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When a club or society conducts a lottery (e.g. Tombola, Continuous Lucky Draw, Single Lottery) or operates gaming machines for its members, the authorised promoter of the lottery or the authorised person of the gaming machines of the club or society has to submit the required records and pay gambling duty to IRAS. The method of calculating the gambling duty, record-keeping requirements, due dates for paying duty, and due date for filing the return vary with the type of activities organized.
Clubs conducting lotteries or operating gaming machines are required to:
1.File Form PL-R (Gambling Duties Return) by the 15th of the month following the end of the month it conducts the lottery or gaming machines (except for scheduled lottery).
For clubs conducting scheduled lottery (one-time), the Form PL-R has to be filed within 15 days from the date of the lottery.
For examples:
Form PL-R is a return for any club or society or other body of persons (incorporate or unincorporate) who operate all types of lottery and gaming machines.
A club conducting a few lottery types (e.g. gaming machines and Tombola) can file the duty payable for these lotteries in a single return.
The form must be signed by a principal officer (e.g. President, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer or management committee member) per Registry of Society’s records.
Clubs have to download the Form PL-R (Gambling Duties Return)version8 template for reporting lotteries and submit the original copy to IRAS.
Form PL-R
(Gambling Duties Return)
Form PL-R1
(Reconciliation of Soft and Hard Meter Readings)
Note:
As long as the club holds a valid lottery licence and gambling revenue approval, it is required to file Form PL-R even if there is no lottery conducted during a reporting period.
If the audited financial statements does not reconcile with the club’s duty submissions for that year, the club will be required to provide reconciliation.
You may download the templates for the Forms below:
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
55 Newton Road
[Attention: Small Business Division-Compliance and Small Volume Taxes Branch (Gaming Team)]
Cheque payment for gambling duties should be mailed separately from Form PL-R and other required documents.
Yes. The club may submit the soft copy of the signed Form PL-R to [email protected]. The club may retain the hardcopy for its record.
No. Your club’s jackpot room supervisor or Finance Manager cannot sign Form PL-R unless he is authorised by the club’s management committee (Please refer to Q3). Similar to the signatories required for clubs’ Income Tax Return Form P1, only the club’s principal officers per Registry of Society’s records, such as the club’s President, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer or management committee member may sign Form PL-R.
A staff of the club is allowed to sign the Form PL-R provided the following conditions are satisfied:
There is a letter of authorisation signed by the Secretary or a member of the management committee appointing the assigned staff (with name, designation and identification number) to sign Form PL-R
There are documented minutes of meeting on the club’s management committee’s decision to delegate the task of signing the Form PL-R to the assigned staff.
Notwithstanding the authorisation, the management committee shall remain responsible for the affairs of the club with regard to gambling duties. The authorisation will lapse once the assigned staff leaves the club or his position.
Forms PL-R1 and PL-R2 can be signed by the club’s staff (e.g. jackpot room supervisor) who prepares the form.
Form PL-R1 needs to be marked with audit identification by affixing the audit firm’s stamp and providing the name of the auditor who is involved in the review.
Form PL-R shall be signed by the club’s principal officers per Registry of Society’s records, such as the club’s President, Honorary Secretary, Treasurer, management committee member or staff authorised by the management committee (Please refer to Q3).
The club may decide on the amount of tolerable variance for Form PL-R2. It need not follow the same $5 threshold in Form PL-R1. However, it is recommended the tolerable variance be set up-front by the club’s management (in consultation with the club’s external auditors if necessary) so that the staff is clear on the appropriate follow up actions for variances that exceed the threshold when preparing Form PL-R2.
For example, if a club decides that it is reasonable to accept a variance of $20 per gaming machine for purposes of completing Form PL-R2, the club may choose not to investigate variances which are less than $20. Conversely, if any machine shows a variance exceeding the club’s threshold, it should be checked and reasons for the variance ought to be documented.
Possible causes of variance for Form PL-R2 might include:
Form PL-R2 is to be prepared monthly and maintained as a supporting document to the Form PL-R. Clubs shall submit Form PL-R2 upon IRAS’ request.
In this case, you will have to submit separate forms for the two types of lotteries conducted in Aug 2022 as the gambling duty payable on the scheduled lottery (one-time) conducted on 5 Aug 2022 has to be reported by 20 Aug 2022(15 days from the date of the lottery); whereas the gambling duty on the operation of gaming machines in Aug 2022 will need to be reported by 15 Sep 2022. Assuming further that you conduct another scheduled lottery (one-time) on 5 Sep 2022 (for which filing is due on 20 Sep 2022), you may then report the duty payable for both lottery types on the same Form PL-R and submit it by 15 Sep 2022.
If your club does not wish to claim cascade payouts as part of “Total winnings paid” to lower the amount of GST Chargeable on gaming supplies, your club should take note of the following:
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Last updated on 03 August 2022