live in Singapore, work in Malaysia

[ian 66]

I may have he opportunity to move from UK to Singapore.
The company in question has an office in Singapore and a workshop in Pasir Gudang.
If I get the job my family and I will live in Singapore but much of my work will be performed in Malaysia.
I would imagine I would exceed the non-residence minimum days in both countries. Since Singapore tax is the lowere of the two, does anyone know if I can manage it so I pay Singapore and not Malaysia tax.

My second question: is it practical/possible to live in Singapore and travel to and from Pasir Gudong most working days?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Strong Eagle]

If you want to live in Singapore, then you need an employment pass to give you official residence. With your official residence being Singapore, you can travel for business and not be in violation of the 183 day rule.

You must be paid in Singapore, file your tax returns in Singapore, etc.

I can't comment on the Malaysian side of things. Sooner or later they will want to know why you are a daily commuter, and personally I think you will get dead tired of making a border crossing twice a day.

[SunWuKong]

On the physical side of things, getting to Gudang Pasir (≈40km) is not intimidating so long as you have a car.

As for Malaysian requirements, if the words of my wife are to be believed, then many Singaporeans actually live permanently in Johor Baru without any special arrangements. I think that the only requirement is that they chop their passport at least once a month.

[ian 66]

Thanks for the information Strong Eagle.

I tend to agree with you about the daily commute.

I only have the most basic of facts on this job. With a bit of luck most of the time will require to be spent in the Singapore office.

I have a meeting with the company in 8days time so will get some details then.

I guess I should wait to find out more about the job before worrying about this type of issue but we have young children therefore I feel I should be anticipating any potential problems, but my wife and I are extremely keen to return to Singapore.

Lets see what happens!

[ScoobyDoes]

One thing you don't want to be be doing is the commute in the other direction, JB to Singapore.......thousands to that daily as I am sure you would be aware and it's not fun.

Going the other way is a lot easier and let's say you live in Northern Singapore, around Woodlands for example then getting to Pasir Gudang could be a 45-60min trip. We do it early in the morning as well sometimes to either go golfing or shopping and it's fine.

The thing that annoys me most is coming back into Singapore and having to suffer SG customs. They, and the road/passage layout are the botteneck.....it's great having so many counters and staff to check your passport and do customs clearance BUT when you then try to squeeze each and every car through a single lane exit it kinda fries your brain.

[wcs]

If he is holding Singapore residence, would he have to be using a Singapore registered vehicle to do the daily trip to Malaysia?

[ian 66]

Thanks all for taking the time to comment.

I will meet someone from the company tomorrow so I hope to get more detail.

It sounds like the journey is workable (although ideally time will be split between Singapore office and Malaysia).
Since the company has expats working for them already then they must have somebody clued up with all the tax implications.