As freelancers here in Singapore, we often have to purchase goods/services online which are often not priced in Singapore Dollars.

So how then do we account for it in our yearly tax declaration to IRAS?

According to the folks:

These amounts [price] in Singapore dollars may be shown separately beside their respective amount in foreign currency on your tax invoice. In your GST return, you should report the amounts in Singapore dollars shown in your tax invoice for “value of standard-rated supplies” and “output tax due”.

Examples of the approved exchange rates are exchange rates published by local banks or locally circulated newspaper. This exchange rate must be updated at least once every three months and be used consistently for internal business reporting, accounting and GST purposes. The source must also be used consistently for at least one year from the end of the accounting period in which the method was first used.

So in summary, make sure you choose a source to determine how your currency exchange rate is going to be and keep checking back every 3 months to update your rates. You also should not change your source for at least a year.

If you’re into computing history, this is quite interesting look into the mind of Jobs at a time when Apple was just getting pretty famous. (Apple II)

Notice how the Steve Jobs of 1980 contradicts the Steve Jobs of the iPod-era in philosophy.

Came across this little 70 page comic by the talented Claudio Perrone. Light, fun and informative. Creative storytelling.

In 2009 as part of SMU’s Technology Study Mission (TSM), my peers and I left for a 10 day trip to Israel to study their VC/Startup industry to figure out how we can replicate their success as a Startup Nation here in Singapore. We spoke to government officials, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs during the trip.

The following posts in this series are my verbatim account from notes taken during the trip.

Israel
  1. Knows how to assimilate the experience of soldiers into entrepreneur economy
  2. self-resilience (ethos to survive)
  3. Resource-lack (no oil)
  4. Think Global!
      Singapore has same labour fource as Israel
  5. Israel selects the best students (exam) before they enlist to join R&D units
  6. Singapore needs to learn to encourage innovators to start their own business.
      Singaporeans need to learn to take the risk.
  7. Israel has strong government support
          - Incubators
          - Heznek (Government matches foreign funds)
  8. Israelis like to argue and ask why? <- flat hierarchy

My business cards are in!

I actually got this a couple of days ago but things have been really busy for me and I haven’t had the time to post it up. So here it goes! (Bonus: Try to scan the QR Code)

Update: I’ve noticed that I’ve made a serious error on the name card. I made a typo on the most important part of the name card. The website URL. Thankfully I’ve only gave out this batch of name card to friends.

Came across this slide deck on “Bootstrapping a Software Product” via Hackernews today. Pretty informative stuff
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