Use and keep the checklist
This five-page form estimates fifteen minutes. Enter claimant name/GST number, review records and satisfy EVERY condition before claiming. Keep the checklist and supporting records for audit; do not submit unless IRAS requests it. The examples use historical 7% GST, not the current rate for new supplies.
All eligibility conditions
Supply goods/services for money and account/pay GST; write off all or part as bad debt; wait twelve months from supply unless the debtor becomes insolvent earlier; take reasonable recovery steps. Supply value cannot exceed open market value; goods ownership must have passed to the customer; claim within five years of supply. The notes specify the five-year rule for supplies on/after 1 January 2007.
Insolvency and recovery efforts
The historical references include adjudicated bankruptcy or an approved individual arrangement; company court winding-up for inability to pay, judicial management, or receivership with a filed affairs statement showing insufficient assets for any unsecured/non-preferential dividend. Match to appropriate legal evidence rather than mere unpaid invoices. Recovery efforts depend on debt/resources: reminders, telephone/mail/email attempts, formal demand or summons. Write-off alone is insufficient.
All evidence and bad-debt register fields
Keep invoice/records of supply time, nature, customer and consideration, paid GST, accounting write-off and recovery efforts. Refund for Bad Debts account records invoice/receipt number/date, original GST and output-tax period, payments received, GST-inclusive unpaid balance, relief claimed and claim period. Later recovery records must show payment, repaid output tax and updated recovery/GST register.
Retention: later of two dates
Keep records for five years from the supply’s prescribed accounting period or three years from claim, whichever is later. Example 1: supply 31 May 2020, period end 30 June 2020, claim 31 December 2021 → retain until 30 June 2025. Example 2: supply 31 July 2021, period end 30 September 2021, claim 30 June 2025 → retain until 30 June 2028. Do not confuse the claim limitation with the accounting-period retention end.
Claim fields and the single supply
Claim in Box 7 and mark Yes/amount in Box 11. Use the rate at original supply. Original S$10,700 including S$700 GST, paid S$9,630, leaves S$1,070: relief = 1,070×7/107 = S$70. Do not apply a later 8% or 9% rate to this example.
Multiple supplies with specified payments
Three supplies on 1/2/3 April 2021 had outstanding S$10,700/S$1,070/S$5,350. Specified payments S$8,560/S$1,070/S$4,280 leave S$2,140/zero/S$1,070, so relief S$140/zero/S$70, total S$210. Follow the debtor’s allocation.
Unspecified payments on different days
For those same balances, unspecified S$14,980 goes chronologically: S$10,700 first, S$1,070 second and S$3,210 third. Only S$2,140 remains on third supply, giving S$140 relief. This differs from debtor-specified allocation.
Unspecified payments on the same day
Allocate payment × individual unpaid balance ÷ total unpaid balance. Three 1 April supplies of S$7,700/S$11,550/S$7,700 total S$26,950. S$8,820 payment allocates S$2,520/S$3,780/S$2,520, leaving S$5,180/S$7,770/S$5,180. The source prints rounded relief S$339/S$508/S$339, total S$1,186; actual application must use the relevant tax rate and required rounding.
Recovery after relief: repayment and example
Repay remaining relief × recovered/attributed payment ÷ outstanding consideration. Include in Box 6 of the period RECEIVING recovery. S$10,000 supply plus S$700 GST initially fully unpaid generated S$700 relief. Later S$8,000 payment means repayment 700×8,000/10,700 = S$523.36. Recovery does not allow keeping the whole original refund.
Official source
This article independently explains the substantive contents of the official PDF, including the relevant conditions, procedures and annexes. The linked document remains the authoritative source for its original wording, and later changes should be checked separately.
Read the official PDF ↗