Singapore Corporate Tax Frequently Asked Questions

An investment/stock dealing company is a company whose primary business activities is to buy and sell investments or shares with a view to making a profit. The investments and shares are the trading stocks of the company. Hence any gain from the sale of these investments is taxable under S10(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act.

Yes. You can get a unilateral tax credit for the foreign taxes paid on the following income under Section 50A of the Singapore Income Tax Act:

• Income derived from any professional, consultancy and other services rendered in any territory outside Singapore.
• Dividends
• Profits derived by an overseas branch of a Singapore resident company.

For claiming the above unilateral tax credit, you must be a tax resident in Singapore and must also satisfy all other conditions set by the tax authority.

No. If during any of the first three tax years, your company incurs losses or it has no income (e.g. business has not commenced), your chargeable income and tax payable will be nil. In this case, since there is no chargeable income, your company cannot enjoy the benefit given under the tax exemption scheme for new start-up companies for that particular tax year. However, that particular tax year will still be included in determining the first three consecutive tax years.

Singapore has a flat corporate income tax rate of 17%. For annual profits of up to S$300,000, tax incentives are available that make the effective corporate tax rate below 9% provided all eligible criteria set by the authority are met.

The deadline for filing final corporate tax return in Singapore is November 30. The tax return is filed on a prior year basis i.e. you will need to file tax return for the financial year that ended in the previous calendar year.

Keep in mind however that each company is required to file an Estimated Tax Return within 3 months of the end of its financial year.

Capital gains in Singapore are tax exempt.

There is no dividend tax for Singapore companies. Once you have paid corporate income tax on the profits of your company, the post-tax profits can be distributed to shareholders tax free.

New tax incentives for Singapore start-up private limited companies have been introduced since 2005 to support entrepreneurship and to help foster growth of SMEs. Under the new scheme, a newly incorporated company that satisfies the qualifying conditions (viz. be incorporated in Singapore, and must be a tax resident of Singapore and has no more than 20 shareholders of which at least one is an individual shareholder holding at least 10% of shares) will be taxed as follows:

• For each of its first three consecutive tax years - corporate tax rate of 0% on the first S$100,000 of taxable income and approximately 8.5% effective tax rate on the next S$200,000 of taxable income. The taxable income above S$300,000 will be charged at the normal headline corporate tax rate of 17%.
• From the fourth tax year onwards - approximately 8.5% effective tax rate on taxable income of up to S$300,000 per annum. The taxable income above S$300,000 will be charged at the normal headline corporate tax rate of 17%.

For instance if your annual taxable income is S$500,000, then your effective corporate tax rate based on the exemption will be as follows:

First Three Years

Fourth Year Onwards

YA 2020 Onwards

• 75% exemption on the first $100,000 of normal chargeable income
• A further 50% exemption on the next $100,000 of normal chargeable income

The tax exemption is open to all new companies satisfying all conditions as mentioned above except for companies whose principal activity is that of investment holding and developing properties for sale, investment or both.

Post-tax company profit distribution to shareholders is normally referred as dividend income. As far as Singapore is concerned, dividends can be repatriated to shareholders' anywhere without any further tax consequences in Singapore. Whether the dividend income is taxable in the overseas shareholders' country would depend on the domestic tax laws of that country and the tax treaty between Singapore and the particular country in question.

No. Under the current one-tier corporate tax system, tax paid by a company on its chargeable income is the final tax. All dividends paid by a company are exempted from tax in the hands of the shareholders in Singapore

Yes. Every Singapore company is required to file a tax return on an annual basis. For more information, see Annual Filing Requirements for Singapore Companies.

Where your company incurs business losses in a tax year and the adjusted losses exceeded the other sources of income or where there are no other sources of income to offset the trade losses, there will be unutilised losses from the tax year. The unutilised losses can be carried forward to offset against your company's assessable income for the subsequent tax years if it satisfies the Shareholding test when there is no substantial change in its shareholders and their shareholdings as at the relevant dates as determined by authority.

Yes, that is possible. This benefit comes under the umbrella of benefits-in-kind which refers to benefits received by employees, from the employer, in non-cash form. There however are certain taxable implications on both company and employees for the benefits-in-kind provided by the company.

Generally, deductions are allowed for business expenses that are wholly and exclusively incurred in the production of income and the deduction must not be prohibited under the Income Tax Act.

For example:

• If your company pays transport allowance to the employees as part of their remuneration package, the transport allowance is a deductible expense, as it is part of staff cost whose directly working with the company.
• Motor vehicle expenses for foreign registered cars used exclusively outside Singapore are deductible if the expenses are incurred for business purposes.

Note however that many of these benefits may have tax implications on the employee side.

Royalty income is the income received for the right to use copyrights, patents and trademarks. Royalty income accruing in or derived from Singapore as well as earned from outside Singapore and received in Singapore, is taxable.