Displaying And Quoting Prices - IRAS

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GST-registered businesses must display and quote prices inclusive of GST to the public. If both GST-inclusive and GST-exclusive prices are displayed, the GST-inclusive price must be displayed at least as prominently as the GST-exclusive price. On this page:

• Price displayed or quoted must be GST-inclusive
• Displaying both GST-inclusive & GST-exclusive prices
• Misleading "no GST" advertising
• Prices subject to bargaining
• Exception to the requirement to display GST-inclusive prices
• FAQs
• Related Content

Price displayed or quoted must be GST-inclusive

GST-registered businesses must show GST-inclusive prices on all price displays to the public (e.g. price tags, price lists, advertisements, publicity brochures, website). Prices that are quoted, whether written or verbal, must be GST-inclusive as the public needs to know the final price they have to pay upfront.

Failure to comply with price display requirements can result in a fine of up to $5,000.

Example 1: Acceptable and unacceptable price display

Price display format
Acceptable	Not acceptable
$109	$100 +
$109 w/GST$109 (inclusive of GST)	$100 + GST $100 + 9% GST$100 + $9 GST
$109 w/GST ($100)$109 w/GST ($100)	$109 w/GST ($100)
$109 w/GST ($100 w/o GST)	$100 w/o GST ($109 w/GST)

Example 2: Unacceptable price quotes

Quoting the following clauses but not the GST-inclusive prices is unacceptable :

1. "Prices stated are subject to GST";
2. "Prices stated are exclusive of GST"; and
3. "Prices stated are before GST".

Displaying both GST-inclusive & GST-exclusive prices

If both GST-inclusive and GST-exclusive price are displayed, the GST-inclusive price must be displayed at least as prominently as the GST-exclusive price.

Misleading "no GST" advertising

If you are GST-registered and intend to give a discount equal to the GST amount to the consumer, you should not advertise that there is 'no GST' for the goods or services.Such advertising is misleading as GST is included in the price after the discount, and you will still need to account for and pay the GST amount to IRAS.

Prices subject to bargaining

When the retail price is subject to bargaining, the price displayed or quoted must still be inclusive of GST.

However, the amount of GST to be accounted for by the retailer will be the tax fraction (9/109) of the final price paid by the customer.

Example 3: Display prices subject to bargaining

The price displayed is $109 for a given product. The product is subsequently sold at $90 after bargaining.

GST to be accounted for = 9/109 x $90 = $7.43

Exception to the requirement to display GST-inclusive prices

An exception is granted to hotels and food & beverage (F&B) establishments that impose service charge on their goods and services. They are not required to display GST-inclusive prices to ease their operations.

Otherwise, they may have to display separate price lists for dine-in and take-away items, or to re-compute prices whenever the establishment reduces or waives the service charge.

However, they must still display a prominent statement informing customers that the prices displayed are subject to GST and service charge.

GST is to be charged on both the amount for the service and the service fee imposed by the supplier.

Please note that the exception does not apply to hotels and F&B establishments that do not impose a service charge. It is also not applicable to F&B establishments that levy a nominal service charge without genuine business reasons other than to avoid displaying GST-inclusive prices. Such businesses are still required to display GST-inclusive prices. Those who do not comply with the price display requirement could be subject to a fine.

Common price display errors

Did you know that over 100 GST-registered businesses have fallen foul of price display regulations in the last 2 years? Watch our video as we debunk 4 common price display myths to help you comply with the price display regulations.

FAQs

Have businesses been fined for not showing GST inclusive prices to the public? Yes, businesses have been fined for up to $5,000. How is the GST calculated by businesses that impose a service charge?

The GST chargeable should be calculated based on the total price payable (inclusive of service charge).

Illustration:

Value of food and beverage	$100
10% service charge	$10
9% GST (on $110)	$9.90
Total price with GST	$119.90

Documents GST: General Guide for Businesses (PDF, 728KB) Pages Hotel and Food & Beverage