housing allowance / No benefits / salaries

[PIEMONTE67]

Hi .

On my way to sinagpore !!

Looking for oppinions from all you people already working in Sinagpore

Received 2 offer from a Bank for the same job.Both Expat Terms
They pay for relocation , trips and pension in home country, settlement allow ance in both offers. It is up to me to choose .
The first offer based on a combination of home conditions and local conditions .
Second offer based on local conditions

Im single.
no kids

1.salary + housing allowance + school for children

2. Salary and no benefits ( healt ins, settlement allowance incl )

The salary 2 nd offer is still 20 % higher than the total of first package

Obviously I will opt for 2 nd. Whats the logic here ...
Does the employer pay tax on the benefits ? is is cheaper for them to pay
out just the salary as one sum ?

Appreciate any thoughts and feed back !

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP.

[margt]

It all depends on how much housing allowance you are being offered on option 1. Prices are quite steep here and you could well find yourself spending in excess on $70,000 per year on a lease. I doubt your 20% increase on option 2 amounts to $70,000 and school for kids is not cheap either. So consider your options carefully before deciding. Benefits such as these are also taxable, added onto your salary and taxed accordingly.

[PIEMONTE67]

It all depends on how much housing allowance you are being offered on option 1. Prices are quite steep here and you could well find yourself spending in excess on $70,000 per year on a lease. I doubt your 20% increase on option 2 amounts to $70,000 and school for kids is not cheap either. So consider your options carefully before deciding. Benefits such as these are also taxable, added onto your salary and taxed accordingly.

Thank you for your help and oppinion .

With the 20% increase I meant that the option 2 package ( no housing allowance / no school fees ) is 20 % higher than the total of option 1 "salary and allowance added togheter ". One the first package they are offering a salary based on my home country, on the second one its a local
salary which is much higher which works in my favor..If I choose the local salary I dont have the housing allowance .For me its obviously more interesting the second package ( No housing allowance ).
I will consider carefully. Thank your for your help.
I have already seen some appartment prices and you are right its EXPENSIVE.

[Gilly]

It looks likely that my job will be relocating to Singapore from another Asian country, unless I decide to look at other opportunities within the company. Either way we have to move from current country.

I'm fairly open to Singapore as we have a small child and the city is cleaner and with less language barriers.

I would need a car, and having looked at many sites, I know this will be more expensive, but can't find a site with yearly rates for a variety of vehicle options. I'm not sure if I can get a company car when I renogotiate my package. If not, can anyone help me find the annual cost of leasing a new SUV or estate car?

Same for housing, I can't find many good property search sites, which I'm very surprised about considering how advanced Singapore is supposed to be. Any help will be much appreciated.

[hedgehunter]

I have found that they hardly use the internet at all here.

In fact, most property and cars are advertised in the paper each day with a 50 page Saturday special which everyone uses when looking for a place to buy/rent cars and homes - very backward I know!

Shopping on-line is virtually unheard of because the number 1 pass time of Singaporeans is shopping in malls - which incidently you find everywhere. Then again, the internet speeds here are so crap it's no wonder everything is done via the newspaper. Go to google.com.sg and try and search for car leasing and you'll only find a couple of sites and crap ones at that.

Singapore is probably the only developed country eBAY still cannot crack!

[Gilly]

Thanks HH. I'll try to see if the Straits has an online version and check out their classifieds for an idea on car leasing.
I thought Singapore had a good internet setup. I've obviously been misinformed.

[Jens]

If you want a decent condo you're gonna pay around 2.5 - 3.5k outside the central areas nowadays. So if the housing allowance covers that, you have to recalculate, how much it is gonna be.

It is a bit like poker...go with the housing allowance and the rentals might even get higher, then you're lucky....if not....then...mmm..

[Hoista]

Singapore is probably the only developed country eBAY still cannot crack!

ebay failed in japan as well.