HOW IS FOREIGN-SOURCED INCOME TREATED IN SINGAPORE?

How is foreign-sourced income treated in Singapore? If you live and work in Singapore and own a rental property back in New Zealand, the tax position on each side of that arrangement is genuinely different. Getting it right means understanding both.

30-Second Read

• In New Zealand, you still need to file a tax return for the rental property, regardless of your tax residency status.
• Since the 2019–20 income year, residential rental losses have been ring-fenced. A loss can only offset other rental income, not your wages or other personal income.
• In Singapore, foreign-sourced income received by a resident individual is generally tax-exempt, confirmed directly by IRAS. Singapore isn’t interested in NZ rental profits or losses either way.
• If you own the property personally with a partner, the split follows whatever percentage is specified in the Sale and Purchase Agreement — not an automatic 50/50, unless that’s what the agreement actually states.

New Zealand: Your Filing Obligations Don’t Change

As a rental property owner, you still need to file tax returns in New Zealand, regardless of whether you’re a NZ tax resident or not. If the property is owned personally, with or without a partner, the profit or loss splits according to the percentage specified in your Sale and Purchase Agreement. This needs to be stated in the agreement itself to be effective. Without it, the default is an equal split between however many owners are involved.

Since the 2019–20 income year, residential rental losses have been ring-fenced. If you have other NZ income that’s been taxed — wages, interest, or similar — a rental loss can no longer be offset against it. It can only offset other rental income. If there’s no other rental income to absorb it, the loss simply carries forward to future years. It waits until the property turns a profit.

If your rental property is held through a Look-Through Company (LTC), the same NZ-side principles apply. Income or loss flows through to you personally, subject to the same ring-fencing rules.

Singapore: A Genuinely Simple Answer

Singapore’s position hasn’t changed since we first checked with IRAS on this. Foreign-sourced income received by a Singapore tax resident individual is generally exempt from Singapore tax, with an exception for income received through a Singapore partnership. That means NZ rental income you receive isn’t taxed in Singapore. Because it isn’t taxable there, a NZ rental loss can’t be offset against your Singapore income either. Tax paid in New Zealand also doesn’t factor into your Singapore tax position, since the income was never in Singapore’s tax net to begin with.

In short, Singapore isn’t interested in what your NZ rental property makes or loses. That’s unlike New Zealand, which taxes its residents on worldwide income but only requires non-residents to file on NZ-sourced income specifically.

Common Questions

Do I need to file a NZ tax return if I live in Singapore? Yes. Owning a NZ rental property means filing a NZ tax return regardless of your residency status.

Can I offset a NZ rental loss against my Singapore salary? No — Singapore doesn’t tax the NZ rental income in the first place, so there’s nothing to offset it against there. On the NZ side, ring-fencing means the loss can only offset other rental income, not your salary.

Does the ownership split automatically default to 50/50? Only if no percentage is specified in the Sale and Purchase Agreement. If a specific split is stated there, that’s what governs.

What about other countries? See our guides for the UK, Australia, and Malaysia.

Talk to EpsomTax.com About Your Cross-Border Position

Owning a NZ rental property while living overseas involves two tax systems at once — worth getting proper advice rather than assuming one country’s rules mirror the other’s. Contact EpsomTax.com to make sure your NZ filing obligations are covered correctly, whatever your residency situation elsewhere.