IR8As are out. It’s tax paying season. 

If your tax payable has increased this year, congratulations! It means you have been blessed with more. 

It took me two weeks to reach this state from a very grumpy Budget non-recipient. 

Fresh era of stewardship 

For most of my life, I have been a Budget beneficiary and/or non-paying tax citizen.

At Budget this year, as a young mother, I was hopeful that they would increase the Baby Bonus. Instead, they remodelled the Working Mother Child Relief model, effectively ending the era of higher income mothers being exempted from tax. I was so upset.

“Guess the Government doesn’t care about higher income working mothers,” I grumbled to my colleagues. 

What a hypocrite I was. 

Here I was at church, saying we should do more for the low income, encouraging my members to give to the poor, saying we should be content in all circumstances.

Here I was, saying that it is a privilege to be blessed with a good income and wage, when many people work the same hours and earn less, and so it is our duty to steward this wealth to help the poor, as God instructs us too. 

And here also I was, grumbling that our Government had decided to do just that – tax the rich more, to provide more relief for the poor. 

More blessed to give

Tax is ultimately the country’s resource to help us move forward amidst challenges. 

To those of us who pay taxes, and have to pay more tax because of Budget 2023, I was reminded that it’s a privilege and blessing to pay tax.

As Paul quoted Jesus in Acts 20:35: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

And in Deuteronomy 15:10-11, God commanded: “Give generously to the needy and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

Instead of being upset that I have to pay tax, I should feel glad that the reliefs in Budget 2023 are targeted at segments that need the income, and acknowledge that I am in the more privileged segment of society that the Government is calling on, and believes has means, to contribute to nation building.

So that is how I’ve reached the happy state.

My husband and my taxes have increased this year because of a grown income. But we shall pay them with a happy heart, grateful for the income, and with a hope that it will find its way to building a better Singapore for all. 

As DPM Lawrence Wong put it: “We strive, not just for ourselves and our families, but also for those around us. Because we are also a caring, gracious, and generous people – we treat each other as equals, we respect and look out for one another, and we are ever ready to extend a helping hand to those in need.”

I end with the classic footnote from the IRAS letter that I used to read with a scoff but now find quite meaningful: “Thank you for your contribution to nation building”.

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