More than 1,600 tax agents will get subsidies for training courses under the fund set up to encourage more tax professionals to hone their expertise.

The beneficiaries will be small tax-agent firms, which may not have the resources to put all their staff through structured training, unlike the big four accounting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young.

The initiative is a joint effort of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS).

They are recognising the need to help all tax agents get access to essential training such as courses in goods and services tax (GST) and income tax.

They will offer subsidies ranging from 15 per cent to 65 per cent for basic and intermediate GST and income tax courses offered by the Tax Academy.

Iras will contribute $1 million to offer subsidies of 50 per cent for tax-agent firms with 50 staff or less. These firms have about 3,200 tax professionals in all.

ICPAS will contribute an additional $300,000 to offer subsidies of 15 per cent for its members, regardless of whether they are small or large companies.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.