It was announced in the 2006 Budget speech that the period for keeping business records under the Income Tax Act would be reduced from 7 years to 5 years so as to lighten the costs to business. In order that businesses will benefit from this reduction in record-keeping period, IRAS will have to finalise the tax assessments of companies within this shorter timeframe. The changes made to form C statutory filing deadline as follows:

For the Year of Assessment 2007, the statutory filing deadline will still be on 31 July 2007. If you e-file your Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) within 3 months from your accounting year-end, you will continue to be granted an extension automatically till 31 December 2007 to file your tax form. This is the last year in which an extension beyond the statutory filing deadline will be granted.

For the Year of Assessment 2008, the statutory filing deadline will be changed to 30 November 2008. With effect from the YA 2009, the statutory filing deadline will be 31 October of the relevant year. No extension beyond the deadline will be granted.

As regards to instalment payment of the tax based on the ECI submitted, there will be no change in the number allowed for the Year of Assessment 2007. With effect from the Year of Assessment 2008, the number of instalments allowed to e-filers and paper-filers of ECI as follows:

Updated December 2006