Why srs account?

Question

Why srs account?

Raju jpze Nisha · Answer

The SRS is a government scheme that’s set up to help Singaporeans prepare for retirement (in tandem with CPF). But as with all things set up by the government, it may not be suitable for everyone and can be quite restrictive. Here’s all you need to know about the scheme and how to sign up.

If TikTok’s @Pris jiejie sent you here Googling “What is SRS?” and “SRS retirement age” on 30 June 2022, you’re not alone. Read on for the ultimate beginner’s guide to all things SRS.

The Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) is a voluntary savings scheme by the government designed to prepare you for retirement.

But wait, don’t we already have CPF? What is the difference between CPF vs SRS? Well, CPF is a mandatory savings scheme, and it’s meant to only give you a pool of basic retirement income – which might not be enough for more elaborate lifestyles. What’s more, as many people are draining their CPF accounts to buy BTOs and condos, there might be some Singaporeans who can’t rely on CPF to fund their retirement.

That’s where the SRS (Supplementary Retirement Scheme) come in. In very simplified terms, SRS is a retirement savings bank account which you can voluntarily open at DBS/POSB, OCBC, and UOB.

As an incentive, SRS contributions are eligible for tax relief the following year. So, if you contribute to your SRS account by 31 Dec 2022, you can get tax relief in Year of Assessment 2022 (which is filed by IRAS and paid by you in 2023).

However, you can’t contribute your entire income to SRS and get away tax-free, because you can only stash away $15,300 into your SRS bank account every year for Singaporeans and PRs.

Unlike CPF which only allows you to deposit and not withdraw funds, you can withdraw your SRS account’s funds whenever you want (you’ll be taxed on the withdrawn amount). However, this is not without negative consequences. Early withdrawal (i.e. before the retirement age) subjects you to a 5% penalty, and you’ll also be taxed on any amounts withdrawn before retirement age.

So, this is the subject matter that TikTok that brought you to this article on 30 June 2022 – SRS account’s change in retirement age.

In @Pris jiejie’s Tiktok which has been going viral around WhatsApp group chats, she shared that everyone should hurry and open a SRS account today with one of the banks. Why? Citing a news article, Pris jiejie shared that the official retirement age will soon be raised from 62 to 63 years old on 1 July 2022.

How does the retirement age affect your SRS account’s money? When you hit the official retirement age, say 62 years old, and you are no longer working, you can withdraw $40,000 per year tax-free.

Now that the government is raising the retirement age from 62 to 63 years old, does it really matter? Should I really drop everything to open a SRS account today on 30 June 2022? Yes, you should hurry to open your SRS account if that 1 year difference for retirement matters to your retirement plans.

According to Ministry of Finance, your official retirement age will be set for life once you open your SRS account. If you open your SRS account today on 30 June 2022, your official retirement age will confirm plus chop be locked at 62 years old. If it doesn’t matter to you, you can open tomorrow on 1 July 2022 and your official retirement will be set at 63 years old.

Will the official retirement age keep increasing? Unfortunately, the answer seems like a ‘Yes’. Singapore has been progressively (and will continue to) keep raising the retirement age. Just imagine our Gen Z generation working when we’re all white-haired with arthritis at 70 years old. It’s a very real future.

Let’s be clear here. For most people, the main advantage of depositing money in their Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS Accounts) is for the tax breaks.

Other than the tax breaks, the SRS account doesn’t actually do anything special with your money. So, left alone, there are few advantages over investing the money or keeping it in a high interest savings account.

If you do participate in the SRS, it should be because you wish to lower your tax payment. For those who are earning more than $40,000 a year, the savings can be quite significant.

This table shows you an approximation of how much you can expect to pay in income tax each year for each dollar that you earn:

Notice how there’s big increase from $40,000 to the next tier? That’s why it’s only worth it to consider opening an SRS account when you start earning more than $40,000.

Here’s an extremely simplified example, ignoring all other tax reliefs available:

Let’s say you’re Joe Average, an office worker who earned $40,000 last year. You would have paid $550 in income tax this year.

But early this year, you landed a new job and are now earning $50,000 annually. This means that, come tax season next year, you’ll need to cough up $550 (on the first $40,000 of income) + $700 (7% of the $10,000 increment) = $1,250 in income tax. That’s over double the amount you paid this year!

However, if you open an SRS account this year and deposit $10,000 in there, you’ll be given tax relief on that $10,000. This brings you back to your previous income bracket, and your income tax “bill” will drop down to $550 once more. You’d be saving $700 on income tax.

Yes, there are limits to SRS contributions.

Before you start trying to deposit your windfall from your en bloc sale in your Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account, know that there are two limits in place to keep people from abusing the scheme to avoid taxes: (a) annual SRS contribution limits and (b) personal income tax relief cap.

For (a) annual SRS contribution limits, there’s a maximum of how much you can contribute to your SRS account each year. Here are the latest SRS caps as of 2022:

There is no need to indicate your tax return in order to get your SRS tax relief. The bank administering your SRS account will report directly to the government and your tax relief will be computed automatically.

But this is where (b) personal income tax relief cap kicks in. There is a cap of $80,000 for total personal income tax relief, including SRS contributions and anything else that entitles you to tax relief such as Working Mother’s Child Relief and donations.

Refer to this IRAS tax calculator page to estimate how much tax reliefs and rebates you can get. For more on how to reduce your personal income tax, see our article.

You can open a Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account at one of the local banks: DBS, OCBC or UOB. To open an account, you can either show up in person at one of the banks with your NRIC or passport, or apply online:

The banks are offering the following SRS account opening/investment promotions:

Contributing to your SRS account works in the much same way as depositing money in any other bank account. While the exact procedure will vary according to the bank you’re using, you should be able to deposit money through internet/mobile banking, at the branch, or by cheque (indicate your SRS number at the back of your cheque).

You can also get your employer to contribute money to your SRS. Note, though, that SRS contributions are strictly in cash. You cannot use CPF to top up your SRS account. Don’t be cheeky.

Yes. You can and should, because putting your money in a Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account and not doing anything with it is like flushing it down the toilet.

Instead of letting the cash in your account twiddle its thumbs and lose value due to inflation, you can put those SRS funds into investments. Best of all, your investment gains will not be taxed.

The catch is that you can only invest your SRS funds in ways the government has approved, such as:

The bank you opened your SRS account with can advise on what exactly you can use your SRS funds to invest in.

Singaporeans with a Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account can make a withdrawal on or after the statutory retirement age, i.e. age 62 (currently). You can also do so on medical grounds (e.g. you need the money for an operation) or due to bankruptcy.

If you withdraw before retirement age and not for medical/bankruptcy reasons, you will have to pay a 5% penalty, plus you’ll be made to pay taxes on 100% of the withdrawn amount. The withdrawn amount will be added to your taxable income when calculating your income tax liabilities for the year.

Sounds harsh, but it is the Supplementary Retirement Scheme after all…

On the other hand, if you wait till retirement age to withdraw your SRS savings, you’ll be taxed only for 50% of the withdrawal amount.

This means you can make SRS withdrawals of up to $40,000 a year without tax! (Because 50% x $40,000 = $20,000. And there’s no income tax on annual incomes of $20,000 and below. This is, of course, assuming that you have no other source of income.)

The banks may be very aggressive with their Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) account opening promotions right now, but that shouldn’t be your sole reason for opening one.

Unlike, say, signing up for a new credit card, opening an SRS account is a serious long-term commitment. The penalties for early withdrawal are not to be sniffed at. You should have a long hard think about whether you’re willing to lock in your money until retirement just for a few vouchers and several hundreds of dollars in tax relief.

If you do participate in SRS, you must invest your SRS funds in something or other. Otherwise, leaving it as cash in your SRS account is like asking inflation to come and makan your hard-earned money.

Note that the Supplementary Retirement Scheme is NOT the only way you can plan for retirement.

There’s nothing stopping you from simply opening another bank account and depositing your retirement savings there for investment purposes!

Or, if you don’t mind locking in your funds until retirement, but leceh to do your own investments, you can always top up your CPF for guaranteed 2.5% to 4% p.a. returns.

To conclude, the key reason to participate in SRS is for tax reliefs and nothing else. So you owe it to yourself to do the math beforehand to figure out just how much money the tax relief will save you, and whether it’s worth it.

Georges Prueher · Answer

While your compulsory CPF savings can help you save for retirement, you can take a more proactive approach to saving more for your retirement with the voluntary Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) which was introduced by the Singapore government in 2001.

On top of helping you save more for retirement, the SRS comes with a whole host of benefits that include tax reliefs. (Find out how much you can save with the SRS tax relief calculator). You can also use your SRS funds to invest and give your savings a boost through a wide range of instruments, ranging from the typical investment instruments to single premium insurance products.

You are eligible to sign up for an SRS account if you are a Singaporean, Permanent Resident (PR) or foreigner; at least 18 years old and not an undischarged bankrupt; have no existing or pending SRS account or account application with any bank; and can contribute varying amounts, subjected to a cap.

You can make an SRS contribution to top up your SRS account as many times a year as you like, up to a maximum of $15,300 for Singaporean citizens/PRs, and $35,700 for foreigners.

The SRS account can help you grow your retirement savings, so it is worth considering if you’ve reached the contribution limit on your CPF account. As mentioned earlier, it can also help you save on taxes - here’s how it works:

Need a play-by-play on the SRS tax relief? Here’s an example showing how SRS can help you reduce your chargeable income so that you can achieve significant tax savings:

Your SRS account is not just for retirement savings and tax savings, you can also use the money in your account to invest in a wide range of SRS-approved instruments like:

What’s more, whatever returns you make from your investments are credited directly to your SRS account where it can grow steadily, tax-free.

Unsure how to grow your SRS funds? Try the Invest your SRS Savings feature in DBS NAV Planner to get personalised recommendations for your needs.

Here’s an example of how investment returns can help you to grow your SRS money. John, Peter and Shaun contribute $15,300 annually to their SRS accounts, giving them $459,000 in their respective accounts after 30 years of annual contribution.

But if you work investments in, as illustrated below, Peter and Shaun – who both invested a portion of their SRS accounts in SRS-approved instruments – will each accumulate more for their retirement than John who left his funds un-invested.

Unlike CPF which has a strict minimum age for withdrawal of funds, you can withdraw your SRS monies anytime. Just note that if you withdraw before the current statutory retirement age of 63 years old, there will be a 5% penalty.

In addition, you can also withdraw the monies in two ways:

It’s not uncommon for SRS members to spread their withdrawals out over a longer period, and the government allows us 10 years to do so. This is known as the “10-year strategy”, and you can reap better tax benefits by maximising the 10-year grace period. The next section explains how.

If you have accumulated $400,000 in your SRS account – the optimal amount of money to keep at retirement – you’ll be able to withdraw $40,000 each year for 10 years.

Keep in mind that during this 10-year window, only 50% of your withdrawals are taxable, which means that only $20,000 is subject to tax. Since the remaining $20,000 is exempted from tax, you have effectively reduced your tax payable, while setting up a steady income stream from your SRS account for 10 years.

If you have some SRS funds tied up in investments and prefer not to withdraw your them in cash, you can also apply to your SRS operator to withdraw an SRS investment by transferring it out of your SRS account (e.g. into your personal Central Depository (CDP) account), without having to liquidate your SRS investments. Terms and conditions apply.It’s not uncommon to wonder if you’re really saving enough for your future, but with effective planning and a good strategy, Singapore's SRS can certainly help you increase your retirement funds.

Ayush Mukhopadhyay · Answer