highly doubt that my personal opinions/views on such things would be that readily detectable considering that only close friends/family are even aware about my opinions on matters such as evading tax (and the fact that I am posting anonymously using a dud email address kind of confirms this).
In fact most people I have spoken to about this issue support the idea of just not paying the tax as well.

And FYI I have never been fired, and have worked for some very well known engineering/IT firms and am now a team leader at probably the largest IT company in the world actually creating and designing things that benefit mankind rather than just being a desk jokey at PNG, Unilever or some similar corporation wasting my days in meetings... You fit perfectly in Singapore, do us a favor and stay there.

In fact I would say depending on your field it could be applaudable to possess the ability to consider a situation carefully and analyse the options available rather than blindly following what has been set down as law by some supposed higher authority (e.g. government body).

Anyway if you have nothing to contribute to the conversation then you have no purpose here.
You can judge me all you want, but I have lived a fantastic life and will continue to do so, and you actually made me laugh out loud with
You need to get your head around this mate; your integrity is on the line here and this is a fork in the path of your life.
First of all who made you the judge, you have no right to make comments on my life, and I've done far worse (but I suppose that is a matter of opinion) than refusing to pay tax in a country that I dislike completely, and will never return back to. What's the problem? I spent my money in Singapore, and if I had earned money there I would have no issues paying tax. I do however have an issue in paying tax twice. I also have a problem with being taken advantage of because it is obvious that I have money.

In regards to not being able to afford $8k. The money is obtainable but as the saying goes a fool and his money are soon parted, and my spending habits are high especially considering the recent purchase of property etc.

Also salary and skill are never directly proportional in fact in my experience it tends to be nearly always inversely proportional if I look at the former engineers now managers at my previous company.
Last edited by symbioticInTheory on Thu, 13 Mar 2014 8:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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