Government Assistance for SMEs

Presented by Shawn Phua

SME CENTRE@ASME

SMECENTRE @ ASME

Globalise Grow

Go

Enterprise Development Centre

• Initiative of SPRING Singapore • EDC@ASME is the first EDC established in Singapore in

2005 • To date, 5 Enterprise Development Centres (EDC) have

been set up • Reaches out to SMEs, as well as aspiring entrepreneurs • First level Business Advisory at NO charge

Government Assistance Available

• More than 170 assistance schemes from the

government (SPRING Singapore, ieSingapore,

WDA, MDA, MOM, MCYS etc.)

SMECENTRE @ ASME

Globalise Grow

Go

• Information Access and assistance on various government schemes

• Basic Advisory & customized consultancy on business Needs

• Workshops and Training on work-related knowledge and competencies

• Events on latest issues, opportunities and networking with potential partners

• National Initiatives on re-employment of older workers • Business Clinic - Legal, branding and finance • Biz+ Packages - Branding, design, registration of company

SMEs in Singapore

SMEs play a vital role towards

Singapore’s economic growth

Annual turnover of not more than S$100

million

Who are SMEs

An employee headcount of no more than 200

Approximately 60% of labour force hired by

SMEs, and SMEs account for over

90% of all enterprises

SMEs reach

Approximately 160,000 SMEs in

total contributing ~ 50% of

Singapore’s GDP

OR

Productivity and Innovation Credit (IRAS)

Invest in activities to improve

Innovation and Productivity

6

Tax Deduction

Cash Payout

With Effect

YA2013-YA2015

400% tax deduction

Up to

$400,000 expenditure per

year

6 qualifying areas

60% cash payout ratio

Up to

$100,000 expenditure per

year

Convert after

each financial

quarter (from July 2012)

Automation

Acquire IP

Rights

Register IP

Rights

Training

R&D

Design

PIC - Example: If you spend $10,000 on employee training

*Based on prevailing corporate tax rate of 17%

7

Without PIC

$10,000

Tax

Deduction

$10,000

Tax

Savings*

$1,700

Conversion

Rate

60%

Cash

Payout

$6,000

$10,000

With PIC

OR

$10,000

Tax

Deduction

$40,000

Tax

Savings*

$6,800

Tax Deduction Cash Payout

PIC BONUS

• 15k bonus from 2013-2015 YA

• Dollar for dollar for PIC expenditure

• Minimum 5k expenditure to qualify

• Automatic disbursement

• Taxable income

PIC example 1

Spend 10k on IT equipment

Claim PIC cash- 60% of 10k= 6k

PIC bonus reimbursement = 10k

-10k+6k+10k= 6k

Cash incentive of 6k

PIC example 2

IT implementation cost-100k

•Implementation cost of 80k

•Training cost of 20k

PIC claim:

60% of 80k under automation category

60% of 20k under training

PIC bonus of 15k

Tax Deduction Cash Payout

Spend

File

Tax

Return

Receive

Tax Bill

Sole

Proprietors/

Partnerships

must submit

Declaration

Form

Spend

Submit

Cash

Payout

Form

Cash

Back

11

PIC - Application

• Reimbursement of 40% of wage increment

• Employees must earn a salary of less than 4k

• Employees must work minimum 3 months in the current company

• Employees must be a singapore citizen

• Minimum increment of $50

Wage Credit Scheme

Enterprise Training Support (ETS) scheme aims to:

• Raise your employees’ productivity and skills levels

• Attract and retain valued employees by developing good Human Resource (HR) and management systems and practices tied to training

• Attract and retain valued employees by helping you benchmark compensation and benefits to market rates

WDA Enterprise Training Support

• Training Grant Up to $200,000 per company. Supports the cost of non-WSQ training and structured OJT, with bundled WSQ training forming at least 30% of an enterprise training plan.

•Capability Development Grant One-time grant of $20,000 per company Helps you build your in-house capabilities in the areas of training delivery and infrastructure.

WDA Enterprise Training Support

• Curriculum Contextualisation and Alignment Grant Up to $52,000 per company to defray costs in developing (WSQ) training modules. The grant will also support development of OJT blueprints.

•Compensation and Benefits System Review Grant Up to $15,000 per company to defray costs of engaging consultancy agencies to conduct enterprise-wide industry salary benchmark reviews and restructuring of wages, to attract and retain local talent in a tight labour market.

WDA Enterprise Training Support

HR Development Grant Up to $60,000 per company Helps you:

• Develop a system to administer and monitor a holistic training plan which would include identifying skills needed of your employees and developing training pathways; or

• Integrate WSQ into your training plans and HR policy; or

• Enhance existing or develop new learning and development systems to support adoption of WSQ and measure learning gains; or

• Develop career progression pathways, tied to the training roadmap with WSQ components

WDA Enterprise Training Support

• WorkPro is a new scheme jointly developed by MOM and WDA to augment local manpower, foster progressive workplaces and strengthen the Singapore core

• Workpro is open to all singapore registered companies and employees must be singapore citizens or PRs.

WDA Work-pro Scheme

WorkPro consists of 2 major categories:

•WorkPro for employers: -Age management Grant

-Job Redesign Grant

-Work-life Grant

-New Hire and Retention Incentives

On-the-job ( OJT ) training allowance

•WorkPro for employees: -Job Preparation support

-Retention bonus

Work-pro Scheme

• It is a grant to help employers acquire skills and knowledge on age management practices

- re-employment practices

- Performance management

- Job redesign

• Encourages employers to take the first step to implement these practices

Age Management Grant

• 20k grant per company disbursed in 2 tranches

• First tranch of 5k - Align re-employment policy to tripartite guidelines

- List of staff aged 40 and above: minimum 5

- Offer eligible employees re-employment in line with tripartite guidelines

- 1 supervisory staff to attend job redesign and process improvement course

- HR staff to attend 1 day age mangement course

Age Management Grant

• Second tranch of 15k

- Sign the TAFEP fair employment practices pledge

- Organise at least 1 health programme for mature employees

- Adopt any 2 age management practices

Age Management Grant

• Supports cost of redesigning jobs to recruit and retain mature workers, economically inactive persons, and those who have been out of work for 3 months or more.

• Maximum of 300k per company:

- 150k for mature workers

- 150k for economically inactive workers and workers out of work for 3 months and more.

Job Redesign Grant

• Supports up to 80% of costs

• Supported costs:

- Equipment for automation

- Consultancy cost

- Hr policy and systems costs

- Training costs

- Recruitment advertising costs

Job Redesign Grant

• Provides support for implementation of work-life strategies for better work-life harmony.

• Consists of 2 components:

- Develpmental Grant

- Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA ) Incentive

Work-Life Grant

• Developmental Grant

- 1 time grant up to 40k

- Co-funds up to 80% items like work-life training, work-life consultancy, personal work-life effectiveness

- Co-funds up to 30% for IT infrastructure for FWAs

Work-Life Grant

• FWA Incentive

- Up to 120k per organisation disbursed in 3 tranches of 40k each over 3 years

- 10k for first 5 singaporean employees

- $1500 for each additional singaporean ( 6th employee onwards )

Work-Life Grant

• Assist companies to retain newly hired workers

• Max 50k per company

• Must have tapped either age management grant, work-life grant or job redesign grant

New Hire Retention Incentive

• Employers will receive incentive of 50% of employees 1 month salary if contracted on a permanent or contract positions retained for 6 months

• Additional 50% of 1 month salary for employes retained for 12 months

• Paid to employers in the 6th and 12th month mark

New Hire Retention Incentive

• Encourages employers to conduct OJT for newly hired workers

• Max 50k per company

• For newly hired workers who have been out of work for 3 months or more, and economically inactive persons.

On Job Training Allowance

InfoComm Adoption- ISPRINT (IDA) Types of Project Qualifying Costs Examples

Packaged solutions Up to 70% (capped $2000) of Software/ subscription cost, Consultancy services, Training cost

Finance/ Accounting Payroll Point-of-Sales Software-as-a-Service

Customised solutions Up to 70% (capped $20000) of Consultancy services, Training cost

Customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning

Customised solutions that require extensive development efforts and business re-engineering

Up to 70% of Manpower-related costs Consultancy services Hardware/ software costs (amortised), Training cost

Supply chain management

• OJT allowance for employers equivalent to 1 month salary capped at 2k for workers hired on a permanent or contract positions

• Disbursements will be made 6 months after signing the letter of offer with SNEF or NTUC.

On Job Training Allowance

Capability Development Grant

Capability Development Grant

The Capability Development Grant (CDG) is a financial assistance programme aimed at helping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) defray up to 70% of qualifying project costs*, relating to consultancy, manpower, training, certification, upgrading productivity and developing business capabilities for process improvement, product development and market access.

Capability Development Grant

• Brand Development

• Business Innovation & Design

• Business Strategy Development

• Enhancing Quality & Standards

• Financial Management Human Capital Development

• Intellectual Property & Franchising

• Productivity Improvement

• Service Excellence

• Technology Innovation

Inclusive growth programme

• To assist companies improve their productivity through automation and IT implementation

• Max of 500k per company, 150k per company

• Up to 50% of project costs

• Workers affected must earn less than 1700 per month

• Help improve value of lower wage workers

Micro Loan Scheme

• It is a partnership between banks and the Government

• Provides more affordable loans to SMEs with less than 10 employees

• Interest rate as low as 2.8%

• Up to 100k

Risk Management Assistance Fund

• Helps companies achieve Bizsafe certification up till level 3

• Covers up to 90% of costs to achieve Bizsafe level 3

• Workplace safety act in place since september 2011

Innovation & Capability Voucher

Replaces Innovation Voucher Scheme

Covers 4 categories: Innovation, Productivity, Human resource and Financial management

Each voucher is worth $5k

Entitled to 2 vouchers per category

For More Information

• Visit EnterpriseOne website http://www.enterpriseone.gov.sg

• Visit our website www.smecentre-asme.sg

• Call 6513 0388

• Email enquiries@smecentre-asme.sg

• Contact any of our Business Advisors directly