Amendments to the tax legislation in Singapore

26.07.2012 The global recession affected one of the most stable Asian economies: on July, 24 in Singapore public hearings regarding the changes in tax legislation were held. The main amendments are expected to affect primarily small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, calculation of income tax, and there will be also changes in the budget for 2012.
Finance Ministry is trying to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises: such companies are assumed to be provided by the government for a grant in amount of 3970 dollars, in order to compensate the companies for recent increases in the costs of doing business.
Remind that the disbursements of the companies rose after the tax law reform, which leads Singapore to be removed from the offshore jurisdictions list OECD. On May, 2012 the company - residents of Singapore were required to render a more detailed financial report.
However, despite the tightening of legislation related to the desire of Singapore to comply with international standards, the recent changes aimed yet at increasing the attractiveness of Singapore for foreign investors and at improving business transparency, according to Finance Minister Lim Hng Kiang,

Expert’s opinion

Economists reckon Singapore to the "Asian Tigers" for the rapid improvement of the economy to the level of developed countries. However, such reviews are not saved Singapore from the outflow of capital due to amendments to the tax legislation. What is the reason for these changes? Singapore is not original: the desire to take a solid niche, not only among Asian economies, but also throughout the world, so the Government is inserting amendments to the legislation in order to comply with OECD standards. The amazing thing: OECD includes 34 countries, that define economic policies all over the world, including countries that are not  in the OECD. Should we try to meet the standards of the organization, which changes its mind on a monthly basis? Singapore authorities apparently believe that «the game is worth the candle» Well, we’ll see, if it would lead to a rapid drop in the country's economical performance.

On the basis: http://tax-news.com/

Julia Nepomnyaschikh ( the paralegal of Moscow office of Honest & Brigh)