Press Releases

82 Suggestions received on the Draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2013

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) received 82 suggestions on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2013 during the two public consultation exercises held from 17 June - 7 July 2013 and 18 July - 31 July 2013. The first exercise relates to the tax changes announced at Budget 2013 as well as other non-Budget related changes, while the second exercise was on changes to our exchange of information (EOI) regime.

2. Twenty-six suggestions were accepted and will be incorporated into the revised Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2013. The remaining suggestions were not accepted for implementation as they were inconsistent either with the legislative drafting conventions or the policy objectives of the proposed legislative changes.

Draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2013

3.  The draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2013 contains proposed legislation to put into effect the tax changes announced at Budget 2013, changes to our EOI regime that were announced in May 2013, as well as other changes arising from the periodic review of the income tax system. Most of the feedback received were on the following tax changes:

- Deduction for Hotel Refurbishment Expenditure
- Enhancement to the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme
- Provision of a PIC Bonus
- Rationalisation of the Start-Up Tax Exemption (SUTE) scheme
- Alignment of definitions under Section 26 of the Income Tax Act with the Insurance Act
- Enhancements to Singapore’s framework for international tax cooperation, also known as the exchange of information (EOI) regime.

A summary of the key comments received and MOF’s responses is at Annex (198 KB).

4. MOF would like to thank all respondents for their comments.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
13 SEPTEMBER 2013