SRS Tax Savings for a $150,000 Income Earner in Singapore

At $150,000 chargeable income, a 40-year-old Singapore citizen or PR is in the 15% bracket. Contributing the full $15,300 SRS cap saves an estimated $2,295 in income tax this year, cutting the effective tax rate from 8.3% to 6.8%. The figures assume $150,000 is chargeable income (after CPF relief and other reliefs), stays flat, and the full cap is contributed every year.

The whole $15,300 comes off income taxed at 15%, so every dollar contributed saves 15 cents of tax.

Contributing every year from age 40 to 64, the penalty-free age for anyone making a first SRS contribution from 1 July 2026, and investing at an assumed 5% annual return, grows the account to an estimated $714,925: $367,200 of contributions and $347,725 of investment gains. Left in cash at typical SRS interest of about 0.05%, most of those gains disappear.

Withdrawn evenly over 10 years from 64, that is $71,492 a year, of which half ($35,746) is taxable. That costs about $401 a year, an effective 0.6% on each withdrawal, against the 15.0% marginal rate saved on the way in. Total withdrawal tax comes to roughly $4,011.

Over 24 years of contributions, total tax saved is about $55,080. After withdrawal tax, SRS itself leaves you roughly $51,069 better off. The investment gains are not really an SRS benefit: Singapore does not tax capital gains, so you would earn similar returns investing the same money outside SRS, without the lock-up until 64.