Singapore Sling

Can someone give me some advice please?

I currently work in the UK with a salary of 40K.

I've been offered a job, based in Singapore with my company and will be travelling around Asia as part of the role.

I wondered what negotiations I should make in terms of Salary and Tax efficiency.

So far verbally but not in writing I have, Flights home, Medical Care, Pension, Serviced Appartment and Storage. I am a home owner in the UK and therefore I have mortgage to pay, so I cannot stop receiving UK funds.

I was thinking of possibly negotiating to maintain my UK sal (or an increase) and with the verbal package I have already been offered, I will also get a Salary in Singapore.

If anyone can shed light on what I should be doing that would be great.

Thanks,

SS

Singapore Sling

I really just want to know what a good package would be....

Kooky.

Patience, dear SS. It's Sunday and still early in Singapore.

What's a good package? It's whatever you're happy with. We were there on local contracts and very happy with them.

If you want us to be more specific, you're going to have to give us more details about the role and your personal circumstances. You could also look up the Hays Salary Survey and see what that says about your field.

There used to be some "package" info on expatsingapore.com so have a look and see if it's still there.

You have a UK mortgage to pay - will you be renting out your property, will that take care of your outgoings? Mine did, several times over

You want part of your salary to be paid in the UK? Have you investigated the tax implications of that? I don't know what they are, just putting it out there.

Singapore Sling

Patience indeed!

I will be renting my property out. I don't know what the Tax implications are yet. Hoping someone may read this and know what they are.

The rent won't cover the outgoings entirely... No one can guarantee it will rent all the time which means I will still have to cover the mortgage and therefore require a UK salary.

I know my accomodation etc will all be sorted in Singapore so thats good, but I just wondered how much it costs for someone to have a decent life in Singapore. I like dining and wine, and playing sports.

Forgeting cost of rent etc. how much is a medium to good salary.

IE if rent and rates cost say $4000 per month how much is everything else?


Just want to get a ball park figure. I don't know what I am being offered entirely so I need to work out what is good so I can benchmark myself.

SS

Kooky.

Well the dining is cheap (or can be, although you can pay $500 for a top notch western meal for two if you want) but the wining will kill your bank balance!

It's nearly 3 years since I left but we do have some members still there who I'm sure will be able to give you more up-to-date info when they next come online. I'd say $150k is a good starting point but people live on a lot less.

Meanwhile check out that link I gave you, also singaporeexpats.com for property info as I doubt you'd really want to stay in a serviced apartment for more than a month or so. No idea what the forum community on either is like these days. singaporum.com is a small community but has some helpful people on it - lots of long-termers and sporty types too (rugby? hockey? dragon-boating?).

ex reg

First stop should be your paying of tax.

The way you seem to be looking at things that might kill the whole idea.

Get along to a UK Tax merchant type who knows about paying UK tax whilst working overseas.

If you still get your current UK salary then S$150k might be a good starting point.

BTW some good points by Seasider.

Just thinking about it it may be better for you to not receive pay in the UK for tax purposes.

That's why you need to spend for some help from a UK overseas tax consultant's opinion.

Singapore Sling

Thanks for the info Reg.

The only reason I need UK salary is to pay my mortgage. Otherwise I would be fine. I don't want to lose out on the Exchange rate side of things if I have to keep transferring funds from SG Dollar to Pounds. Though if the tax issue is worse then the exchange rate may not be a bad idea. I think UK and Singa have a tax treaty so you can't be taxed in two places.

I should be seeing a tax adviser in the next few days so thats ok.

Let's see how it pans out. 150K SG dollar is about £75K. So that's what you need in Singapore to have a comfortable life? And is that including paying rent or without rent.

Why is a serviced aapartmentnot good Seasider? It's better than a hotel and I don't want to have to set up rate payments like electricity and water....

Kooky.

Hmmm, I guess it depends on your circumstances and how long you'll be there but I think serviced apartments are just like living in a hotel - no privacy, not a lot of space.

We arrived in Singapore with 4 suitcases and a couple of airfreighted boxes. We left with too much stuff to fit in a 20 ft container oh and 3 cats.

Kooky.

Re. the UK salary - you'll pay a max of about 12% tax in Singapore, you'd pay a lot more in the UK, so you really do need to do those sums.

Englishmum

TBH it doesn't make sense to me that you "cannot stop receiving UK funds".

My husband's company always pay the salaries of their expats in the local currency of the country they are posted to. When the Indonesian rupiah collapsed in the late 90s what they did was to make an extra payment to their expats posted there to make up the loss. However, the Singapore Dollar is considered safe (more so than the British Pound, Euro etc).

We have a house which we rent out in the UK (fortunately the rent payments cover the mortgage) but we've always maintained an offshore account (Lloyds TSB in the Isle of Man, which was transferred from our local UK mainland account when we left to move overseas). From time to time we've just done an international money transfer if there has been the need to eg. if there is a large bill to pay for a property repair. All the expats I know do this too.

You should consider setting up a current account offshore in the Channel Isle of Isle of Man, otherwise you will have UK mainland tax implications. Rent money you receive from your house should also be paid into such an account.

You don't even need to go to a Singapore bank to set up an international money transfer, you can set them up via

http://www.xe.com (or the other one which often advertises on BE )

ex reg

Just to add a couple of points on taxation to show how confusing things can be.
These points may be out of date as well as things have changed since I was really involved with trying to pay as little UK tax as legally possible.

You have to become ordinarily non UK resident for tax purposes and the rules for that have changed so find out the latest and make sure you understand them fully. This will have a bearing on where you earn and where you keep your money.

Englishmum's suggestion of a IOM or Channel Island bank account also needs investigation.
IIRC any money earned in UK is taxable in UK, even rental income so moving that offshore will only reduce taxation on the interest.

The whole thing can become a minefield and if you don't ensure you follow the rooles then at some stage you might find you are lumped with a much bigger tax bill than you thought.

Much better to sort all this out before a move rather than get a nasty surprise at a later date.

You might well find that someone who is now more up to date than me will tell you the opposite of what I've said above. Unfortunately. But my stuff is in good faith.

ex reg

FX can also be a minefield as Englishmum hinted.
If the exchange rate goes against you some companies will pass that risk onto you: you wouldn't expect to return cash to the company if the exchange rate move in your favour.

Yes the Sing dollar is stable but over the last 5 years the rate has changed from 3 to the pound to 2 to the pound.
That's great if you initially agreed to be paid in Sing dollars and remit to the UK, a nice little windfall.

But can the Sing dollar continue to move in that direction?????????

On your remuneration package if the company has a standard one then it's difficult to negotiate much.

But just on your return flights to UK.
We were allowed one business class return per family member to UK every year or cash in lieu.
We decided we didn't need to fly business so took the cash in lieu which gave us a economy flight to UK and great local holidays 'foc'. Not all companies allow that.

Ditto with your accommodation. Some companies will pay you an allowance and it's up to you how you spend it: a cheap one bedroom flat or a penthouse. The lease will be in your name.
Other companies will pay the rent direct and the lease will be in the company's name.

As landlords we wouldn't accept personal leases. Many LL do accept them these days.
Obviously with an accommodation allowance you can bank any spare cash.
When in HK the company paid us an allowance and had the lease in their name which for us was the best of both worlds.

And finally you may be on local terms or ex pat terms. There is a difference here.
Your company may not give you a choice.

Also on annual bonuses.
Generally there are two types.
Discretionary bonus. Based on performance of you and the company.
Chinese New Year bonus. Standard one month's salary.

Singapore Sling

Hi All,

Thank you so much for you advice here. Very helpful.

I am meeting the Tax advisor next week. When I do, I will report back on the latest options.

Best

SS

airlineguy1980

I m a Singaporean ok my advice if I assume you gona rent a condo in Singapore it will cost you 2000 pounds a month food in luring eating out probably 700pounds transport if you do get a car you are broke for sure but Singapore have world class or even better public transport which cost u 50 pounds to 80 pounds a month I took a exchange rate of 1 pound eq 2 Singapore dollars.the rest all depends on life style kids family if housing is provided by the company a large chuck of your expense is taken care of.for tax rates www.iras.gov.sg you don't need a tax consultant.as all info is there including the uk agreement

airlineguy1980

It's better to change what u need in Singapore dollars and save in taxes.the reason is a year ago bp was around 3 sgd now it lost one third