October 28, 2024

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In recent years, tax authorities have increasingly embraced technology to enhance tax administration and combat tax fraud and evasion.

In line with this trend, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) announced on 15 April 2024 that GST-registered businesses in Singapore will eventually be required to transmit invoice data to the IRAS via InvoiceNow, an e-invoicing platform designed to streamline compliance.

What is InvoiceNow?

Launched in 2019 by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), InvoiceNow is a nationwide e-invoicing network based on an international Peppol standard. InvoiceNow allows businesses to seamlessly send and receive invoices in a structured digital format. This allows businesses to enhance productivity in invoice processing, accelerate payment cycles, and adopt eco-friendly practices by reducing paper use.

Phased adoption by GST-registered businesses

To allow businesses to have sufficient lead time to adopt the InvoiceNow solutions to transmit data to IRAS for tax administration purposes, the GST InvoiceNow will be implemented in phases, starting with voluntary early adoption from May 2025 as follows:

Timeline	Affected Businesses
From 1 May 2025	Early adoption by GST-registered businesses which wish to opt-in voluntarily.
From 1 November 2025	Newly-incorporated companies which voluntarily register for GST. Note: Newly-incorporated companies refer to companies that are incorporated within 6 months from the time they submit their application for GST registration.
From 1 April 2026	All companies which voluntarily register for GST, regardless of their incorporation date.
To be advised	Rest of all GST-registered businesses

 

Exclusion

The GST InvoiceNow Requirement will not apply to the following categories of GST-registered businesses:

Scope of GST InvoiceNow Requirement

Businesses under the GST InvoiceNow Requirement are required to transit to IRAS invoice data relating to the following types of transactions:

For point-of-sale supplies data and petty cash purchases data, businesses may choose to aggregate the transactions before transmitting them to IRAS.

In addition, invoice data must be transmitted to the IRAS at the earlier of:

What should businesses do?

Businesses are encouraged to get started early and plan for the adoption of the InvoiceNow solutions or update their internal accounting systems to meet the GST InvoiceNow Requirements by following the steps outlined below:

Timeline	Steps	Details
From now	1	Ensure that the solution is InvoiceNow-enabled Business with existing accounting or finance solutions, or businesses that are planning to purchase one is recommended to verify whether its chosen solution is included in IMDA’s pre-approved e-invoicing solution provided list. Large enterprise which uses their in-house solutions is advised to get in touch with an IMDA pre-approved e-invoicing provider list to connect to the InvoiceNow network.
	2	Register for InvoiceNow and Obtain Peppol ID Business should contact its Solution Provider and/or Access Point Provider to register itself in the SG Peppol Directory with its UEN and obtain the Peppol ID
From May 2025	3	Ensure that the InvoiceNow solution is connected to IRAS’ System via the Application Programming Interface (API) technology Business should contact its Solution Provider and /or Access Point Provider to ensure that its InvoiceNow solution is connected to IRAS via API
	4	Activate feature and transmit invoice data to IRAS Business should work with its Solution Provider and/or Access Point Provider to enable the feature for it to transmit invoice data to IRAS. Business should test its system implementation and ensure that it is able to transmit invoices to IRAS successfully.

 

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To find out more about the InvoiceNow solutions or to understand how this might impact your business, please reach out to us: