Income Tax Act - Singapore Statutes Online

Exemption of tax on income derived by non-ordinarily resident individual

13N.—(1) Where an NOR individual is resident in Singapore in any year of assessment within the period he is an NOR individual, he may, within such time in that year of assessment and in such manner as may be specified by the Comptroller, elect for all or any of his following income to be exempt from tax for that year of assessment:

(a)

any relevant employment income for the year preceding that year of assessment, if he —

(i)	is not physically present in Singapore for at least 90 days in the year preceding that year of assessment by reason of the exercise of any employment in Singapore; and
(ii)	derives gains or profits of at least $160,000 from the exercise of any employment in Singapore for the year preceding that year of assessment;

(b)

notwithstanding section 10C(11), any contribution up to the relevant amount made by his employer to any non-obligatory pension or provident fund constituted outside Singapore in the year preceding that year of assessment, if —

(i)	he is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident of Singapore at the time such contribution is made;
(ii)	he derives gains or profits of at least $160,000 from the exercise of any employment in Singapore for the year preceding that year of assessment; and
(iii)	a deduction with respect to such contribution has not been allowed to his employer under section 14(1)(e). [37/2002; 34/2008]

(2) Where the notional tax payable on the apportioned employment income by an NOR individual who has elected for tax exemption under subsection (1) is less than 10% of the gains or profits from the exercise of any employment in Singapore by him —

(a)	the apportioned employment income shall be readjusted such that the notional tax payable on the readjusted apportioned employment income shall be 10% of the gains or profits from the exercise of any employment in Singapore by him; and
(b)	the relevant employment income shall be reduced by the difference between the readjusted apportioned employment income and the apportioned employment income. [37/2002]

(3) Any individual who satisfies any of the following criteria may apply to the Comptroller in such manner as he may determine to be approved as an NOR individual for the specified period:

(a)	if he is not resident in Singapore for any year of assessment before 1st January 2003, but is resident in Singapore for every succeeding year of assessment up to and including year of assessment 2003, for a period of 5 consecutive years from the first year of assessment in which he is resident in Singapore;
(b)	if he is resident in Singapore in year of assessment 2004, but is not resident in Singapore in year of assessment 2003, for a period of 5 consecutive years from year of assessment 2004;
(c)	if he is resident in Singapore in year of assessment 2005, but is not resident in Singapore in years of assessment 2003 and 2004, for a period of 5 consecutive years from year of assessment 2005; or
(d)	if he is resident in Singapore in any year of assessment on or after 1st January 2006, but is not resident in Singapore for all the 3 years of assessment immediately preceding that year of assessment, for a period of 5 consecutive years commencing from that year of assessment in which he is resident in Singapore. [37/2002]

(4) The Comptroller may, subject to such terms and conditions as he may impose, approve the application of an individual to be an NOR individual.

[37/2002]

(5) Where an individual has been approved as an NOR individual, no approval shall be given under subsection (4) before the expiry of the period he is an NOR individual.

[37/2002]

(5A) Where —

(a)	an individual has been approved as an NOR individual before the year of assessment 2009;
(b)	the period of his approval has not expired at the beginning of that year of assessment; and
(c)	he has had income exempted from tax under this section in force immediately before the date of commencement of section 14 of the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2008 (Act 34 of 2008) for any year of assessment between the year of assessment 2005 and the year of assessment 2008 (both years inclusive),

then the individual may, at any time at or before filing with the Comptroller a return of his income for the year of assessment 2009, elect to continue to be subject to subsections (1) and (7) in force immediately before the date of commencement of section 14 of the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2008; and in that event subsections (1) and (7) in force immediately before that date shall continue to apply to him for so long as he remains an NOR individual.

[34/2008]

(6) Any election under subsections (1) and (5A) and any approval under subsection (4) shall be irrevocable.

[37/2002; 34/2008]

(7) In this section —

“apportioned employment income”, in relation to an NOR individual, means total gains or profits from the exercise of any employment in Singapore by the NOR individual after deducting relevant employment income;

“NOR individual” means any individual who is for the time being approved as an NOR individual under subsection (4);

“notional tax payable”, in relation to gains or profits from the exercise of any employment in Singapore by an individual, apportioned employment income or readjusted apportioned employment income, as the case may be, means the amount of tax computed in accordance with the rates specified in Part A of the Second Schedule in respect of gains or profits from the exercise of any employment in Singapore by the individual, apportioned employment income or readjusted apportioned employment income, as the case may be, before any deduction under sections 37 and 39;

“obligatory” means required under any foreign written law;

“relevant amount”, in relation to an NOR individual, means —

(a)

nil if A ≥ B; or

(b)

B - A if A < B,

where A

is the total amount of contributions made by the employer in respect of the NOR individual to any obligatory pension or provident fund constituted outside Singapore and for which the amount is not deemed as income accruing to the NOR individual under section 10C(11); and

is the amount of contribution which would have been required to be made by the employer under section 7 of the Central Provident Fund Act (Cap. 36) if the NOR individual were an employee and a citizen of Singapore;

“relevant employment income”, in relation to an NOR individual, means —

where C

is the number of days in the year preceding that year of assessment for which the NOR individual is not physically present in Singapore by reason of the exercise of any employment in Singapore;

is the number of days in the year preceding that year of assessment for which the NOR individual exercises any employment in Singapore; and

is the gains or profits from the exercise of any employment in Singapore by the NOR individual referred to in section 10(2)(a), (6) and (7), but excluding —

(a)	director’s fee; and

(b)	where any amount of tax of the NOR individual payable in Singapore is borne, directly or indirectly, by his employer, the amount of tax that is so borne.

(c)	[Deleted by Act 34 of 2008]

[37/2002; 49/2004; 34/2008]

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