Raffles Consulting Services
Document DTDi due diligence and licensing costs for YA 2027 by connecting overseas purpose, supplier work, expenditure and tax schedules.
From YA 2027, investment feasibility and due-diligence studies plus master licensing and franchising are among the new activities listed for automatic DTDi, subject to the current conditions and expenditure cap. The expanded list does not make every transaction review, legal invoice or licence payment a double deduction. The company must connect the cost to qualifying international market expansion or investment development.
Define the overseas expansion decision
Record the target market, commercial objective, proposed transaction or licensing model, decision date and management owner. Use the current IRAS DTDi guidance for the YA 2027 activity list, automatic-claim cap and documentation requirement. Keep any Enterprise Singapore guidance with the tax file.
State the question the study or licensing work must answer. A broad corporate review that would have been performed without overseas expansion may need allocation or a different treatment. Separate market-entry work from ordinary compliance, financing, acquisition execution and post-deal integration.
Map supplier scope and invoice lines
For due diligence, identify workstreams, countries, target information, deliverables and decision use. For master licensing or franchising, identify the rights, market, parties, agreement and expansion activity. Require invoices to distinguish potentially qualifying work from domestic, routine or non-qualifying services.
Keep engagement letters, reports, agreements, invoices, payment and internal approvals together. If one supplier invoice covers several purposes, use a reasonable and documented allocation supported by work records. Do not relabel a general legal fee after year end solely to fit the new activity name.
Reconcile the YA 2027 tax schedule
Maintain a DTDi register across all automatic activities so the company can apply the S$400,000 expenditure cap from YA 2027 correctly. Separate gross expenditure, non-qualifying amounts, grants or reimbursements and the amount claimed. Link each line to source evidence and the overseas purpose.
Compare DTDi with any EDGE or other support assumption before filing. The EDGE directory is a different programme with its own activity and same-expense controls. Obtain tax advice for mixed, related-party or acquisition facts rather than treating the automatic route as self-approval of an uncertain cost.
Turn the decision into a controlled file
Use a dated decision record that identifies the applicant, business need, current official source, chosen route, responsible owner, costs, milestones and evidence. Separate facts already verified from forecasts and assumptions. A catalogue listing, supplier statement, consultant recommendation or portal acknowledgement does not establish approval. The company remains responsible for its declarations and commercial decision.
Give each quotation, contract, invoice, payment and deliverable a stable reference. Preserve earlier versions and explain material changes instead of silently replacing them. Where the authority, tax adviser, auditor or another professional must decide a point, record the open question and obtain the required view. Do not convert uncertainty into a confident eligibility statement.
Review before commitment and again before closeout
Run four reviews: suitability, authority, implementation and closeout. At suitability, test the entity, activity and business outcome. Before commitment, freeze the proposed scope, vendor and financial assumptions. During implementation, compare actual work with approved terms. At closeout, reconcile deliverables, accepted results, invoices, full payment, operating evidence and obligations that continue.
Name the person who may approve each stage and the records that person must see. Procurement should not treat a draft application as permission to contract. A project team should not treat supplier completion as company acceptance. Finance should not treat a submitted claim as cash received. Clear status words prevent accidental commitments and weak reporting.
Handle exceptions without rewriting history
Maintain an exception log for changed facts, delayed milestones, supplier variations, cost movements, missing records and failed tests. State the effect on scope, eligibility, timing and expected value. If an authority decision or formal variation is required, use the published route before relying on the change. Silence and helpdesk receipt are not approval.
If a material defect appears, pause the affected acceptance, filing or claim item. Keep original evidence, assign corrective action and set a review date. Do not backdate records, move costs between categories or adjust a baseline after seeing the result. A candid exception with an owned resolution is more credible than a clean-looking file that cannot explain what happened.
Plan handovers before the original project team disperses. The handover should identify the current version, source locations, system access owner, next review date, open exceptions and any condition that continues after payment or filing. Restrict personal, financial and commercially sensitive records to authorised users, while giving each responsible owner enough information to perform the assigned control. Record the external event that should trigger an earlier review, such as a changed programme page, revised authority letter, supplier failure or material business change.
Verify the final outcome independently
Ask someone who did not prepare the final pack to compare the decision, current official source, approved terms, deliverables, payments and operating evidence. Recalculate totals and sample source records. The reviewer should be able to reproduce the conclusion without relying on the preparer’s memory. Record unresolved points with named owners and dates.
Use the market-entry cornerstone for the wider decision and keep this article as the narrower operating guide. After submission, preserve the receipt and reconcile questions, adjustments and the final registered or paid outcome. Continue any reporting, retention, asset-use or other condition that survives closeout.
Practical review checklist
- Market and purpose fixed
- Supplier scope separated
- Invoice lines allocated
- Automatic cap reconciled
- Other support screened
The tax file is ready when each due-diligence or licensing cost can be traced to a qualifying overseas decision, supplier deliverable, paid invoice, cap schedule and documented treatment.