On or about 18 Feb 2022, the Minister for Finance, Mr Lawrence Wong has delivered the 2022 Budget statement which contains various measures to support businesses and individuals with job creation, incentives and tax relief measures.

Corporate tax

• Updated the corporate tax system in response to the global minimum effective tax rate under the Pillar 2 Global Anti-Base Erosion rules of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting 2.0 project, which will include a top-up tax called the minimum effective tax rate.
• The withholding tax exemption for container lease payments under operating lease agreements will be extended to 31 December 2027.
• The tax framework for facilitating corporate amalgamations will be extended to cover amalgamation of Singapore-incorporated licensed insurers where the court order for the confirmation of a scheme for the transfer of an insurance business is made on or after 1 November 2021.
• The range of withholding tax exemptions for the financial sector will be extended till 31 December 2026, with the exception of the withholding tax exemption for payments made under interest rate or currency swap transactions by financial institutions, which will be allowed to lapse after 31 December 2022.
• Insurers will use the Monetary Authority of Singapore Statutory Returns as the basis of preparing tax computations from year of assessment (YA) 2024 (or YA 2025 for insurers whose financial year end is not 31 December).
• The Income Tax Act 1947 and Goods & Services Tax Act 1993 will be amended to facilitate the disclosure of corporate taxpayers’ information by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore.

Personal tax

• Extending the withholding tax exemption for non-resident mediators to 31 March 2023.
• Extending the withholding tax exemption for non-resident arbitrators to 31 March 2023.
• From YA 2024, the top marginal personal income tax on the portion of chargeable income of resident individual taxpayers in excess of $500,000 up to $1 million will be taxed at 23%. Chargeable income in excess of $1 million will be taxed at 24%.

Tax incentives

• Extending the withholding tax exemption for ship and container lease payments under finance lease agreements for Maritime Sector Incentive award recipients to 31 December 2028.
• Extending the Aircraft Leasing Scheme to 31 December 2027.
• Extending the Approved Royalties Incentive to 31 December 2028.
• Extending the Approved Foreign Loan scheme to 31 December 2028.
• Refining the conditions imposed on investments in physical investment precious metals by funds managed by Singapore-based fund managers.
• Extending the tax exemption schemes for project and infrastructure finance to 31 December 2025.
• Lapse of the concessionary tax rate on qualifying income derived by an Infrastructure Trustee-Manager/Fund Management Company after 31 December 2022.
• Lapse of the Integrated Investment Allowance (IIA) scheme after 31 December 2022.

Goods and services tax

• From 1 January 2023, the basis for determining whether zero-rating applies to a supply of travel arranging services will be updated to be based on the place where the customer and direct beneficiary of the service belong.
• The goods and services tax (GST) rate will be increased from 7% to 8% with effect from 1 January 2023, and from 8% to 9% with effect from 1 January 2024.

Other taxes

• The property tax rates for owner-occupied residential properties will be increased for the portion of annual value in excess of $30,000 in 2 steps, starting with property tax payable in 2023.
• The property tax rates for non-owner-occupied residential properties, including investment properties, will be increased in 2 steps, starting with property tax payable in 2023.