Comparison of US and Singapore Salary

[RockyRambo]

Hi,

I was just researching and trying to find the equivalent of a Singapore base salary. I was trying to convert the after tax or cash in hand compensation in Singapore to the same in the US dollars and then add all the tax deductions to reach a ballpark of the equivalent US Salary. I will state my analysis and assumptions below. I request anyone from the US to kindly validate this:

Assuming a 5k SGD per month after tax (4 to 5%) salary would be equivalent to a 4k USD per month after tax salary. (1 SGD = 0.8 USD).

Now, assuming a single guy is living in new york and earning an annual salary of 70k USD, he will have to pay the following tax deductions:

Federal Tax 18.40%
Social Security 6.20%
Medicare 1.45%
New York 5.33%
SDI 0.04%


Estimate1
Monthly Pay 5833.33
Federal Tax 1073.23
Social Security 361.67
Medicare 84.58
New York 310.7
SDI 2.6
1832.78
After Tax 4000.55

Hence, a US per annum salary for a single guy in new york city would be 70k to get a 4k after tax per month in hand.

Hence, a 62,700 SGD annual salary is equivalent to a 70,000 USD annual salary (for a single guy living in new york city) after employing the respective taxes and the conversion factors.

I know, I have calculated the right amount of tax on the Singapore salary but I am not sure of my tax calculations on the US salary. Could someone who has had an experience with the US salary validate this?

[Strong Eagle]

You would be insane to leave a USD $70K salary for anything less than $110K in Singapore $$. You have left out cost of living considerations. Check out this site, while not perfect is not too off the mark.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/co ... =Singapore

You need to allow for about a 30% increase in cost of living... transportation, booze, housing... even for New York.

[RockyRambo]

You would be insane to leave a USD $70K salary for anything less than $110K in Singapore $$. You have left out cost of living considerations. Check out this site, while not perfect is not too off the mark.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/co ... =Singapore

You need to allow for about a 30% increase in cost of living... transportation, booze, housing... even for New York.

Oh! Thanks for referring me to this site. Well, I know Singapore is expensive in few things and cheaper in others. So, I wasn't comparing the cost of living to calculate the savings. But, given Singapore is cheaper in food and transportation and tax free, for a non-alcoholic guy like me, I think a USD 70K should be comparable to SGD 63K. Or, even if we leave the cost of living discussion aside, are my tax deductions for a new york salary accurate? I mean only the after tax amounts. Are they accurate?

[RockyRambo]

You would be insane to leave a USD $70K salary for anything less than $110K in Singapore $$. You have left out cost of living considerations. Check out this site, while not perfect is not too off the mark.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/co ... =Singapore

You need to allow for about a 30% increase in cost of living... transportation, booze, housing... even for New York.

The first statement says that, "You would need around 8,165.58S$ (6,538.21$) in Singapore to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 6,400.00$ in New York, NY (assuming you rent in both cities)."

Now, if I assume that both are per month after tax amounts, the Singapore annual salary before tax is 97,986 SGD (assuming negligible tax in Singapore) and the US annual salary before tax is 109,714 USD (assuming straight 30% tax for new york). This implies for the same standard of living 1 SGD annual salary before tax = 1.11 USD annual salary before tax, hence,
62,700 SGD annual salary before tax is equivalent to 70,000 USD annual salary before tax.

[BoroBoy]

This is a useful link that I have used before. Its fairly accurate too and you can compare two countries :

http://www.guidemesingapore.com/taxatio ... calculator