Taxes Paid by Working Mothers for YA 2025 and YA 2026

Parliamentary Question by Ms Diana Pang Li Yen:

To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance after changing the Working Mother’s Child Relief (WCMR) from a percentage of earned income to a fixed-dollar relief from Year of Assessment (YA) 2025 and based on actual YA 2025 and 2026 data (a) what is the total additional tax paid by affected working mothers compared with the previous WMCR framework; and (b) what is the average additional tax paid per affected working mother.

Parliamentary Reply by Senior Minister of State for Finance, Mr Jeffrey Siow:

Based on Year of Assessment (YA) 2025 data, about 9,500 working mothers claimed a lower amount of WMCR under the fixed-dollar basis than they would have under the previous percentage-based basis, for children born or adopted on or after 1 January 2024. The difference in tax paid by these working mothers is about $7.5 million in total, or about $800 per person on average.  

The data for YA 2026 is not yet available.