What to know
The number on a price tag is the number you pay, because a registered business is required to put the tax inside it. A restaurant bill is built the other way round, from a figure that does not yet include the tax or the service charge. Australian notes are not legal tender there.
That requirement is regulation 77 of the Goods and Services Tax (General) Regulations 1993. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore reads it strictly: a registered business must show tax-inclusive prices on every display to the public, from price tags and price lists to advertisements and its own website. A quoted price must be tax-inclusive too, whether it is written or spoken. The rate inside those prices has been 9 per cent since 1 January 2024, up from 8 per cent, and regulation 108 makes a breach punishable by a fine of up to S$5,000.
Hotels and food and beverage places that levy a service charge are let out of that rule. The tax authority does not require them to display tax-inclusive prices, but it does require a prominent statement that prices are subject to tax and service charge, which is what the two plus signs after a figure on a menu mean. Its illustration works the order through: S$100 of food, a 10 per cent service charge of S$10, then 9 per cent applied to the S$110 subtotal, giving S$9.90 of tax and S$119.90 to pay. A nominal service charge adopted to escape the display rule earns no relief.
Tax paid on goods can come back at the airport. Singapore Customs runs the Tourist Refund Scheme for a visitor aged 16 or over on the purchase date who buys from a participating retailer and leaves by air from Changi or Seletar. Regulation 50 has set the minimum at S$100 including tax per invoice since 19 August 2012, and up to three same-day invoices from retailers sharing one registration number and shop name may be accumulated to reach it. Refunds are refused for goods not presented for inspection, anything exported by freight, purchases made for business, goods used up in Singapore, and accommodation or any other service.
Coins are legal tender only so far. Section 13 of the Currency Act 1967 makes a note legal tender for the payment of any amount, but caps coins at twenty of a given denomination in a single transaction, a limit in force since 14 March 2019. The Monetary Authority of Singapore puts that in practical terms as twenty fifty-cent coins, or S$10, and says a vendor need not take more.
Two note denominations are still legal tender and no longer printed. The Monetary Authority of Singapore stopped issuing the S$10,000 note from 1 October 2014, citing the risks attached to large-value cash and the spread of electronic payment, and stopped issuing the S$1,000 note from 1 January 2021 as a pre-emptive measure against money laundering. Both can still be spent, though banks have not recirculated the larger of the two since 2014. What is issued today runs S$2, S$5, S$10, S$50 and S$100.
Heading off with a card? Read how to choose a travel money card - including why you should always pay in the local currency, not Australian dollars.
Working out what the trip costs? Put your daily spend and trip length through the travel budget calculator, or convert a single amount with the currency converter.