Wednesday, October 11, 2017

PIC Ending Soon - Do you have plans to spend IT wisely?

PIC Expiring YA2018

Do you know PIC is expiring YA2018? With reference to IRAS website on PIC expiry, what does this means?

YA 2018 means your accounting period year financial year (FY) ending 2017. For those whose FY 2017 has closed, means your PIC has already ended. Only those whose year end falls in November or December 2017 is still eligible. For those company FY 2017 has ended, please remember to claim your PIC for the last time. Means all PIC eligible expenses, you may claim 40% cash rebate (or 60% if eligible expenses was incurred before 1 August 2016) from IRAS or tax deduction of 400%. Again, please refer to IRAS website on this.

A reminder for those who wants to claim cash reimbursement from IRAS, you need to have at least 3 local staff with CPF contribution (shareholders are not included). For tax deduction, please refer to your tax agent for assistance.

Since this is the last round, for the benefit of those who are still eligible to spend PIC eligible expenses, here are quick guidelines:

  1. Spend wisely on solutions you need
  2. Avoid cash rebate or "special deals" arrangements with your vendors
  3. Avoid last minute purchase to prevent delivery delays
  4. Do not try to be creative with things, spend on what you need
Please refer to 6 categories of expenses you can consider in IRAS website. 

Meanwhile the most common category applicable to all companies are:
Acquisition and Leasing of PIC IT and Automation Equipment is common among SMEs especially we will use this to acquire our machines, PCs and laptop for operation uses. Please replace your equipment if they are old, out of warranty or getting cranky. Else the maintenance plus future replacement will be at full cost. Another possible option is to source for software solutions that can automate or speed up your work processes or operations. 

Training of Employees
Do send treasured human capital for some useful training so that they can be a more future proof workforce for you. Note that training for both local or foreign employees are eligible for PIC which most training grant does not cover foreign employees.

Here are some quick items to consider:
  1. PC, laptops, printers, servers and other IT hardware equipment 
  2. Machines that help automate your production or processes
  3. Software solutions including accounting software, HR software, CRM, E-commcerce, Point-of-sales and ERP solutions
  4. Telephony system for office (they must be IP PBX systems, not traditional PABX)
Hope this article helps you decide how you can spend wisely to upgrade your organisation as a whole.

Call us for more information.

William Tan