Tax

Live in Johor, work in Singapore: the money rules

Three answers for Johor residents who work in Singapore: how your salary is taxed, whether to use EPF or CPF, and what it costs to send Singapore dollars home.

By Money Malaysia

Published 25 Oct 20262 min read
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If you sleep in Johor Bahru and work in Singapore, three money questions come up again and again. Each has a short answer here and a full guide behind it.

Three questions, three guides
  1. Will I be taxed twice on my salary?Usually not. Both countries can count you as a resident, but Malaysia exempts Singapore-taxed salary that you bring home.
  2. EPF or CPF?CPF applies to Singapore citizens and permanent residents. Otherwise EPF only grows if you pay in yourself, through i-Simpan.
  3. What does it cost to send money home?A fee plus a margin in the exchange rate. The cost is the gap between the mid-market rate and what lands in your account.
Each step has its own guide below.

1. Tax: two countries, one salary

Malaysia counts any part of a day spent in the country as a whole day, so a daily commuter passes its 182-day residence test easily. Singapore taxes the salary you earn there. The guide explains why that rarely means paying twice, and the one condition.

Read: Tax residency for Johor to Singapore commuters

A year of days in Singapore: the three bands
365 days in a calendar year
  • 60 days or less 60 days
  • 61 to 182 days 122 days
  • 183 days or more 183 days
Employment days in Singapore decide how your salary there is taxed. A full-time commuter normally sits in the 183-day band. Source: IRAS, Working out my tax residency. Bar widths show the band sizes in a 365-day year.

2. Retirement: EPF or CPF?

CPF contributions are payable only for Singapore citizens and permanent residents. If you are neither, you can keep saving in EPF yourself through i-Simpan, up to the RM100,000 a year that all voluntary contributions share.

Read: EPF or CPF when you work in Singapore

3. Sending money home: what it really costs

The World Bank put the average cost of sending S$260 (the equivalent of US$200) from Singapore to Malaysia at 4.59% in the third quarter of 2025. The guide shows how to work out your own cost.

Read: What it costs to send Singapore dollars to Malaysia

Cost of sending S$260 from Singapore to Malaysia
Total cost as a share of the amount sent. Shorter is cheaper.
Corridor average, Q3 20254.59%
Cheapest services, top of the 0.65% to about 1% rangebest value1.00%
Source: World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Singapore to Malaysia corridor, Q3 2025.

To see today's Singapore dollar to ringgit rate, use our SGD to MYR rate page.

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