Residents » Overview » When You Leave

Departure from Singapore involves a bit more than a plane ticket and packed suitcase. First and foremost, the government wants to be sure you’ve paid your taxes. Beyond that there are services to terminate, accounts to close and property to sell up, ship out or dispose of.

• Taxes – your company is responsible for filing your Form IR21 with the Internal Revenue Authority of Singapore, but it’s worth confirming with HR that they’ve taken care of it. Many people want to know if they can reclaim taxes when they leave, particularly if they’ve only lived there for part of a year. The short answer is no. Tourists are entitled to a GST refund, but EP holders, permanent residents and citizens cannot claim the refund. If you work in Singapore for less than 60 days of the year, you usually don’t have to pay any tax. If you’ve worked for anything from 60 days to six months (in a calendar year) you will play a flat rate of 15%. Anything longer than six months makes you a tax resident and you will pay taxes according to the standard graduated tax rates. This is all detailed in the Taxation section (see p.90).

• Residence Permit – you will need to go to the Ministry of Manpower to cancel your residence permit and to receive a social visit pass in exchange. Make sure you’re out of the country before it expires!

• Rent deposit – your landlord will inspect your rental property and, hopefully, return the deposit. A quick but thorough clean usually ensures you get your deposit back.

• Utilities – don’t forget to cancel all services such as water, lights, phone, internet, cable TV and your newspaper service.

• Change of address – if you know what your address at your new destination will be, you can pay a small fee to have SingPost redirect your mail for the first few months after your departure.

• Shipping – it’s amazing how much you can collect in a short time in Singapore. You’ll need to arrange a shipping address at your next destination for anything you’re not taking on the plane.

• Moving sale – you can donate things you don’t need or want anymore to a charity, hold a garage sale or give it away to friends. There will always be takers if the price is right.

Moving to Singapore is fairly straightforward in terms of the official documents that you will need to get. The vast majority of expats enter the country on a social visit pass that’s issued by immigration when you enter the country. The next step then is to apply for an employment pass or a dependant’s pass. If approved, this will generally be the only official document you will need – there are no separate health cards or identity cards.

Your company may help you with submitting y...