Skip to main content

Portable medical benefits for employees

As an employer, you can qualify for tax deductions or exemptions by implementing portable medical benefits. These schemes will enable your employees to keep their medical benefits should they change jobs.

What are portable medical benefits

Portable medical benefits are medical benefits that employees can bring with them if they change employers. This is different from non-portable medical benefits, which are lost when employees stop working or change employers.

Incentives

If you implement any of the 3 portable medical schemes, you will get a higher tax deduction for medical expenses of total employees’ remuneration. The normal tax deduction limit is 1%.

The amount of tax-deductible medical expenses, together with other tax-deductible expenses incurred, will be deducted against your income in determining your taxes payable.

How it works

You can choose from 3 portable medical benefits options for your employees:

  • Portable Medical Benefits Scheme (PMBS)
  • Transferable Medical Insurance Scheme (TMIS)
  • Providing a Shield plan

Tax deduction for ad-hoc MediSave contributions

To encourage ad-hoc MediSave contributions, you can get an additional tax deduction beyond the 1% limit for the amount of ad-hoc MediSave contributions you make, even if you are not adopting any of the portable medical benefits schemes.

Additional contributions are subject to a limit of $2,730 per employee per year.

Overall tax deductions for medical expenses are subject to an overall cap of 2%. These contributions are tax-free for employees.

If you wish to make additional MediSave contributions for your employees, you need to apply for a new CPF Submission Number (CSN) with the Employer and Accounts Management Section of CPF Board.

Find out more

For more info, read the related questions on portable medical benefits.

Contact the following Government bodies for further enquiries:

Note that airtime charges apply for mobile calls to 1800 service lines.