23/02/2024
Attention to those giving birth on or after 1 Jan 2024.
It was recently highlighted to me by a pregnant mummy I was working with about the changes to the Working Mother's Child Relief (WMCR).
Eligible working mothers will now be able to claim S$8,000 in tax relief for their first child, S$10,000 for their second and S$12,000 each for their third and beyond for child born on after 1 Jan 2024.
Previously it was based on 15% (1st child), 20% (2nd child) and 25% (3rd child and beyond) of earned income.
As you can see, this sorts of "penalised" the higher income working women as their tax relief are now fixed at $8,000 for the first child thus paying more tax in the process.
"In his 2023 Budget speech, Mr Wong said the measures were meant to support parents with the costs of raising their children.
He said the Government already has a “generous” set of measures, but some of these "need to be adjusted, to ensure that more support is given to those with greater needs”."
Ironically based on Sgbudgetbabe's calculation, the lower-income mother only gets a slightly lower tax reduction under the fixed relief! How is this supposed to help those with greater needs???
So back to mother's who have given birth in 2024. What's your take on this new changes?
The latest WMCR changes adds pressure to an already stressed-out group of working mothers. Could this lead to a lower birth rate in time?
