Visa holders · From Singapore
Share gains Singapore spares stay tax-free only until you finish moving to the US from Singapore. Taxes then fall on the whole gain when you sell.
Singapore generally taxes neither gains on shares nor income from abroad, so gain built up there often meets its first tax in the US. With no US-Singapore tax treaty, only the US foreign tax credit and Singapore’s own rules relieve double tax.
Updated · Sources
Your move from Singapore
- 50%
- of an SRS lump sum is taxable in Singapore for a foreigner who has held the account at least 10 years.
- $100,000
- is the Form 3520 threshold for gifts and bequests in a year from people who are not US citizens or residents. Neither counts as US income.
- 1 month
- is how far ahead an employer generally files Form IR21 before a foreign employee, or a permanent resident leaving for good, stops work.
Form 3520 applies once you are a US resident. IR21 applies while you still work in Singapore. An earlier SRS withdrawal is fully taxable, plus a 5% penalty.
What does the US look at when you arrive from Singapore?
You are now a resident alien
A green card, or enough days under the substantial presence test, turns you into a resident alien for US tax. As a nonresident before that, you generally pay US tax only on US income. As a resident, your income from Singapore is US-taxable too.
You hold unit trusts or funds based in Singapore
A unit trust or fund based in Singapore is usually a passive foreign investment company (PFIC) under US rules. Without a qualified electing fund (QEF) or mark-to-market election, its gains and excess distributions face the highest US rate plus an interest charge. You generally file a separate Form 8621 for each fund, every year you hold it. You can skip the form for a fund with no election in a year with no excess distribution or gain. That applies only while your PFIC holdings total $25,000 or less at year end, or $50,000 on a joint return.
Your Singapore accounts pass the FBAR threshold
Once your Singapore bank, brokerage and mutual fund accounts together pass the FBAR threshold, every one of them goes on the FBAR. Form 8938 joins your return above $50,000 of foreign assets on December 31, or $75,000 on any day of the year. Joint filers use $100,000 and $150,000.
You have CPF or SRS savings
The US treatment of a CPF account is unsettled, with no IRS guidance on it. It may count as foreign social security, which Form 8938 leaves out, or as a foreign pension, which Form 8938 covers. Funds held inside SRS still need Form 8621, because without a treaty SRS gets no pension exception.
The date you sell your Singapore shares decides how much of the gain the US taxes.
Sold the week before
$0
You are still a nonresident alien, so the gain generally falls outside US tax.
Sold the week after
$60,000
The price is the same, but the whole gain from your Singapore years is now taxable in the US.
Sold for $110,000 later
$80,000
The US counts the growth on both sides of the move.
Each figure is the sale price minus the $30,000 you paid, which Section 1012 makes your US cost. US law does not reset that cost to market value when you arrive. Singapore generally does not tax gains on shares, so these sales usually leave no Singapore tax for the foreign tax credit to offset. No US rate is applied, because the rate depends on how long you held the shares and on your bracket. The figures are in US dollars and assume the exchange rate did not move. Units in a Singapore unit trust would usually fall under the PFIC rules instead.
Where do Singapore’s tax rules and the US rules part ways?
The US column applies from your residency starting date.
| Singapore | United States | |
|---|---|---|
| Gains on shares | Generally not taxed Trading gains may be | Taxed On the gain since you bought |
| Who counts as resident | 183 days in a year Of stay or work, for a foreigner | 183 weighted days Over three years, with 31 this year, or a green card that year |
| Social security | CPF Citizens and permanent residents only | Social Security and Medicare On US pay, with no agreement to exempt it |
| Unvested share awards | Usually taxed when you leave Deemed realised at IR21 tax clearance | Taxed later Usually when they vest or you exercise |
Where do people moving from Singapore lose money?
Selling in Singapore after an early US visit
In a year you meet the substantial presence test, the US treats you as resident from your first US day that year. A sale back in Singapore after even a short early visit is then taxed by the US. Up to 10 days of visits can be dropped from that start date if you sign a statement. It must say your tax home and closer ties stayed in Singapore. A single visit longer than 10 days counts in full.
Counting on a treaty tie-breaker
No tie-breaker can make you a nonresident for US tax, because Singapore has no treaty with the US. At 183 counted days in the US in a year, you are a resident for that year, wherever your home is. Below 183, the closer connection exception may keep you a nonresident. It needs a Singapore tax home all year, closer ties to Singapore and a timely Form 8840. Any step toward a green card that year, such as an employer’s petition, rules it out.
Taking money out of SRS early
An SRS withdrawal before the retirement age that applied when you first contributed is generally fully taxable in Singapore, plus a 5% penalty. From that age, only half of each withdrawal is taxable. A foreigner can instead withdraw everything at once, half taxable and with no penalty. This needs 10 years since your first contribution, and 10 straight years without Singapore citizenship or permanent residence.
Filing Form 3520 late for a family gift
Filing Form 3520 late costs 5% of a foreign gift’s value for each month, up to 25%, unless you show reasonable cause. Gifts from related people, such as both parents, are added together toward the Form 3520 threshold. Qualified tuition or medical bills your parents pay directly to the school or provider do not count.
A move from Singapore adds US forms, and we prepare them with your return.
Valim is a US CPA firm, so we prepare only the US side of your move from Singapore.
- We prepare your arrival-year return and every US return after it, leaving your Singapore return to any accountant you use there.
- We report your Singapore accounts on the FBAR, plus Form 8938 above its thresholds, and file Form 8621 for any unit trust that requires one. Each account and unit trust you enter in the instant quote is priced into your fee.
- We help you choose what to sell in Singapore before your residency begins, keeping that gain generally outside US tax. If you are married, we also weigh electing a joint return for your first year against filing dual-status, as part resident and part nonresident.
- We schedule estimated payments for gains on Singapore shares sold after you arrive.
- Our reply is in the fee when the IRS or your state writes about a return we prepared. That includes a letter asking when your residency began.
- Individual return
- from $195
- Business return
- from $495
We quote a flat fee before work starts. We do not bill hourly.
Questions about tax on a move from Singapore to the US.
Does Singapore have a tax treaty with the USA?
No, so a new US resident from Singapore gets no treaty rates, no student or pension articles, and no tie-breaker. Funds held in SRS also get no pension exception from the PFIC rules. Tax you pay Singapore can still reduce your US tax through the foreign tax credit, within its limits.
What is the 183-day rule in Singapore?
Singapore’s 183-day rule taxes a foreigner as a resident on a year’s income after 183 days of stay or work there that year. A foreigner who stays or works in Singapore for three consecutive years is also a resident. The US counts days its own way, under the substantial presence test. Americans living in Singapore meet the same 183-day rule from the other side.
How do Singaporean taxes compare to those in the US?
Singapore taxes a narrower slice of your income than the US. Since the Year of Assessment 2024, residents pay 0% to 24%, and most gains and income from abroad go untaxed. The US taxes a resident on income from every country, including gains on Singapore shares. Singapore unit trusts usually fall under the US PFIC rules, which can tax them more heavily than ordinary capital gains. On US pay, Social Security and Medicare apply as well, and no agreement with Singapore exempts you.
Is my Singapore income still taxed there after I move?
Yes, Singapore still taxes you, but generally only on income from Singapore once you are a non-resident. Pay for work done in Singapore is taxed at a flat 15% or the resident rates, whichever gives more tax. Income from abroad generally stays untaxed there, even when paid into a Singapore bank. SRS withdrawals remain taxable in Singapore, and tax is withheld when a permanent resident or foreigner withdraws. Where the US taxes the same income, the foreign tax credit can offset what you paid Singapore.
What happens to my CPF account when I move to the US?
Moving to the US does not close your CPF account while you remain a Singapore citizen or permanent resident. Once you give up that status, you can close it and move the savings to your bank. If you do not, the account closes itself the next month, and its savings stop earning CPF interest. They earn bank-like interest instead until March 31, 2027. No IRS ruling says how the US treats a CPF account, so the answer is unsettled.
Sources
- IRS, United States income tax treaties, A to Z
- Social Security Administration, US international social security agreements
- IRS, Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
- 26 U.S.C. § 1012, Basis of property: cost
- 26 U.S.C. § 102, Gifts and inheritances
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8621 (Rev. December 2025)
- IRS, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8938 (Rev. November 2021)
- IRS, Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. December 2025)
- IRAS, Individual income tax rates (tax residency and rates)
- IRAS, Gains from sale of property, shares and financial instruments
- IRAS, Income received from overseas
- IRAS, Tax clearance for non-Singapore citizen employees
- IRAS, Tax on SRS withdrawals
- CPF Board, Closing your account when you leave Singapore
Reviewed and updated September 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.