Insights

Mr Heng Swee Keat, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, delivered the Fortitude Budget on 26 May 2020, a week before transiting into Phase 1 of the post COVID-19 circuit breaker measures.

As we are aware that the COVID -19 pandemic has had business make significant changes in the way they operate which will directly impact revenues and profits of an organization. Considering the cross border nature of global operations, any such adverse impact on revenues and profits of an organization would have transfer pricing related consequences. With this in mind, our tax leaders take this opportunity to discuss in detail some of these transfer pricing issues emanating from such business slowdowns as well as guide you on potential and practical resolution matters.

The COVID-19 outbreak since the start of 2020 has had an impact on almost all entities either directly or indirectly. Some of the worst-hit sectors are aviation, hospitality, and retail with more and more sectors coming under its radar with widespread lockdowns being enforced across the world. This webinar identifies key financial reporting areas that entities need to consider when determining the impact on their business, and on the results, financial position and disclosures in their financial statements.

Think of COVID-19 what you will, there is no doubt that the reactions to it by various governments around the world are going to have massive, possibly unprecedented, economic implications in due course.

We cover the 3 budgets the Singapore Finance Minister has delivered in the recent months. These measures will ease cash flow for companies, allow more time to meet compliance obligations, and provide clarity on permanent establishment and tax residency issues.

This article sets out four key areas of your tax provision that could be affected by the impacts of COVID-19.

Mr Heng Swee Keat, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, delivered the Solidarity Budget on 6 April 2020, the day before the COVID-19 circuit breaker measures commenced.

Whilst Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng announced an estimate of nearly $60bn worth of welcome measures to support the economy through the Covid-19 pandemic in the “Resilience” and “Solidarity” budgets, many businesses will still be seeking further ways to reduce costs and improve their overall cashflow position.

Capital gains in Singapore are not taxed. This means that the distinction between whether a profit is on capital account or on revenue or trading account becomes critical.

Is your business substantially involved with the import and export of goods? Are you unnecessarily paying import GST and having to wait to file your GST return before you claim input tax credit for the import GST paid to Singapore Customs?

We have created a handy guide of Singapore Tax facts, to keep you up to date.

Transfer pricing during economic slowdown

In the light of the long (long) awaited birth of the Singapore Variable Capital Company (VCC) in January 2020, it seems like an appropriate time to do a round-up of where we are with the various options now available for structuring a fund that is managed from Singapore.

For Singapore citizens based overseas, the lapse of non-resident tax election means a potential exposure to Singapore income tax if they travel to Singapore for any business purposes.

The OECD’s latest proposals on taxing digital business pull back from the radical roadmap put forward in May to something much closer to the January policy note by proposing a modified residual profit split with benchmarking of routine profits. What then do the latest OECD proposals say, what do they leave open and what are the risks that need to be addressed?

The Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR) scheme was unexpectedly withdrawn from Singapore’s 2019 budget this year, effectively ending the most attractive incentive for foreign nationals with cross-border responsibilities to relocate to Singapore.