Revenue and Taxation Rates for Foreign Companies with Profit Margins of Above 10%

Parliamentary Question by Mr Louis Chua Kheng Wee:

To ask the Minister for Finance (a) what is the assessed (i) total revenue (ii) profit before tax (iii) corporate income tax paid and (iv) average effective tax rate for foreign companies whose profit margins are above 10% in the most recent year of assessment; and (b) what is the number of such foreign companies.

Parliamentary Reply by Minister for Finance, Mr Lawrence Wong:

Based on IRAS data available for the Year of Assessment (YA) 2019, the total revenue of companies whose profit margins are above 10% is S$802 billion. Their profit before tax and corporate income tax paid were S$542 billion and S$11 billion respectively. Their effective tax rate, as measured by corporate tax divided by chargeable income, was 4.6% for YA 2019. 

There are in total about 52,000 such companies with profit margins above 10% for YA 2019. We do not differentiate corporate tax treatment based on the nationality of the business owner. This is in line with the reciprocal obligation under tax treaties for non-discrimination of companies. As IRAS does not track corporate taxpayers based on their ownership, we are unable to provide further breakdown of this data for foreign-owned companies.