How long can you work Outside Singapore

[Zhypher]

Hello,

Would like to get a confirmation on this. WFH but instead of staying here in Singapore it will be in my home country. How long can i do that without impacting tax and my employment status. In case this makes a difference i am Spass holder.

I heard from a friend that Singapore allows up to 3 months without any impact to Tax and Employment status.

[singaporeflyer]

Hello,

Would like to get a confirmation on this. WFH but instead of staying here in Singapore it will be in my home country. How long can i do that without impacting tax and my employment status. In case this makes a difference i am Spass holder.

I heard from a friend that Singapore allows up to 3 months without any impact to Tax and Employment status.

Check mainly about the tax implications in the country that you are going to stay. As of what I know, it is your employer who needs to allow and not MOM. For MOM as long as you have a valid EP and salary is paid in SGD into your account as declared in the EP, it will be OK.

[Myasis Dragon]

Check mainly about the tax implications in the country that you are going to stay. As of what I know, it is your employer who needs to allow and not MOM. For MOM as long as you have a valid EP and salary is paid in SGD into your account as declared in the EP, it will be OK.

Not quite correct. You can be on an EP and get paid in Thai Baht into your American bank account and that is A-OK. The two things that matter: You are employed by a Singapore company, and you have residency status in Singapore.

Your Singapore employer can second you to another country for extended periods and that is usually not an issue if you continue to be paid by the Singapore company (even if it's in Thai Baht).

The problem, though, is the country in which you are actually working. They will very quickly want to declare you tax resident (short or long term). This is especially true if it is your home country.

Example: You are employed by a Singapore company but you live and work in Malaysia. If you are working there for a longer duration than a visit pass, the Singapore company is supposed to create a Malaysian subsidiary that hires you so that you pay Malaysian income tax.

But, Malaysia is piss poor about discovering such employees so you can probably do this for a long time.

If you're resident in your home country, that is where you will pay your income taxes. Even if you are employed by the Singapore company, if they do not have a legal entity in your home country, then you must be working for that Singapore company as a private contractor; hence, no residency and no EP in Singapore.

[singaporeflyer]

Check mainly about the tax implications in the country that you are going to stay. As of what I know, it is your employer who needs to allow and not MOM. For MOM as long as you have a valid EP and salary is paid in SGD into your account as declared in the EP, it will be OK.

Not quite correct. You can be on an EP and get paid in Thai Baht into your American bank account and that is A-OK. The two things that matter: You are employed by a Singapore company, and you have residency status in Singapore.

Your Singapore employer can second you to another country for extended periods and that is usually not an issue if you continue to be paid by the Singapore company (even if it's in Thai Baht).

The problem, though, is the country in which you are actually working. They will very quickly want to declare you tax resident (short or long term). This is especially true if it is your home country.

Example: You are employed by a Singapore company but you live and work in Malaysia. If you are working there for a longer duration than a visit pass, the Singapore company is supposed to create a Malaysian subsidiary that hires you so that you pay Malaysian income tax.

But, Malaysia is piss poor about discovering such employees so you can probably do this for a long time.

If you're resident in your home country, that is where you will pay your income taxes. Even if you are employed by the Singapore company, if they do not have a legal entity in your home country, then you must be working for that Singapore company as a private contractor; hence, no residency and no EP in Singapore.

EP is issued with the declaration that salary will be paid in SGD in SG which means tax will be paid. MOM/IRAS does not regulate saying that EP holder must reside in SG for work. They may be posted overseas too, which may be OK. If you are paid in Thai bhat in thailand account, why will SG issue EP for that? EP indirectly means tax contribution will be made to SG. This is just my view and I may be wrong.

[bro75]

Just based on anecdotal experience, if you work remotely up to 5 months from overseas but are still employed by your Singapore office with your salary paid in your Singapore bank account, there is no issue with this. Your potential issues would be the tax implications of the country where you are working from and entering Singapore again due to COVID entry restrictions . To be sure, it is better to ask MOM for their guidance. I believe that working remotely for the Singapore office from the home country is not rare since the start of the pandemic.

[Myasis Dragon]

Check mainly about the tax implications in the country that you are going to stay. As of what I know, it is your employer who needs to allow and not MOM. For MOM as long as you have a valid EP and salary is paid in SGD into your account as declared in the EP, it will be OK.

Not quite correct. You can be on an EP and get paid in Thai Baht into your American bank account and that is A-OK. The two things that matter: You are employed by a Singapore company, and you have residency status in Singapore.

Your Singapore employer can second you to another country for extended periods and that is usually not an issue if you continue to be paid by the Singapore company (even if it's in Thai Baht).

The problem, though, is the country in which you are actually working. They will very quickly want to declare you tax resident (short or long term). This is especially true if it is your home country.

Example: You are employed by a Singapore company but you live and work in Malaysia. If you are working there for a longer duration than a visit pass, the Singapore company is supposed to create a Malaysian subsidiary that hires you so that you pay Malaysian income tax.

But, Malaysia is piss poor about discovering such employees so you can probably do this for a long time.

If you're resident in your home country, that is where you will pay your income taxes. Even if you are employed by the Singapore company, if they do not have a legal entity in your home country, then you must be working for that Singapore company as a private contractor; hence, no residency and no EP in Singapore.

EP is issued with the declaration that salary will be paid in SGD in SG which means tax will be paid. MOM/IRAS does not regulate saying that EP holder must reside in SG for work. They may be posted overseas too, which may be OK. If you are paid in Thai bhat in thailand account, why will SG issue EP for that? EP indirectly means tax contribution will be made to SG. This is just my view and I may be wrong.

There is no requirement that salaries be paid in SGD or into an SGD bank.

The requirement is that the salary be paid by a Singapore company. That Singapore company will issue an IR8A specifying the earnings which will be taxed.

Example: Dell Singapore hires on a systems architect who previously worked for Dell in Round Rock, Texas, USA. But, employee salary is still paid by Dell, USA into employee's USA bank account in US dollars, and Dell uses internal accounting to assign these payroll expenses to Dell Singapore. This is a fairly common practice in MNC's.

Salient points: The EP is issued to Dell Singapore and the employee. Dell Singapore files the IR8A for employee, converting US dollars paid to SGD, typically using an end of year conversion factor.

Work Pass Regulations - see the Sixth Schedule

https://www.mom.gov.sg/-/media/mom/docu ... 4A6C617D96

MoM requires that an employee be "resident" in Singapore to qualify for an EP, but that does not mean that an employee cannot be seconded to another country for an extended term so long as residency requirements are met.

Singapore will issue an EP to someone being paid in Thai Baht because she works for a Singapore company and is considered resident in Singapore.