The Singapore Budget 2018 and 2019 included several GST policy changes such as lowered GST relief and duty-free alcohol limit for travellers which took effect immediately while others were kick in 2020 and later.
In Budget 2018, the following were the changes:
- GST will increase by 2% points
- GST will be imposed on digital services, and
- GST will be imposed on imported goods purchased online.
GST will increase by 2 percentage points, from 7% to 9% some time between 2021 – 2025, and the GST treatment for online goods will remain until further notice.
From 1 January 2020, GST will apply on all imported digital services purchased from overseas providers that have a global annual turnover of greater than $1 million and make sales of at least $100,000 in Singapore.
The GST bill amendment on imported digital services will be effective from 1 January 2020. “Imported digital services” mostly refers to services consumers purchase online from overseas brands. The types of taxable digital services include music streaming, video streaming, gaming subscriptions, software programs, downloadable content and data management services.
For consumers, prices are likely to go up by 7%; however, this depends on company to company. For business-to-business (B2B) imported services, a reverse charge system is employed where instead of the overseas providers the local GST-registered businesses have to collect and pay GST for the services they import.
Singapore seeks to level the playing field of digital services not paying GST and also factored in the unfairness of local service providers having to pay an extra 7% in taxes. The GST treatment for online goods remains uncertain.
Source: Asia Online, 19 December 2019