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1. The Ministry of Finance is seeking comments on
the draft Income Tax (Amendment)
Bill 2007 which sets out the legislative amendments
to the Income Tax Act. We invite you to contribute
comments on the amendments that have an impact on you.
Your views are important as they would help improve
the draft legislation.
2. The draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2007 incorporates
amendments to the Income Tax Act relating to the following
tax changes:
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a.
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Budget 2007 tax changes. These are the
tax changes announced by Second Minister for
Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam in his Budget
2007 Statement. Some of the highlights of the
tax changes are:
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Reduction in corporate income tax rate
to 18% with effect from the year of assessment
2008;
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Partial tax exemption for the first $300,000
of a company’s chargeable income
with effect from the year of assessment
2008; and
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Tax exemption for registered charities
without the need to satisfy any spending
condition, with effect from the year of
assessment 2008.
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b.
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Other tax changes. These are changes
or refinements to existing tax policies and administration
resulting from on-going reviews of the income
tax system. Some examples include:
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Deferral of section 19A capital allowance
claims;
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Amendment to eligibility criteria for
Parenthood Tax Rebate and Working Mother’s
Child Relief;
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Enhancement and refinement of tax transparency
treatment for Real Estate Investment Trusts.
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3. The summary table lists all the
tax changes and explains the amendments to the Income
Tax Act.
4. The aim of this exercise is to obtain feedback
on areas of the draft legislation that could be improved
in terms of clarity or compliance by taxpayers. For
the Budget 2007 tax changes, we are primarily seeking
feedback on the drafting of the legislation as the
policies have been adopted after feedback and extensive
debate in Parliament. For non-Budget 2007 tax changes,
we welcome comments on both the policy and drafting
aspects of the proposed legislative amendments.
5. We hope to obtain feedback on the draft Income
Tax (Amendment) Bill 2007. We seek your full support
to ensure that the consultation exercise is productive
and focused. Respondents are requested to follow
these guidelines:
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Please identify yourself as well as the organisation
you represent (if any) so that we may follow
up to clarify any issues, if necessary.
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Make your comments clear and concise.
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c.
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Please use the prescribed
template provided to help us understand
your feedback better.
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d.
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Your comments should focus on how the legislative
amendments can be better written to make them
clearer and to make compliance easier.
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e.
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Please explain your points with illustrations,
examples, data or alternative formulations
of the amendments as far as possible.
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6. This draft legislation is released only for the
purpose of consultation and should therefore not
be used for individual or business decisions as it
does not represent the final legislation or regulations.
All comments received during the consultation exercise
will be reviewed thoroughly and, if accepted, will
be incorporated in the Bill for introduction in Parliament.
7. The draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2007
is available for public consultation from 15
June to 14 July 2007. Comments received by the Ministry
after 14 July 2007 will not be considered as they
will be too late for incorporation into the final
Bill.
8. Please send us your comments, using the prescribed
template, by:
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email to pc_itabill@mof.gov.sg;
or
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fax to 6337 4134; or
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c.
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Ministry of Finance
100
High Street, #10-01
The
Treasury
Singapore
179434 |
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We particularly encourage comments through the
prescribed template or by email as they will reach
us faster and speed up the process of consideration.
9. We will publish on the Ministry of Finance
website a summary of the main comments we receive
together with our responses by September 2007.
The summary will not disclose the identity of respondents,
and will not separately address or acknowledge
every comment received.
10. For your convenience, the relevant documents
relating to this public consultation exercise can
be downloaded for further reference. Please click here.
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