GST for Singapore Salons: The S$1 Million Line and What Your Receipt Must Say

GST is the tax most salon owners in Singapore think about exactly twice: the day turnover gets close to a million dollars, and the day IRAS writes. Both days go better with the rules known in advance. Here they are, in the order they will hit you. (General information, not tax advice — your accountant should see your actual numbers.)

The rate

9%, since 1 January 2024. It was 8% through 2023 and 7% before that, which is why some older price lists still round oddly. IRAS’s rate-change page has the dates if a customer argues about an old quote.

Who must register

Registration is compulsory once taxable turnover passes S$1 million, and IRAS tests that two ways:

• Retrospective. If your taxable turnover for a calendar year exceeded S$1 million, you must apply by 30 January of the following year, and registration takes effect on 1 March.
• Prospective. If you can reasonably expect turnover to exceed S$1 million in the next 12 months — a second branch opening, a big package launch — you must apply within 30 days of making that forecast. For forecasts made on or after 1 July 2025, registration takes effect two months from the forecast date under IRAS’s extended grace period, which gives you time to update menus and receipts.

Taxable turnover counts your services and retail sales. A three-chair heartland salon will not get near it; a busy mall salon with retail and a treatment room can cross it without noticing — which is the point of knowing your monthly number.

Registering voluntarily

Below the line you may still register, and some salons do because their suppliers and landlords charge GST they would like to claim back. The conditions, set out in IRAS’s e-Tax guide on voluntary registration: stay registered for at least two years, pay and receive refunds by GIRO, complete IRAS’s “Overview of GST” e-learning, and keep up with InvoiceNow e-invoicing as it phases in. Run the arithmetic first: charging 9% to walk-in customers who cannot claim it back is a price rise you are choosing.

Filing

Quarterly by default. Under IRAS’s filing due dates, the return and the payment are due one month after the accounting period ends, and late filing attracts penalties.

What your receipt must show

Once registered, this is the part that touches every customer. IRAS’s guide for retailers (sixth edition, January 2026) says a receipt to an ordinary consumer must show your business name, address, GST registration number, the date, the total including GST, and the words “Price payable includes GST”. For a sale of S$1,000 or less you can issue a simplified tax invoice with the same details plus an invoice number and a description of what was sold. Above S$1,000, a GST-registered customer can ask for a full tax invoice showing the GST amount separately and their own name and address.

Service charge, if you add one, is itself subject to GST — the 9% is computed on the total including the service charge.

Prices on the wall

You must display GST-inclusive prices — on menus, on the window, in written quotes and, notably, in verbal quotes. “S$80 plus GST” at the counter is not allowed. The fine for non-compliant price displays is up to S$5,000.

What most vendors won’t tell you

Billing software does not make you compliant; it makes compliance automatic or impossible. The test is whether every receipt carries the six required items without anyone remembering to add them, whether the menu stores tax-inclusive prices so the wall and the bill agree, and whether the quarter’s figures come out of the system in the shape the return needs. If your software needs a manual step for any of these, that step will be skipped on the Saturday before Chinese New Year.

Before the letter arrives

Know your rolling 12-month taxable turnover every month, not once a year. Decide in advance what your menu prices become the day you register — absorb the 9% or pass it on. And run one receipt from your current system against the list above. On EaseSeat, tax is carried on every bill and the reports give you the period totals your accountant asks for — see the platform or the FAQ for how billing is set up.

Sources

• IRAS — GST rate change for consumers: https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/gst-rate-change/gst-rate-change-for-consumers1
• IRAS — Do I need to register for GST: https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/gst-registration-deregistration/do-i-need-to-register-for-gst
• IRAS (TaxBytes) — GST registration under prospective basis, extended grace period: https://www.iras.gov.sg/who-we-are/what-we-do/annual-reports-and-publications/taxbytes-iras/gst/gst-registration-under-prospective-basis---extended-grace-period-to-begin-charging-gst
• IRAS — e-Tax Guide: GST voluntary registration conditions: https://www.iras.gov.sg/docs/default-source/e-tax/e-tax-guide_gst-voluntary-registration-conditions.pdf
• IRAS — GST filing due dates and requests for extension: https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/filing-gst/due-dates-and-requests-for-extension
• IRAS — GST: Guide for Retailers, sixth edition (30 January 2026): https://www.iras.gov.sg/media/docs/default-source/e-tax/etaxguide_gst_gst-guide-for-retailers.pdf
• IRAS — Hotel and food & beverage (service charge): https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/goods-services-tax-(gst)/specific-business-sectors/hotel-and-food-beverage

All figures retrieved 4 September 2026.