Finance Tips

Financial and Tax Accounting

It is a common misnomer that and organization needs to use the same method of accounting depreciation for financial reporting and tax purposes. An organization must decide if it is cost effective to use more than one depreciation method and furthermore which method or combination of methods to use. Each method carries with it a distinct list of benefits and draw backs and can be customized to fit a company’s unique situation.

There are three main types of depreciation techniques.

Straight-Line – Simplest deprecation technique. A company estimates the salvage value of the item and the usable life. It then subtracts the scrap value from the original cost and divides by the life span in years to get the annual depreciation expense. The largest benefit of this method is that it is very simple to understand and easy to use. A major drawback to this technique is that it does not acquire all the possible tax benefit early in the life cycle, effectively leaving those tax dollars on the table longer.

Double-Declining Balance – This technique factors in the fact that an item is more useful near the time of purchase as opposed to near the end of its life. The organization records a larger expense of depreciation in the first few years and it continues to decline until the scrap value is reached. A major benefit to this method being largely front loaded; where most of the depreciation is taken at the beginning of the life cycle is in reducing the taxable income quickly. This method is more complicated and requires involvement of the technical staff to accurately estimate an items life expectancy. Continue reading ‘Financial And Tax Accounting’ »

Who is a Non-Resident?

You are considered a foreign non-resident if you are an individual exercising any profession or vocation in Singapore for less than 183 days in a year under a contract for service.

Non-Resident Tax Exemptions

1. However, this rule does not apply if you are a director, public entertainer or exercising a profession in Singapore.
2. They are unable to claim for personal relief.
3. For director’s fees and income other than employment, they will be taxed at a flat rate of 20% from Year of Assessment 2005.

They are also exempted from tax on remittances made to Singapore. Continue reading ‘Singapore Non-Resident Taxation and Exemptions’ »

In accounting terms depreciation is the distribution of an assets cost over its useful life. In other words when a firm purchases an asset it has to make the decision if the asset will economically benefit the organization for more than a year. If the answer is yes than the firm would add this asset as a non current asset on its balance sheet, and would commence depreciating this asset over its useful life. In depreciating the asset the firm is subtracting the value (or the original cost) of the asset that was originally booked when the asset was purchased (under the non current asset section of the firm’s balance sheet) and is then expensing (the calculated accounting period depreciation amount) from the firms revenues earned in the same accounting period. The firm is in essence matching the cost (or value in terms of assets) against the revenues earned by the asset use. Many methods exist to calculate depreciation but I am going to focus on two of the more popular methods: Straight Line and Double Declining Balance.

Straight Line:

In the straight line depreciation method the total cost of the depreciable asset is subtracted from the salvage value of the asset. This number is then divided by the useful life of an asset (in years) to determine the amount will be depreciated from this asset each year. An example of this would be if a firm where to purchase a piece of equipment that cost $5,000 and the salvage value of the asset is calculated at $500 ; the amount to be depreciated would be $4,500 ($5,000-$500=$4,500). The useful life of this piece of equipment for this example is 4 years. Using this data we would calculate the yearly depreciation of this asset to be $1,125 (which would represent a depreciation percentage of 25% per year). Continue reading ‘Tax Benefits of Using Different Depreciation Methods’ »

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Article Link: http://www.mineeds.com/Lakeside/Leslie-and-Associates-Inc/Articles/What-is-Payroll

Tags: payroll , tax , help , relief , services , Tax Preparation / Income Tax Accounting , information

Payroll is essentially how employees are paid. Its the legal paperwork involved. There’s more to payroll than just handing out cash or checks, however. After gathering data on what employees have done and comparing it to their salaries, some simple payday mathematics will let the employer hand out the dough. Right? Wrong. Its still more complicated than that; especially if all these employees belong to a large company.

Once an employee’s gross income amount or pay has been calculated based on their wages and activities; its time for deductions, bonuses, all that fun stuff. In addition to these there are tax withholdings, medical insurance, union dues, charitable contributions, etc. to be reckoned with. The money an employee will get (Lets hope its enough after all these subtractions!) is then given then, whether via check or cash. Don’t forget that some of the information coming out of payroll needs to be forwarded to the government so employees can be taxed! Continue reading ‘What Is Payroll?’ »

Singapore’s agreement with the Russian Federation for the avoidance of double taxation comes into force on 16 January 2009 following the completion of ratification formalities. The provisions of the Agreement shall apply to income derived on or after 1 January 2010.

The Agreement, which is Singapore’s 60th agreement for the avoidance of double taxation, encourages and facilitates cross-border trade and investment between Singapore and Russia through the lowering of tax barriers and the better definition of taxing rights between the two nations. The main provisions under the Agreement include the following:

a) Lower withholding tax rates are imposed on dividends, interest and royalties. The tax rate for interest and royalties is 7.5% while the following rates apply to dividends:
i) 5% (for corporate shareholders holding at least 15% of the share capital and has invested at least US$100,000 or its equivalent in other currencies);
ii) 5% for the Government; and
iii) 10% (for other shareholders) Continue reading ‘Singapore – Russian avoidance of double taxation agreement ratified’ »