MOF Received 97 Responses on Public Consultation on Draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2008

1. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has received 97 suggestions on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2008 that was put out for public consultation exercise in June-July 2008. The draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2008 contained proposed legislation to effect changes announced in Budget 2008 and other changes arising from ongoing review of our income tax system.

2. This is the sixth year that Ministry of Finance has published the draft income tax legislation for public consultation. We received more responses than in previous years. Of the 97 responses received, the issues that received the most feedback were:

(a) Incentives to encourage companies to do R&D in Singapore;
(b) Incentive to grant tax deduction for expenditure on fixtures & fitting that businesses incur on upgrading of business premises;
(c) Extension of unilateral tax credit to all foreign sourced income; and
(d) Tax exemption for family-owned investment holding companies

3. Of the 97 responses, we accepted 50 comments for implementation and have incorporated them accordingly in the revised Income Tax (Amendment) Bill. It was not possible to incorporate the remaining 47 responses. These included 31 comments on drafting aspects of the legislation which were not consistent with other parts of the Income Tax Act, and 16 which were not consistent with the intended objectives of the tax policy changes.

4. We thank all respondents in this consultation exercise. Our responses to the major comments received are also summarised on our website at www.mof.gov.sg/Public-Consultation/Public-Consultation-Open.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE