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The Ministry of Finance will be conducting a public consultation on the draft Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill 2012. This exercise will run from 20 September to 10 October 2012.

Proposed Amendments

2. The draft Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill 2012 incorporates the following tax changes:

a) Budget 2012 change – This tax change to enhance the stamp duty concession under the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Scheme was announced in the 2012 Budget Statement. The proposed amendments provide for stamp duty relief to be extended to acquisitions carried out through multiple tiers of entities, and not just through one tier of wholly-owned subsidiaries;

b) Non-budget 2012 changes – These changes are largely technical changes that arise from periodic review of the stamp duties regime. They seek to clarify existing stamp duties legislation and improve stamp duties administration:

• Extend the appeal deadline for stamp duty from the current 21 days to 30 days to align with the deadlines for other tax types such as Income Tax and Goods and Services Tax;
• Enable the Minister to make subsidiary legislations to clarify the application of specific sections of the Act when amendments are made to the First or Third Schedule;
• Clarify that stamp duty is not chargeable on a conveyance on sale of any type of property other than immovable property (such as land), stock and shares;
• Remove references to physical revenue stamps with the decommissioning of franking machines and revenue stamps after the implementation of e-stamping;
• Clarify that the reduction in Seller’s Stamp Duty on the parts of the property used for a non-prescribed purpose (i.e. purpose that is not subject to Seller’s Stamp Duty) also applies to vacant land. The reduction in Seller’s Stamp Duty does not apply to parts used temporarily for non-prescribed purpose; and
• Clarify that Rules may be made to amend stamp duty remission Orders made before 1 January 2012.

Consultation Details

3. The public can access the consultation documents and the explanations for the draft SD (Amendment) Bill 2012 on the Ministry of Finance's website (www.mof.gov.sg) and the REACH consultation portal (www.reach.gov.sg). Respondents may send their comments to the Ministry of Finance via the website, email, fax or post.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
20 SEPTEMBER 2012