Tax filing season

[Wd40]

The tax filing season is underway.
I noticed something wierd, my employer is under auto inclusion and my employer has already submitted my income, as per IRAS. But still the income shows as 0 and it allows me to proceed to submit my return as 0 income. Another colleague of mine also has the same issue. I wonder if anyone else is facing the same issue? Is this an IRAS issue or did my employer do a goof up?

[Pal]

This is odd, has your employer salary figures been auto updated yet?

Usually when it is too good to be true, it won't be true

[Pal]

Let me check with some around me...

[NYY1]

The tax filing season is underway.
I noticed something wierd, my employer is under auto inclusion and my employer has already submitted my income, as per IRAS. But still the income shows as 0 and it allows me to proceed to submit my return as 0 income. Another colleague of mine also has the same issue. I wonder if anyone else is facing the same issue? Is this an IRAS issue or did my employer do a goof up?

Not sure if it's on IRAS's end, specific to your company, or something that your company did. However, I believe things are up and running as usual with the auto inclusion scheme.

[Wd40]

I see the figures updated now. Even this morning it wasnt updated.

[Pal]

Gov IT system, unreliable.

Btw, we usually do the filing in April and we get the tax bill later than those who submitted earlier

[Wd40]

Gov IT system, unreliable.

Btw, we usually do the filing in April and we get the tax bill later than those who submitted earlier

I am already on GIRO and the GIRO deduction will continue even after the previous year's balance becomes zero. So it doesnt really matter for me whether I do it now or in Apr.

I personally am obsessed with maintaining my accounts and would like to know as soon as possible what my tax liability is and account for it in my spreadsheet.

So I put the entire tax amount due as liability to be paid and then every month, as the giro deductions happen, I reduce it from the liability amount. This feeds into my final networth figures. I am know I am crazy about maintaining my financial records.

[Pal]

Wow, you update your spreadsheet after every month's Giro deduction?

For us, we are obsessed with finding the maximum allowable expenses with receipts and deductions to keep the taxes as low as possible. Keeping the thermal paper receipts is not easy though.

[malcontent]

I logged in to get my pNOA for use as accrued foreign tax on my U.S. returns. Now I’m just waiting for the Singapore housing exclusion which should come out in the next couple of weeks — it has better go up, no way it couldn’t.

For Singapore taxes, nothing I can really do other than pay them.

[NYY1]

I am already on GIRO and the GIRO deduction will continue even after the previous year's balance becomes zero. So it doesnt really matter for me whether I do it now or in Apr.

I personally am obsessed with maintaining my accounts and would like to know as soon as possible what my tax liability is and account for it in my spreadsheet.

So I put the entire tax amount due as liability to be paid and then every month, as the giro deductions happen, I reduce it from the liability amount. This feeds into my final networth figures. I am know I am crazy about maintaining my financial records.

It's not going to make a huge difference, but you could just keep buying different maturity fixed deposits each month and pick up a bit of interest each year. I.e. instead of GIRO out each month, just hold in a deposit account and then settle in March - May of the following year.

Or, just keep doing as is if that gives you piece of mind that you aren't carrying a liability.

[Wd40]

I am already on GIRO and the GIRO deduction will continue even after the previous year's balance becomes zero. So it doesnt really matter for me whether I do it now or in Apr.

I personally am obsessed with maintaining my accounts and would like to know as soon as possible what my tax liability is and account for it in my spreadsheet.

So I put the entire tax amount due as liability to be paid and then every month, as the giro deductions happen, I reduce it from the liability amount. This feeds into my final networth figures. I am know I am crazy about maintaining my financial records.

It's not going to make a huge difference, but you could just keep buying different maturity fixed deposits each month and pick up a bit of interest each year. I.e. instead of GIRO out each month, just hold in a deposit account and then settle in March - May of the following year.

Or, just keep doing as is if that gives you piece of mind that you aren't carrying a liability.

The giro is actually installments to be paid over the next 12 months. So it is either pay the whole the right away or pay it over next 12 months interest free.

[Wd40]

Wow, you update your spreadsheet after every month's Giro deduction?

For us, we are obsessed with finding the maximum allowable expenses with receipts and deductions to keep the taxes as low as possible. Keeping the thermal paper receipts is not easy though.

Haha the giro amount is fixed every year, so I just plug it all in, in th beginning of year

Basically I know my fixed expenses,rent, school fees, tax giro, then every month I just add the other expenses to my spreadsheet. I love to flaunt it. I will paste a screenshot here sometime

[malcontent]

I personally am obsessed with maintaining my accounts and would like to know as soon as possible what my tax liability is and account for it in my spreadsheet.

I’ve tried to maintain meticulous accounts in the past, but found I just don’t have the dedication or desire. This is much to the surprise of people who know me. I have one Google Sheet for expenses, where I have a tab for each year with my best estimate of each expense expressed as a monthly amount. It’s more of a reference than anything.

I do not reconcile with actuals, so some will be way off, like vacations could be thousands less or more, I just put in something that seems about right. That’s good enough for me, because I don’t feel like I can really control any of my expenses. I’m always doing the best I can to spend reasonably & minimally, so what’s the point?

What I do look at more often is my asset allocation. One thing I’m mulling over right now is whether to swap my small cap to small cap value. This is for my longest term holdings with >20 year time horizon. Although my small cap exposure is not huge, it does double duty to balance the extra large cap exposure I have from my employer stock and SRS which is 100% in S27 (S&P500).

[Wd40]

I personally am obsessed with maintaining my accounts and would like to know as soon as possible what my tax liability is and account for it in my spreadsheet.

I’ve tried to maintain meticulous accounts in the past, but found I just don’t have the dedication or desire. This is much to the surprise of people who know me. I have one Google Sheet for expenses, where I have a tab for each year with my best estimate of each expense expressed as a monthly amount. It’s more of a reference than anything.

I do not reconcile with actuals, so some will be way off, like vacations could be thousands less or more, I just put in something that seems about right. That’s good enough for me, because I don’t feel like I can really control any of my expenses. I’m always doing the best I can to spend reasonably & minimally, so what’s the point?

What I do look at more often is my asset allocation. One thing I’m mulling over right now is whether to swap my small cap to small cap value. This is for my longest term holdings with >20 year time horizon. Although my small cap exposure is not huge, it does double duty to balance the extra large cap exposure I have from my employer stock and SRS which is 100% in S27 (S&P500).

I don't go into the details of expenses. I just classify into 3-4 categories, rent, school fees, taxes and everything else. Funny thing, the everything else is not the biggest part of my expenses.

The reason I track my expenses is to just be able to go back and see the trends, not necessarily control it, but plan for it in the future.

I work in the field of data analytics and business intelligence, and in this field, it is everything about having data at the right granularity. No data, no insights. Although for me it is just a job and I have no passion about my work. When it comes to my personal finances, I am very passionate about keeping track of how I am doing.

[malcontent]

I don't go into the details of expenses. I just classify into 3-4 categories, rent, school fees, taxes and everything else. Funny thing, the everything else is not the biggest part of my expenses.

The reason I track my expenses is to just be able to go back and see the trends, not necessarily control it, but plan for it in the future.

I work in the field of data analytics and business intelligence, and in this field, it is everything about having data at the right granularity. No data, no insights. Although for me it is just a job and I have no passion about my work. When it comes to my personal finances, I am very passionate about keeping track of how I am doing.

Since you are passionate about personal finance, how to you manage/track your investments?

Over the years I simplified mine down to a bare minimum in Google Sheets: stock ticker, price (pulled automatically), units owned and total value (calculated).

Instead of tracking gains/losses, I copy the sheet at year end and freeze values in each prior year. To see the trend, I just flip through the prior year sheets. That indirectly forces me to keep it simple and not change much year after year.

I break out exposures by geography, market cap, currency, and critically important: stock % of total investments — I’m a little over the recommended % for my age, but I am comfortable with the risk.