Income Tax (Central Fund Administrators) Regulations 2004

No. S 40

Income Tax Act

(Chapter 134)

Income Tax (Central Fund Administrators) Regulations 2004

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 107(2) of the Income Tax Act, the Minister for Finance hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Income Tax (Central Fund Administrators) Regulations 2004 and shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1st January 2004.

Definitions

2. In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires —

“applicant” means an institution of a public character in respect of which an application for approval to a Central Fund Administrator has been made;

“appropriate Central Fund Administrator”, in relation to an approved institution of a public character, means the Central Fund Administrator which approved the institution of a public character;

“approved institution of a public character” means an institution of a public character which is approved by a Central Fund Administrator under section 37 of the Act;

“related approved institution of a public character”, in relation to a Central Fund Administrator, means an approved institution of a public character which is approved by that Central Fund Administrator.

Approval of institutions of a public character

3.—(1) A Central Fund Administrator may specify —

(a)	the form for the application for approval of an institution of a public character; and
(b)	that the form be accompanied by such information and documents as the Central Fund Administrator may require.

(2) A Central Fund Administrator which receives an application which complies with paragraph (1), whether such application is received before, on or after 1st July 2006, shall consider the application and may, in his discretion, approve the application where the applicant satisfies the conditions set out in regulation 4.

[S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]

(2A) Any approval under paragraph (2) of an institution of a public character shall be valid for such period not exceeding 2 years as may be specified in the approval.

[S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]

(3) The approval of an institution of a public character shall be made only by an officer of the Central Fund Administrator who is holding an office not lower than that of a director.

(4) When an institution of a public character has been approved by a Central Fund Administrator, the Central Fund Administrator shall, as it thinks fit —

(a)	allow the approved institution of a public character to issue a tax deduction receipt in respect of any donation which qualifies for deduction under section 37 of the Act made to the approved institution of a public character; or
(b)	not allow the approved institution of a public character to issue any tax deduction receipt.

(5) Where a Central Fund Administrator does not allow an approved institution of a public character to issue any tax deduction receipt under paragraph (4)(b), the Central Fund Administrator shall issue a tax deduction receipt in respect of any donation which qualifies for deduction under section 37 of the Act made to the approved institution of a public character.

Conditions for approval of institution of a public character

4.—(1) A Central Fund Administrator may approve any institution of a public character as an approved institution of a public character, where the applicant satisfies the following conditions:

(a)

it is —

(i)	a charity registered under section 5 of the Charities Act (Cap. 37);
(ii)	a charity which is an exempt charity as defined under section 2 of the Charities Act and which is not required to be registered by virtue of section 5(4) of that Act; or
(iii)	such institution or fund which falls within the definition of “institution of a public character” under section 2(1) of the Act as the Minister or such person as he may appoint may specify;

(b)

unless otherwise approved by the Minister, its activities are beneficial to the community in Singapore as a whole and are not confined to sectional interests or groups of persons based on race, belief or religion;

(c)

its activities meet its objectives under its governing instruments and the objectives of the Central Fund Administrator;

(d)

it is administered by a board of trustees and not more than 50% of the members of the board have an interest in the applicant or any person who or any organisation which has established the applicant;

(e)

at least half of the number of persons making up its board of trustees shall be citizens of Singapore, unless otherwise approved by the Minister;

[S 571/2004 wef 28/07/2004]

(f)

its auditor is approved by the Central Fund Administrator;

(g)

its constitution or any other governing instrument is approved by the Commissioner of Charities appointed under section 3 of the Charities Act;

(h)

the executive committee or other equivalent committee of the applicant is accountable for the management of the donations received; and

(i)

such other conditions that the Central Fund Administrator may impose.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(d), a member of the board of trustees has an interest in the applicant or a person who or an organisation which established the applicant (referred to in this paragraph as the relevant person), if the member is —

(a)	a family member of the relevant person where the relevant person is an individual; or
(b)	a director (other than an independent director) or senior executive of the relevant person or any of its subsidiaries or holding company, where the relevant person is a company.

(2A) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(e), where the board of trustees of an applicant consists of one or more companies, each such company shall be treated as if it were a person who is a citizen of Singapore if at least half of the number of directors of that company are citizens of Singapore.

[S 571/2004 wef 28/07/2004]

(3) In paragraph (2)(a), “family member”, in relation to a relevant person, means a child, sibling, parent, spouse, spouse’s parent, spouse’s sibling, grandparent or grandchild of the relevant person.

Submission of names of approved institutions of a public character to Minister

5. A Central Fund Administrator shall submit the name of every institution of a public character which it has approved to the Minister.

Duty in respect of tax deductible donations and records

6. A Central Fund Administrator shall ensure that a related approved institution of a public character —

(a)	uses any donation which qualifies for deduction under section 37 of the Act in accordance with regulation 3 of the Income Tax (Approved Institutions of a Public Character) Regulations 2004 (G.N. No. S 39/2004); and
(b)	maintains donation records and accounting records in accordance with regulations 5 and 6 of the Income Tax (Approved Institutions of a Public Character) Regulations 2004.

Power to inspect donation records of related approved institutions of a public character and to appoint auditors

7.—(1) A Central Fund Administrator shall at all times have full and free access to any of the donation records referred to in regulation 6(b) and may, without fee or reward, inspect, copy or make extracts from any such records.

(2) A Central Fund Administrator may appoint any other person to audit or review the management of any related approved institution of a public character.

[S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]

Duty to furnish return to Comptroller

8. A Central Fund Administrator shall furnish to the Comptroller an annual return of donations in respect of all related approved institutions of a public character in such form as may be specified by the Comptroller no later than the last day of February of each year.

Extension of approval granted to institution of a public character

9.—(1) Upon receiving an application by a related approved institution of a public character for extension of approval, where such application is made in accordance with regulation 12 of the Income Tax (Approved Institutions of a Public Character) Regulations 2004 (G.N. No. S 39/2004), and whether such application is received before, on or after 1st July 2006, a Central Fund Administrator may extend the approval of the related approved institution of a public character for a further period not less than one year and not exceeding 5 years, taking into account the following factors:

(a)	whether the conditions set out in regulation 4 are satisfied at the time of the application for extension;
(b)	the activity level of the approved institution of a public character during the relevant period of approval;
(c)	the amount of donations which qualify for deduction under section 37 of the Act received during the relevant period of approval;
(d)	whether the Income Tax (Approved Institutions of a Public Character) Regulations 2004 (G.N. No. S 39/2004) have been satisfied during the relevant period of approval; [S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]
(e)	whether there is or has been any mismanagement, misconduct, incompetence or negligence in the administration of the approved institution of a public character; and [S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]
(f)	whether any new condition that the Central Fund Administrator may impose can be satisfied. [S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]

(2) In this regulation, “relevant period of approval” means the period of approval or period of extension of approval which will expire but for the extension being applied for under this regulation.

Powers of Central Fund Administrators exercisable by Comptroller

10. The Comptroller shall have and may exercise all the powers of the Central Fund Administrators under these Regulations.

[S 387/2006 wef 01/07/2006]

Made this 20th day of January 2004.

LIM SIONG GUAN

Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Finance,
Singapore.

[MF (R)32.9.16 V 5; AG/LEG/SL/134/2002/14 Vol. 1]

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