Review Singapore GST credits when supplier invoices remain unpaid

A Singapore GST input-tax review needs to identify which supplier invoices remain unpaid after credits have been claimed. IRAS requires repayment of the claimed input tax when the supplier has not been paid within 12 months of the payment due date. Build the review from invoices that contributed to input-tax claims, with their actual contractual due dates.

An ordinary accounts-payable aging report may use invoice date, posting date or a default term. Compare those settings with the agreed payment terms. Retain amendments and disputes for the tax review, and avoid changing the due date merely to move an old invoice out of the exception report.

Connect each aged invoice to the original GST claim period, tax amount, supplier balance and subsequent payments. A supplier account balance can combine several invoices and credits. Allocate the activity to the relevant documents before deciding how much claimed tax relates to unpaid consideration.

For a hypothetical invoice with SGD1,090 due, assume the records show one payment of SGD436 and no other settlement. The unpaid amount is SGD654. The reviewer needs that gross balance and the original invoice's tax treatment to determine the repayment; taking the entire original tax amount would ignore the partial payment.

Inspect unapplied transfers, supplier refunds, credit notes and agreed net settlements. Ask the reviewer which events satisfy payment or change the underlying consideration. A payable removed through an unexplained journal does not establish that the supplier received payment.

IRAS's guidance calculates repayment for a partly unpaid invoice using the tax fraction of the unpaid amount and shows corresponding adjustments to taxable purchases and input tax in the GST return. Use the tax rate and treatment of the original supply; an invoice from an earlier rate period should not be recalculated at today's rate merely because the repayment is current.

Create an adjustment row containing the original invoice, due date, unpaid amount, prior claim reference, calculation and approved return period. Reconcile the reviewed total to the return and the tax-ledger posting. Keep genuinely disputed or incomplete cases visible instead of automatically treating all old payables alike.

After posting, mark how much tax has already been repaid for that invoice. This prevents the same overdue balance from creating another full repayment when it appears in the following period's aging report.

A later settlement needs the earlier claim and repayment records. IRAS permits a subsequent input-tax claim when the supplier is paid within five years from the end of the accounting period in which the tax was first claimed. The time limit is tied to that original period, not restarted by the repayment date.

When payment arrives in the ledger, match it to the affected invoice and ask the tax reviewer to assess the amount eligible for a new claim. Save the bank evidence, payment allocation and return reference. Part payments should update the remaining balance and tax history without erasing the earlier adjustment. Close the item only when its payment and GST consequences have both been resolved.