Summary of Responses to Public Consultation on the Draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2021

1. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) invited the public to provide feedback on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2021 from 11 June to 2 July 2021[1]. The draft Bill proposes legislative amendments to effect (i) tax measures announced in the Budget 2021 Statement on 16 February 2021; (ii) economy-wide and sector-specific measures announced by the Government in May 2021 and July 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) tax changes arising from periodic review of our income tax system and technical amendments.

2. We received feedback on the proposed legislative amendments, especially on the following tax changes:

• Provide the tax treatment for two situations: (a) trading stock is appropriated for non-trade or capital purposes, and (b) non-trade or capital asset becomes trading stock;

• Introduce a requirement for taxpayers to give a written notice to IRAS when a foreign tax authority makes a downward adjustment of foreign tax which results in the foreign tax credit previously allowed in Singapore becoming excessive; 

• Allow persons authorised by IRAS to have access to necessary IRAS records and/or documents for the audit of the administration of public schemes; and

• Introduce a provision to protect informers. The proposed provision is modelled after protection of informer provisions in other domestic legislation. It prohibits witnesses from disclosing information that may lead to the discovery of an informer’s identity, and thus encourage informers to step forward with information that will enable more effective tax enforcement. 

MOF’s responses to the key feedback on the proposed legislative amendments are in Annex A.

3. The proposed legislative changes will be incorporated into the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2021 and presented to Parliament in September 2021. We thank all individuals and organisations for your feedback.

Issued by:
Ministry of Finance
Singapore
3 September 2021 

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[1] Please refer to MOF’s press release on 11 June 2021 for the public consultation documents on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2021.