Read the 2019 source as a dated checklist
Both pages are marked 2019 and use the then-numbered section 14Q. Current IRAS material refers to section 14N and changes from YA 2025. This article explains every original error without recasting the old exclusions as an unchanged rule for every later assessment year.
Eligible businesses and the spending cap
The source says investment-holding companies cannot claim and restricts the deduction to persons carrying on a trade or business. It caps expenditure at S$300,000 for each relevant three-year period, with S$150,000 before YA 2013. These are expenditure caps, not annual deductions of that amount. Current-period rules require separate attention.
Qualifying works versus furniture
The old list excludes designer and professional fees, and hacking or demolition requiring Building Control approval. It gives general electrical installation, lighting and flooring as qualifying examples. Furniture such as cabinets, shelves, venetian blinds, carpets and movable workstation partitions follows the capital-allowance route rather than this deduction. Conversely, qualifying renovation works should not simply be claimed as capital allowances.
Timing and disposal
The checklist says the section 14Q claim cannot be deferred. It also says no balancing adjustment is computed when the works are disposed of, and the deduction may continue so long as the trade or business does not cease. Those are the source’s timing and disposal statements, not permission to claim after cessation without checking the conditions.
The material later change
IRAS’s current business-expense page states that from YA 2025 designer or professional fees not related to structural works requiring Building Control approval are included as qualifying R&R expenditure. It also explains the relevant current claim-period rules. The old blanket designer-fee exclusion must therefore not be applied unchanged to YA 2025 onward. The current official page is retained alongside the historical PDF.
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 ↗