- A zero-rated supply is taxed at 0% GST, and unlike an exempt supply, you can still claim the input tax on it.
- Only two things are zero-rated in Singapore: exports of goods and qualifying international services under Section 21(3) of the GST Act.
- A zero-rating claim stands or falls on documentary evidence, and IRAS gives you 60 days to export goods and collate proof.
- Zero-rated sales still count toward the S$1 million registration threshold, but a mainly-exporting business can apply to IRAS for exemption from registration.
Zero-rated GST is the 0% rate you charge on certain sales. Get it right, and your customer pays nothing while you still reclaim the GST on your own costs. Get it wrong, and IRAS can treat the sale as a normal 9% supply and bill you for tax you never collected.
Whether you can zero-rate depends less on what you sold than on what you can prove. Applying zero-rated GST on your GST return really comes down to two questions: does the supply qualify, and can you substantiate it?
Made an overseas sale and only now wondering whether you were allowed to charge 0%?
What is a zero-rated supply in Singapore?
A zero-rated supply is a taxable supply on which you charge GST at 0% instead of the standard 9%. It is still a taxable supply, so it stays inside the GST system. The important consequence follows from that: because the supply is taxable, you can still claim the input tax on the costs behind it.
That single feature is what separates zero-rated from exempt, and it is the point most business owners miss. An exempt supply carries no GST for the customer either, but it sits outside the taxable net, so the input tax attached to it is generally lost. Zero-rating gives your customer a 0% invoice and gives you back the GST on your purchases.
In Singapore, zero-rating is deliberately narrow: IRAS allows it for two categories only, the export of goods and the supply of qualifying international services. Everything else is standard-rated, exempt or out of scope. If a supply does not fit one of those two boxes, it does not zero-rate, however international it feels.
Zero-rated, exempt or standard-rated: what is the difference?
The three labels look similar on an invoice, because two of them show no GST. What differs is whether the supply is taxable and whether you can recover your input tax. That distinction decides real money, so it is worth pinning down before you file.
| Treatment | GST you charge | Taxable supply? | Can you claim input tax? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard-rated | 9% | Yes | Yes |
| Zero-rated | 0% | Yes | Yes |
| Exempt | None | No | Generally no |
So zero-rated and exempt are not two words for the same thing. Zero-rated is the better position for a seller, because you keep the right to reclaim input tax. If your sales mix is exempt and zero-rated, the split matters, and GST-exempt supplies cover the exempt side in full.
Which supplies can you zero-rate?
Two, and only two. The first is the export of goods: physical goods that leave Singapore. The second is qualifying international services, which are set out in Section 21(3) of the GST Act.
Selling to a foreign customer does not, by itself, put you in either box. A meal served to a tourist in your Singapore restaurant is standard-rated, because the goods never leave and the service is consumed here. What matters is where the goods go and whether a service meets the specific statutory conditions, not the nationality of the person paying.
The next two sections take each category in turn. For each one, they pair the same two questions: what qualifies, and what you must keep on file to prove it.
Exporting goods: what qualifies, and what evidence must you keep?
You can zero-rate a supply of goods when you are certain the goods are exported, and you hold the required documents. IRAS draws a line between two situations: a direct export, where you have custody of the goods and control the export arrangement, and an indirect export, where your customer or their agent handles the shipment.
The timing rule is firm: you have up to 60 days from the time of supply to export the goods and collate the required evidence. Miss that window without the documents and you must standard-rate the supply and account for 9% GST, even though the goods went overseas. You also have to keep your records for five years.
The evidence is where claims fall apart, so treat the table below as the working checklist. It sets out what qualifies against what you have to hold, for each type of export.
| Export type | What qualifies | Evidence IRAS expects you to hold |
|---|---|---|
| Direct export | You have custody of the goods and control the shipping | Sales invoice, purchase order, packing list or delivery note, insurance documents, evidence of payment, plus transport proof: bill of lading or air waybill (sea or air), or export permit (land) |
| Indirect export | Your customer or their freight forwarder arranges shipping | The same transaction documents, plus written instructions to deliver the goods, and either a bill of lading or air waybill, or a Subsidiary Export Certificate or Note of Shipment |
TIPIf you sell physical goods to overseas buyers through a marketplace, the record-keeping gets more involved, and GST for e-commerce sellers walks through the wider tax position.
International services: when is an overseas customer not enough?
International services are the second zero-rated category, and they are governed by Section 21(3) of the GST Act. The Act lists specific descriptions of services that qualify, rather than a general rule that anything sold abroad counts.
The qualifying descriptions in Section 21(3) include:
- international transport of passengers and goods;
- services relating directly to land or goods situated outside Singapore;
- the letting on hire of transport for use outside Singapore;
- prescribed financial services connected with exports;
- cultural, artistic, sporting or educational services performed wholly outside Singapore;
- services supplied to a person who belongs outside Singapore and does not directly benefit anyone in Singapore.
Here is the trap: a service is not zero-rated simply because you invoice an overseas client. It still has to fall within one of the Section 21(3) descriptions and meet its conditions, and you still need documentary evidence that those conditions were met.
If a client belongs overseas but the service directly benefits someone in Singapore, zero-rating can fail. This is the fiddly part of the topic, and it is easy to get wrong. If your international-services position is unclear, get a second opinion before you file rather than after.
Why can zero-rating make voluntary GST registration worth it?
For an exporter sitting below the registration threshold, zero-rating changes the maths. If you register voluntarily, you charge 0% on your exports, so your customers pay no more, yet you can now reclaim the GST on your Singapore costs. For a business that buys locally and sells overseas, that can turn GST from a cost into a refund.
That is a real benefit, but registration also brings obligations: charging and tracking GST correctly, and filing returns on time. Whether the trade-off is worth it depends on your cost base and how much of your input tax you would recover. The voluntary GST registration decision weighs it in full, so start there before you commit.
Do zero-rated supplies count toward the GST registration threshold?
Zero-rated sales are taxable supplies, so they do count toward the S$1 million annual taxable turnover threshold that triggers compulsory GST registration. An exporter can cross S$1 million on zero-rated revenue alone and become liable to register, even though every sale carried 0% GST.
Relief is built in for exactly this case. If you make wholly or mainly zero-rated supplies, you can apply to IRAS for exemption from GST registration, so you are not forced to register only to sit in a permanent refund position. It is an application, not an automatic status, so you have to ask for it and meet the conditions.
Where do zero-rated supplies go on your GST F5 return?
Once you are registered, zero-rated supplies have their own line on the GST F5 return. Standard-rated supplies go in Box 1, and the total value of your zero-rated supplies goes in Box 2. Reporting a zero-rated sale is not the same as leaving it off the return.
The common error is dropping zero-rated sales out of the return entirely, or parking them in the exempt box. Both distort your figures and can invite questions. The GST filing guide covers how the full return fits together, box by box.
What goes wrong when you zero-rate without the paperwork?
The failure is almost never about eligibility. It is about proof. A business zero-rates a genuine export, but when IRAS reviews the return, the transport document is missing, the export happened outside the 60-day window, or the international-services conditions were never actually met.
When that happens, IRAS can treat the supply as standard-rated and recover the 9% you did not charge, and it is your business, not the overseas customer, that absorbs it. So zero-rating is best understood as a claim you must be ready to defend, not a box you tick. The defence is the evidence file, kept for five years, built at the time of the sale.
Selling cross-border: does your company structure change your GST position?
Cross-border sellers often ask a structural question first. “Would it be a direct subsidiary of your overseas company, or will it be individual shareholders?” It is a fair thing to work out, but for GST it is a step removed from what actually decides zero-rating.
Your GST treatment turns on the nature of the supply and the evidence behind it, not on who owns the Singapore entity. A Singapore company exporting goods zero-rates on the strength of its export documents, whoever its shareholders are. Structure affects other things, from corporate tax to compliance, so keep the two questions separate and answer the supply question on its own terms.
How Sleek helps you get zero-rating right
Zero-rating is a documentation discipline as much as a tax rule, and that is where most claims come undone. Sleek’s accounting and GST team classifies each supply, keeps the export and international-services evidence in order, and files your GST F5 so the numbers land in the right boxes. For a cross-border seller, that is the difference between a claim that holds up and one that gets reversed, and you can see the full picture across Sleek’s accounting and taxes services.
Zero-rating correctly starts with getting registered and filing right.
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FAQs: Zero-Rated GST in Singapore: What Qualifies and What to Prove
What are zero-rated purchases?
Zero-rated purchases are the flip side of the coin: goods or services you buy that carry GST at 0%, typically because your supplier is zero-rating an export or an international service to you. Because no GST was charged, there is no input tax to claim on that particular purchase. The term is easy to confuse with your own zero-rated sales, so it helps to keep “supplies you make” and “purchases you receive” as separate columns in your records.
What is the difference between zero-rated and out-of-scope supplies?
A zero-rated supply is taxable and appears on your GST return at 0%, and you can claim the related input tax. An out-of-scope supply falls outside the GST system altogether, such as a sale of goods that are both located and delivered entirely overseas without entering Singapore. The practical difference is reporting: zero-rated values go in Box 2 of the F5, while out-of-scope sales are not part of your taxable turnover in the same way.
How do I show 0% GST on a customer invoice?
You issue a normal tax invoice, but you apply GST at 0% to the qualifying line, so the GST amount shows as zero rather than being left off. The invoice should make clear that the supply is zero-rated, and you keep the supporting export or international-services evidence on file. Showing 0% is not the same as showing nothing, and a clean invoice is part of the evidence trail.
Is the 9% GST rate ever charged on an export?
Yes, and it usually happens by default rather than by choice. If you cannot export the goods and collate the required documents within 60 days of the time of supply, IRAS requires you to standard-rate the supply at 9%, even though the goods eventually leave Singapore. The rate follows the evidence, so the way to avoid the 9% is to have the paperwork ready within the window.
Is international freight or shipping zero-rated?
International transport of goods is one of the descriptions listed under Section 21(3), so freight moving goods into or out of Singapore, or between two overseas points, can qualify for zero-rating. Purely domestic transport within Singapore is standard-rated unless it is supplied as part of that qualifying international transport. As with every zero-rated supply, the treatment depends on meeting the statutory conditions and holding the evidence.
Can I stay GST-registered if I only make zero-rated supplies?
Yes. A business that makes only zero-rated supplies can be GST-registered, and it will usually be in a net refund position because it charges 0% but reclaims input tax. Registration is not compulsory in that situation once you obtain exemption, but many exporters choose to stay registered precisely to recover their input tax. It is a commercial decision rather than an obligation.
How long do I have to keep the evidence for a zero-rated supply?
You must keep your business and accounting records, including the documents that support a zero-rating claim, for five years. For exports, that means the transport documents, invoices and payment evidence tied to each shipment. IRAS can review a return well after filing, so the record has to survive beyond the return itself.
