Summary of Responses to Public Consultation on the Draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2022

1.     The Ministry of Finance (“MOF”) invited the public to provide feedback on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2022 from 8 June to 6 July 2022[1]. The draft Bill proposes legislative amendments to the Income Tax Act 1947 (“ITA”) to effect (i) tax measures announced in the Budget 2022 Statement on 18 February 2022; and (ii) changes arising from the periodic review of our tax system and technical amendments.

2.     We have received feedback on the proposed legislative amendments, which includes the following tax changes:

- Enhance the progressivity of Personal Income Tax (“PIT”) of tax-resident individual taxpayers, and align the tax rates of non-tax-resident individual taxpayers to the revised top marginal PIT rate for tax-resident individuals;

- Facilitate disclosure of company-related information for official duties;

- Streamline provisions on the Board of Review (“BOR”) and empower BOR chairpersons with discretion to convene a one-member coram, instead of the default three-member coram, for BOR hearings; and

- Amend the definition of “local employee” under section 37O of the ITA to recognise central hiring and secondment arrangements under the Mergers & Acquisitions (“M&A”) Scheme.

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 2022 and presented to Parliament in September 2022. We thank all individuals and organisations for your feedback.

Issued by:
Ministry of Finance
Singapore
2 September 2022 

[1] Please refer to MOF’s press release on 8 June 2022 for the public consultation documents on the draft Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2022.