On 10 September 2018, the Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill 2018 was read for the second time by the Second Minister for Finance, Mr. Lawrence Wong at the Parliament.
The amendments proposed are as follows:
- To provide for stamp duty to be levied on electronic records that effect a transfer of interest in immovable properties and shares;
- To provide in the Act that the Minister can recover interest from a taxpayer who fails to comply with the remission conditions, in respect of upfront stamp duty remission that had been granted to him;
- To make amendments to Section 15 of the Act, which provides relief from stamp duty for corporate restructuring where there is no substantial change in beneficial interest of the transferred assets; and
- To make technical amendments arising from the Ministry of Finance’s periodic review to improve tax policy and administration.
The full second reading speech by Second Minister for Finance can be found at the MOF’s website.
Source: MOF, 12 September 2018