For corporate tax purposes, a basis period (i.e. financial year) cannot exceed 12 months. For a newly incorporated company whose first set of accounts cover a period of more than 12 months, it would need to apportion and attribute its profit/losses to two different Year of Assessment (YA).
Example
- First financial year: 1 February 2015 to 30 June 2016 (17 months)
- For tax purposes, the two different YAs will be apportioned as follow:
- YA 2016 runs from 1 February 2015 to 31 December 2015 (11 months)
- YA 2017 runs from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2016 (6 months)
Please note that for new companies, IRAS will treat the financial year end as 31 December. If the company’s financial year end is not 31 December, the company is required to submit a form ” Request for Income Tax Return (Form C-S/ C) Filing Package and Notification of New Financial Year End ” to IRAS.
You can download a copy of the form from IRAS’ website (refer to hyperlink below).
https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/Businesses/Companies/Filing-Taxes–Form-C-S-Form-C-/Overview-of-Form-C-S/-C/#title3
