In the recent rally speech by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, he said that the median income Singaporeans paid 0% to 2% in income taxes.
There were sceptics who questioned how true that was on social media.
So we decided to run the numbers to check it.
Singaporean's Median Income
The median income for full-time Singaporeans in 2019 is $3,900.
That translate to about $50,700 annual salary (+13th month bonus).
Less 20% CPF contribution, the annual chargeable income is $40,560.
That translates to about $589.20 in chargeable income tax, which is about 1.2% of the total $50,700 salary.
The above chargeable income tax excludes other sources of tax relief like donations or parent or child relief, which would lower the tax bill even more.
So... I guess SM Tharman is not lying when he said that the median Singaporeans pays less than 2% in income tax? 🤷♂️🤷♀️
Cherry-Picking Tax Policies?
Of course, that's kind of like cherry-picking on the tax issue.
"Pick the one we scored best and show it to the public"....
