The Draft Bill 2018 to the Income Tax Bill contains several amendments that are non-Budget that can be of interest to companies. most of these refer to corporate income and, in regards to the Amendment Bill, the Ministry of Finance even conducted a recent public consultation session.
Our team of accountants in Singapore highlights the most notable non-Budget updates that concern the taxation regime for companies. They are described in the list below.
Table of Contents
Intellectual property and tax treatment updates
The following issues were changed:
- A development incentive for intellectual property: The Intellectual Property Development Incentive applies starting with July 2018 and it will be granted for a period of up to 10 years to companies that own qualifiable intellectual property rights. The calculation method for the concessionary tax rate can be explained in further detail by one of our accountants in Singapore.
- Tax treatment according to Financial Reporting Standards: Several clarifications have been made on Financial Reporting Standards 109 (Financial Instruments), 115 (Revenue from Customer Contracts) and 17, 15, 27(all referring to different aspects of Leases).
- Singapore branches that carry out a business in the city will be subject to a tax regime designed for inward re-domiciliation that will be extended to re-domiciled companies which were engaged in doing business in Singapore before the date of registration.
- The tax treatment of foreign exchange gains or losses: According to an administrative concession, revenue foreign exchange gains or losses will be either taxed or allowed for a deduction, as applicable.
New filing mechanism
Local filing mechanisms for country-by-country reports filing: this applies in those situations where a country may request a country-by-country report from an entity belonging to a multinational enterprise group. Permanent establishments in Singapore are now required to file the country-by-country reports whenever the circumstances ask for this report, and in line with the OECD reporting principles.
Our team can provide you with more details on these non-Budget changes for companies and offers a wide range of accounting services in Singapore. Contact us for more information.