From past observations of the personal finance community, I notice that CPF members pay most attention to their CPF accounts at both the start and end of the year. This is because these are usually optimal periods for:

• maximising tax reliefs
• maximising CPF interest rates
• updating CPF balances as annual interest have just been credited

However, the perennial problem of “Should I do a cash top up to my CPF MediSave Accounts (‘MA) or Special Account (‘SA’) first?” has been bothering a group of CPF members at the start of every year. These are members who have achieved the Basic Healthcare Sum (‘BHS’) in their MA but not the Full Retirement Sum (‘FRS’) in their SA. Since I am fortunate to count myself amongst this group, I have vested interest to understand the difference between a cash top up to the CPF SA and CPF MA. ASSESSING TAX RELIEF FOR CASH TOP-UPS TO CPF...