Income Tax (Amendment) Act 1994 - Singapore Statutes Online

REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE

ACTS SUPPLEMENT

Published by Authority

NO. 10]

Friday, September 16

[1994

The following Act was passed by Parliament on 25th August 1994 and assented to by the President on 2nd September 1994:—

Income Tax (Amendment) Act 1994

(No. 11 of 1994)

I assent.

ONG TENG CHEONG

President.

2nd September 1994.

Date of Commencement: 16th September 1994

An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (Chapter 134 of the 1994 Revised Edition).

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

Short title and commencement

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 1994.

(2) Section 9 shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1st January 1993.

(3) Sections 2 and 19 shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1st January 1994.

(4) Section 5 shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1st March 1994.

(5) Sections 18 and 22 shall come into operation on 1st January 1995.

(6) Sections 14 and 15 shall have effect for the year of assessment 1994 and subsequent years of assessment.

(7) Sections 3, 6(b), 8, 12(c) and (d), 13(a), 17 and 21 shall have effect for the year of assessment 1995 and subsequent years of assessment.

Amendment of section 2

2. Section 2(1) of the Income Tax Act (referred to in this Act as the principal Act) is amended by inserting, immediately after the definition of “resident in Singapore”, the following definition:

“ “return” includes an electronic return under section 71A;”.

Amendment of section 10

3. Section 10 (4) of the principal Act is amended by deleting paragraph (a) and substituting the following paragraph:

“(a)	a Singapore ship which is owned by a shipping enterprise whose income is exempt from tax under section 13A at the time the balancing charge falls to be made in respect of the Singapore ship; or”.

Amendment of section 10C

4. Section 10C of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (1), the following subsection:

“(1A) Notwithstanding subsection (1)(a), where in any year from 1st January 1994 contributions obligatory by reason of a contract of employment are made by any relevant employer to the Central Provident Fund in respect of overseas ordinary wages or overseas additional wages paid to an employee in that year, that part of such contributions up to the relevant amount shall not be deemed to be income accruing to the employee.”; and

(b)

by inserting, immediately after the definition of “ordinary wages” in subsection (8), the following definitions:

“ “overseas additional wages” means additional wages paid in respect of the performance of any duty on or after 1st January 1994 for any period outside Singapore;

“overseas ordinary wages” means ordinary wages paid in respect of the performance of any duty on or after 1st January 1994 for any period outside Singapore;

“overseas total wages”, in relation to any year, means the total of the overseas ordinary wages and overseas additional wages in that year received by an employee;

“relevant amount” means the amount of contributions which would have been required to be made by the relevant employer had such contributions been obligatory under the Central Provident Fund Act (Cap. 36) in respect of —

(a)	the overseas total wages paid to an employee in any year less the aggregate in that year of such part of the overseas ordinary wages paid to the employee in every month in that year as exceeds $6,000; or
(b)	$100,000,

whichever is the less;

“relevant employer” means any company incorporated or registered under the Companies Act (Cap. 50) or any person registered under the Business Registration Act (Cap. 32);”.

Amendment of section 13

5. Section 13 (1) of the principal Act is amended by deleting paragraph (y) and substituting the following paragraph:

“(y)	such income as may be prescribed by regulations under section 43A of a company approved under section 43A(1)(c) and of a financial institution from the operation of its Asian Currency Unit;”.

Amendment of section 13A

6. Section 13A of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by deleting the word “registration” in the third line of subsection (1)(b) and substituting the word “registry”; and

(b)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (13), the following subsections:

“(14) Notwithstanding anything in this section, a shipping enterprise may at any time elect that its income derived or deemed to be derived from the operation of all its Singapore ships shall be taxed at the rate prescribed by section 43(1)(a).

(15) An election under subsection (14) shall be made by a shipping enterprise by notice in writing to the Comptroller and shall be irrevocable.

(16) Where a shipping enterprise has made an election under subsection (14) —

(a)	subsections (1) to (11) shall not apply to the income of the shipping enterprise for the year of assessment immediately following the year in which the election is made and for subsequent years of assessment;
(b)	any capital allowances or the balance thereof which were not made against the income of the shipping enterprise exempt under this section for any year of assessment during which its income was exempt from tax shall not be available to be made under section 23 against its income for the year of assessment immediately following the year in which the election is made and for subsequent years of assessment;
(c)	any loss or the balance thereof incurred by the shipping enterprise in respect of the operation of a Singapore ship for any year of assessment which was not deducted against its income exempt under this section for any year of assessment during which its income was exempt from tax shall not be available as a deduction under section 37(2)(a) against its income for the year of assessment immediately following the year in which the election is made and for subsequent years of assessment; and
(d)	any capital allowances in respect of Singapore ships of the shipping enterprise for the year of assessment immediately following the year in which the election is made and for subsequent years of assessment shall be calculated in accordance with subsection (12) as if the Singapore ships were ships which had ceased to be Singapore ships.”.

Amendment of section 14

7. Section 14 (1) of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after the words “1st July 1993” in sub-paragraph (i) (N) of the proviso to paragraph (e), the words “and before 1st July 1994”; and

(b)

by deleting the comma at the end of sub-paragraph (i) (N) of the proviso to paragraph (e) and substituting a semi-colon, and by inserting immediately thereafter the following sub-paragraph:

“(O)	commencing on or after 1st July 1994 shall not exceed 20%,”.

Amendment of section 15

8. Section 15 (1) of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after paragraph (g), the following paragraph:

“(ga)

any amount paid or payable in respect of goods and services tax by the person if he, being required to be registered under the Goods and Services Tax Act (Cap. 117A), has failed to do so, or if he is entitled under that Act to credit that amount of tax as an input tax;”.

Amendment of section 19A

9. Section 19A (5) of the principal Act is amended by deleting the proviso and substituting the following proviso:

“Provided that —

(a)

in the case of a person to whom a certificate has been issued under Part II of the Economic Expansion Incentives (Relief from Income Tax) Act (Cap. 86) whose tax relief period expires in any basis period ending on or after 1st January 1992 and who has, at the end of the basis period immediately following that basis period, in use machinery or plant in respect of which capital allowances have been made under section 19, the election under this subsection shall be made before the end of the year of assessment which relates to the second-mentioned basis period; and

(b)

in the case of a person to whom a certificate has been issued under Part IV, VI, VII, XI or XII of that Act and who has, at the end of the basis period immediately following the expiry of his tax relief period, in use machinery or plant in respect of which capital allowances have been made under section 19, the election under this subsection shall be made before the end of the year of assessment which relates to that basis period.”.

Amendment of section 23

10. Section 23 (2A) of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “Minister” in the first line, the words “or such person as he may appoint”.

Amendment of section 37

11. Section 37 (8) of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “Minister” in the first line, the words “or such person as he may appoint”.

Amendment of section 39

12. Section 39 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by deleting the words “, subject to subsection (6),” in the tenth line of subsection (2)(e);

(b)

by deleting sub-paragraph (ii) of the proviso to subsection (2)(e) and substituting the following sub-paragraph:

“(ii)

no deduction shall be allowed in excess of $5,000 except that where the contributions made on or after 1st January 1994 to the Central Provident Fund or the contributions made on or after 1st January 1989 to an approved pension or provident fund (other than the Central Provident Fund) exceed $5,000, the excess contributions shall, subject to subsections (6) and (6A), be allowed as a deduction;”;

(c)

by deleting “18%” in the tenth line of subsection (2)(ea) and substituting “18 ¹/₂%”;

(d)

by deleting “$12,960” wherever it appears in subsection (2) (ea) and substituting in each case “$13,320”;

(e)

by inserting, immediately after the word “subsection” in the first line of subsection (6)(e), the words “and subsection (6A)”;

(f)

by inserting, immediately after the definition of “ordinary wages” in subsection (6)(e), the following definitions:

“ “overseas additional wages”, “overseas ordinary wages”, “overseas total wages”, and “relevant employer” have the same meanings as in section 10C(8);”; and

(g)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (6), the following subsection:

“(6A) For the purposes of subsection (2)(e), where in any year from 1st January 1994 an individual has made contributions (not being contributions under section 7(2) of the Central Provident Fund Act (Cap. 36)) to the Central Provident Fund in respect of overseas ordinary wages or overseas additional wages paid to him by any relevant employer in that year, no deduction shall include any contributions in respect of that part of his overseas total wages which exceeds $100,000, if his overseas additional wages exceed $28,000 and his overseas total wages exceed $100,000.”.

Amendment of section 40

13. Section 40 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “Part B” in the proviso to subsection (1) and substituting the words “Part C”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “and 50” in the first line of subsection (4)(b) and substituting the words “, 50 and 50A”.

Amendment of section 42A

14. Section 42A of the principal Act is amended —

(a)	by deleting the words “5 subsequent years” in the seventh and eighth lines of subsection (3)(a) and substituting the words “7 subsequent years”; and
(b)	by deleting the words “7 years” wherever they appear in subsection (3)(b), (c), (d) and (e) and substituting in each case the words “9 years”.

Amendment of section 43I

15. Section 43I of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after subsection (4), the following subsections:

“(4A) Notwithstanding subsection (1), a leasing company may, at any time, elect that the whole of its income accruing in or derived from Singapore in respect of offshore leasing of any machinery or plant shall be taxed at the rate prescribed by section 43(1)(a).

(4B) An election under subsection (4A) shall be made by a leasing company by notice in writing to the Comptroller and shall be irrevocable; and notwithstanding subsection (4C) where the election is to take effect from the year of assessment 1994, such notice shall be given by the leasing company before 1st January 1995.

(4C) Where a leasing company has made an election under subsection (4A) —

(a)

subsections (1) to (4) shall not apply to the income of the leasing company for the year of assessment immediately following the year in which the election is made and for subsequent years of assessment; and

(b)

any allowance or loss or the balance thereof which were not deducted against the income of the leasing company for any year of assessment during which the concessionary rate prescribed by subsection (1) applies shall be available as a deduction against its income for the first year of assessment to which paragraph (a) applies or for any subsequent year of assessment in such manner and extent as the Minister may by regulations prescribe.”.

Amendment of section 57

16. Section 57 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after the word “which” in the seventh line of subsection (1), the words “, at the date of the receipt of the notice or at any time during the period of 90 days thereafter,”; and

(b)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (5), the following subsections:

“(6) Any person making any payment to the Comptroller under this section shall be deemed to have been acting under the authority of the person by whom any tax is payable and is hereby indemnified in respect of such payment.

(7) For the purposes of this section, “tax” includes any penalty or any other money which a person is liable to pay to the Comptroller under this Act.”.

Repeal and re-enactment of section 63A

17. Section 63A of the principal Act is repealed and the following section substituted therefor:

“Furnishing of estimate of chargeable income if no return is made under section 63

63A.—(1) Every person carrying on or exercising any trade, business, profession or vocation who has not made a return under section 63 for any year of assessment shall, within 3 months after the end of the accounting period relating to that year of assessment, furnish to the Comptroller an estimate of his chargeable income.

(2) Any person who fails or neglects without reasonable excuse to furnish the estimate of his chargeable income as required under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence.”.

Amendment of section 67

18. Section 67 (1) of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “records” in the second line of paragraph (a), the words “for a period of 7 years from the year of assessment to which any income relates”.

New section 71A

19. The principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after section 71, the following section:

“Filing of return by electronic transmission

71A.—(1) A person who meets the criteria determined in writing by the Comptroller may file a return under this Part for any year of assessment by way of electronic filing.

(2) For the purposes of this Part, where a return of any person for any year of assessment is filed by way of electronic filing, it shall be deemed to be a return filed with the Comptroller in the form and manner determined by the Comptroller under this Part.

(3) Where a return of a person for any year of assessment is filed by way of electronic filing by a particular person (referred to in this section as the filer) other than the person who is required to file the return, the filer shall, if required by the Comptroller, obtain from the other person a signed statement in such form as the Comptroller may determine, retain one copy of the statement and provide the other person with a copy, and the statement shall be deemed to be a record referred to in section 67 in respect of the filer and the other person.

(4) Where an electronic return is filed with the Comptroller using the identifying code or password of a person who meets the prescribed criteria —

(a)	without the authority of that person; and
(b)	before notification to the Comptroller by that person of the cancellation of the code or password,

that return shall, for the purposes of this Part, be presumed to be made by that person unless he adduces evidence to the contrary, and where he alleges that he had filed no such return, the burden is also on him to adduce evidence of that fact.

(5) Notwithstanding any other written law, in any proceedings under this Act, an electronic return or a copy thereof (including a print-out of that return or copy) —

(a)	certified by the Comptroller to contain all or any information transmitted by electronic filing in accordance with this section; and
(b)	duly authenticated in the manner specified in subsection (7) or is otherwise duly authenticated by showing that there is no material discrepancy between the electronic return or copy thereof certified by the Comptroller and the copy of the same electronic return kept by an independent record keeper appointed by the Minister,

shall be admissible as evidence of the facts stated or contained therein.

(6) For the avoidance of doubt, an electronic return or a copy thereof shall not be inadmissible in evidence merely on the basis that it was filed without the delivery of any equivalent document or counterpart in paper form.

(7) For the purposes of this section, a certificate —

(a)	giving the particulars of any person and device involved in the production and transmission of, and identifying the nature of, the electronic return or a copy thereof; and
(b)	purporting to be signed by the Comptroller or by a person occupying a responsible position in relation to the operation of the electronic media at the relevant time,

shall be sufficient evidence that the electronic return or a copy thereof has been duly authenticated, unless the court, in its discretion, calls for further evidence on this issue.

(8) Where an electronic return or a copy thereof is admissible under subsection (5), it shall be presumed that the facts stated or contained therein are correct unless the contrary is proved and any person filing the electronic return or whose return has been filed by a filer shall be deemed to be cognizant of all matters therein.

(9) The Comptroller may, for the purpose of facilitating any electronic filing under this section, approve the use in any such electronic filing of symbols, abbreviations or other notations to represent any particulars or information required under this Part.

(10) Notwithstanding section 6, any person having any official duty or being employed in the administration of this Act shall not be treated as having contravened section 6 merely because he communicates to the independent record keeper or his employee or permits the independent record keeper or his employee to have access to any electronic return or any information contained therein; and section 6 shall apply to the independent record keeper and his employee as if they were persons employed in the administration of this Act.

(11) For the purposes of this section —

“electronic filing” means using electronic media in a manner determined in writing by the Comptroller;

“electronic return” means a return made by way of electronic filing;

“independent record keeper” means an independent record keeper appointed by the Minister for the purpose of this section.

(12) The Minister may make regulations which are necessary or expedient for carrying out the purposes of this section.”.

Amendment of section 72A

20. Section 72A of the principal Act is amended by deleting subsection (3) and substituting the following subsection:

“(3) The Comptroller may, if he thinks fit, at any time during any year make an assessment in respect of the income derived by any person carrying on or exercising any trade, business, profession or vocation up to that year.”.

Amendment of Second Schedule

21. The Second Schedule to the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after Part B, the following Part:

“Part C

Rates of Tax for the Computation of Relief under Section 40

Chargeable Income

Rate of Tax

For every dollar of the first

2,500

For every dollar of the next

2,500

For every dollar of the next

2,500

For every dollar of the next

2,500

10%

For every dollar of the next

5,000

14%

For every dollar of the next

5,000

16%

For every dollar of the next

5,000

17%

For every dollar of the next

10,000

20%

For every dollar of the next

15,000

27%

For every dollar of the next

50,000

34%

For every dollar exceeding

100,000

37%.

”.

Miscellaneous amendments

22. The principal Act is amended by deleting the words “12 years” wherever they appear in the following provisions and substituting in each case the words “6 years”:

Sections 10(10)(b), 13A(8), 13B(8), 13E(9), 13H(16), 14B(3E), 16(3D) and 73(1).

Remission of tax

23.—(1) There shall be remitted 5% of the tax payable for the year of assessment 1994 by an individual or Hindu joint family resident in Singapore and the amount of such remission shall be determined by the Comptroller.

(2) The remission under subsection (1) shall be given before the remission under section 38(2) of the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 1993 (Act 26 of 1993).

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