Voluntary Disclosure Programme: Conditions and Reduced Penalties

Key steps and distinctions

The programme covers income tax, GST, withholding tax and stamp duty; income-tax references also cover excessive statutory cash payouts. A qualifying disclosure must be timely, accurate, complete and self-initiated, supported by full cooperation and payment or an honoured payment arrangement. Normally disclose before an IRAS query or audit notification; if one already exists, disclosed errors must fall outside its scope. For qualifying non-wilful errors, disclosure within the one-year grace period attracts no penalty; that period runs from the statutory filing deadline, not an extension. After it, income-tax penalties are 5% for each year of delay after the grace period, while GST and withholding tax generally attract a flat 5%. Stamp duty has no grace period: the reduced penalty is 5% per annum calculated daily on additional duty. TGF, ACAP and CTRM provisions and wilful-evasion cases have separate treatment. A disclosure is complete only when all required information has reached IRAS.