You can get a waiver for your foreign worker levy payments only under certain specific situations. These include overseas leave and hospitalisation leave.
When and what you need to get a levy waiver
| If the worker |
You need |
| Attended the onboarding programme at the Onboard centre. |
No documents are needed. The levy waiver will be processed automatically. |
| Went on overseas leave for at least 7 consecutive days. It is capped at 60 calendar days per calendar year. |
No documents are needed unless we ask you for it. Apply for the waiver after the migrant worker returns to Singapore.
If the worker chooses not to return from their overseas leave, cancel the Work Permit before you apply for a waiver.
|
| Was issued with hospitalisation leave by a Singapore-registered doctor from a local medical institution. It is capped at 60 calendar days per calendar year. |
Any of the following:
- Medical certificate showing the period of hospitalisation leave
- Hospital bills which reflect the admission and discharge dates
|
| Was in the custody of the police or embassy |
A letter from the relevant organisation stating the period of custody. |
| Has passed away |
A copy of the death certificate. |
| Became a Singapore permanent resident |
Any of the following:
- A copy of the NRIC
- Approval letter from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA)
|
| Is on board a vessel leaving Singapore’s port for at least 3 consecutive days (for harbour-craft industry) |
A declaration form signed by vessel captain from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) stating the period the worker was on board the vessel. |
| Is a Malaysian serving National Service in home country/region (usually for 3 months) |
All of the following:
- A letter from the Malaysia Authority stating the period worker is required to do National Service
- A copy of the National Service certificate of completion
|
When to apply
You can apply for the levy waiver only after the levy has been charged and it must be within 1 year of the levy bill.
If the waiver period requested is from January 2022 (start month) to February 2022 (end month), you must submit the application by 31 January 2023.
How to apply
You can apply for levy waiver online for the below reasons:
For faster processing, please ensure that the requested levy waiver end date for multiple workers in the same application falls in the same month.
If the last day of the waiver period is in different months, we can only start to process your application from the 21
st of next month following the
latest requested levy waiver end date.
Example:
|
Worker details
|
Requested levy waiver period
|
|
Worker 1
|
1 January 2022 to 10 January 2022
|
|
Worker 2
|
25 March 2022 to 5 April 2022
|
If you submit a single application for the above 2 workers, we can only start to process your request from 21st May 2022.
Receive the outcome
The processing time is 12 working days if you submit your application from the 21st of next month following the latest requested levy waiver end date. We will email you the outcome of the levy waiver application after we have processed all the workers in the application.
The latest requested levy waiver period in the application is from 25 March 2022 (start date) to 5 April 2022 (end date).
|
Date of application
|
Receive outcome
|
|
10 May 2022
|
By 7 June 2022
(21 May 2022 + 12 working days)
|
|
21 May 2022
|
By 7 June 2022
(21 May 2022 + 12 working days)
|
|
28 May 2022
|
By 14 June 2022
(28 May 2022 + 12 working days)
|
How to calculate the waiver
Amount waived = Monthly levy rate - Levy payable
Scenario
- Waiver period: 1 – 15 September
- Worker’s levy rate: $600 monthly (or $19.73 daily)
How to calculate
- Count the number of days from 16 to 30 September where levy is payable, i.e. 15 days.
- Find out the amount of levy payable using daily rate, i.e. 15 days × $19.73 = $295.95
- Amount waived = Monthly levy rate - Levy payable
$600 (monthly levy rate) - $295.95 (levy payable) = $304.05 (amount waived)
You can view the levy rates for the following sectors: