SINGAPORE: The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), which has ramped up its efficiency with a new IT system, will soon pay interest if it fails to issue tax refunds promptly.For Grace Tan, Executive Director of Association of Chartered Secretaries, filing her tax returns online has always been a breeze.Last year, she received a tax refund of a few hundred dollars from IRAS for child relief.She is among half a million people who get such refunds every year.Come July, IRAS said it would dole out interest to taxpayers if it fails to issue refunds within 30 days.The interest will be based on average prime rates, which is about 5 percent per annum.Ms Tan said: "It's a reassurance from IRAS of their commitment to process their refunds within a stipulated time period."The initiative was announced by Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua at the launch of IRAS' myTax Portal.She said: "This is IRAS' initiative to, in a way, set itself a benchmark and service standard, and to really put more substance to it."Currently, less than 1 percent of tax refund cases are administered late.IRAS hopes to bring the figure down to zero soon.
These days the tax filing has changed abit, in the past used to be regardless of whether you need to pay tax you still need to file you income tax returns. But these days, if you earn less than $22,000, there is no need for you to file, unless you want to claim tax deducted at source (being dividends paid to you from shares you own, they are taxed at the prevailing corporate tax rates, which could be higher than your personal marginal tax rate). Also, you need to file if IRAS has sent you any forms or pin number. Also, if I have been evading taxes for the past few years, I would be very careful talking to those folks from IRAS, most of the time they will ask for your name and NRIC first. So becareful, else end up incriminating yourself. You will need to file if you have received a paper form (Form B1/B/M) or a letter from IRAS inviting you to e-File.Did not receive anything?Even if you have not received any notification from IRAS to e-File, you need to file if: * your income for the previous year is $22,000 or more; and/or * you wish to claim tax deducted at source in respect of Singapore dividends that you received last year.Please log in to myTax Portal to e-File your tax return by 15 Apr if you have not received any notification to file your return by 15 Mar. Find out more about e-Filing!If you are a new taxpayer who has not submitted any income tax form in the past, and you have not received any notification from us by 15 Mar , please complete and submit the registration form for new taxpayer (43KB) . We will activate your tax account and send the paper form to you. When is the filing due dateYou need to e-File or submit your completed paper form to us by 15 Apr.If you cannot submit your form by 15 AprYou need to apply for an extension of time to submit your tax form. Please apply before 31 Mar.To apply, you need to email us or fax to us on 6351 3636 the following: * your full name and tax reference number * reason for your request * an estimate of your chargeable income'Chargeable income' refers to the remaining amount after deducting donations and tax reliefs from your total income.Find out more about: * How to calculate your taxhttp://www.sgforums.com/irasHome/uploadedFiles/Quick_Links/e-Tax_Guides/Individuals_and_employees/How-to-calculate-your-tax.xls * Penalties for filing late or not filinghttp://www.sgforums.com/irasHome/page.aspx?id=6400 Source: http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/page.aspx?id=1448
Free calculator for your finger....http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/uploadedFiles/Quick_Links/e-Tax_Guides/Individuals_and_employees/How-to-calculate-your-tax.xls(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z285/cheong79/taxrate.jpg)(http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z285/cheong79/taxrate2.jpg)
S'pore on tax blacklistIt is among 46 countries, territories that OECD has placed on tax list. (http://i39.tinypic.com/2iho1ky.jpg)Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger reported that in a letter dated March 5 to British Chancellor Alistair Darling, OECD chief Angel Gurria had provided a list including Switzerland and Singapore, as well as territories such as the Cayman Islands, Andorra and Montserrat. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND WEEZURICH - THE OECD has branded 46 countries and territories for 'insufficient progress' in meeting standards on tax cooperation and banking secrecy, a Swiss newspaper reported on Monday.Swiss daily Tages Anzeiger reported that in a letter dated March 5 to British Chancellor Alistair Darling, OECD chief Angel Gurria had provided a list including Switzerland and Singapore, as well as territories such as the Cayman Islands, Andorra and Montserrat.The list also included Costa Rica, Chile, Grenada, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Liberia, Panama, the Philippines, San Marino and Uruguay, as well as Gibraltar, Guernsey and Jersey and a host of Pacific and Caribbean islands.France and Germany have been leading the charge to clamp down on tax havens, calling for an international 'sanctions mechanism' to be imposed on territories that are on a list due to be prepared for a full G20 summit on April 2.Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said last week that the OECD list was drawn up at the request of the G20.Amid the pressure, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, Monaco, Belgium, Andorra and Liechtenstein - all of which are on the March 5 list - said late last week that they would relax their bank secrecy laws to provide more cooperation against tax cheats.Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey also criticised the OECD for providing a blacklist, in remarks published on Sunday.'It is unacceptable that the OECD secretariat acts secretly on the orders of single member states. We have protested against this course of action. Such an error should not be repeated,' she told newspaper NZZ am Sonntag. -- AFP source: Spore on tax blacklist
Frenly reminder for those who need to submit their income tax but busy working or foruming or PCW-ing...Please remember to submit by 15 Apr 2009... Do it early and try not to wait until the last day... Wait system busy will bang head one... :s7:https://mytax.iras.gov.sg/ESVWEB/default.aspx?
http://english.daralhayat.com/business/04-2009/Article-20090421-c95fee03-c0a8-10ed-00fa-e78fa5f143cb/story.htmlThe Hell of Tax HavensMichel Morkos Al-Hayat - 21/04/09//Are tax havens responsible for the world economic crisis and the proliferating high risk money instruments? Or are they just loopholes through which taxpayers keep their money instead of pumping them into state treasuries?Early April, the G20 leaders agreed during the London summit on a series of stringent decisions to curb these tax havens. But their goal was not to lift and weaken banking secrecy as much as it was to seize financial resources that would give the needed leverage to high expenditure economic stimulus plans.Every accused country was apparently complying with the lifting of bank secrecy, within specific conditions that require legally proving incidences of tax evasion. Anything other than that remains within the banking standards in anti laundering measures against the proceeds derived from crime and smuggling.In the opinion of the American expert Raymond Baker, tax havens get 5% of their resources from crime proceeds, 30% from corruption, while the remaining percentage comes from embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion. Hence, tax havens are not only open to outlaws and mafia gangs, but also to the elite and highly educated customers. Among them are the multinational high-income people who refuse to pay their due taxes and prefer that senior wage earners in their companies do so instead. From this standpoint, tax havens have been considered as tools that helped globalization in the expansion of inequality.These havens, as experts estimate, incur every year around a billion dollars in lost tax revenues in Europe, or up to ten percent of all tax revenues. This is while these countries need to redress their budget deficits with at least a 3 % margin.As a matter of fact, the rich resort to tax havens as a means to mask their income, whether it comes from wages or investments. To this end, they either settle into such havens or establish fake companies, where they keep their surplus income and revenues. They can also use them to keep the gains from matches or avoid paying inheritance taxes and alimony in case of divorce.According to some reports, major international banks are the most prominent customers of tax havens, driven by their own interests, for tax purposes, or to offer services to their wealthy clients and institutions. Multinational corporations have also used tax havens in order to establish overseas branches investing in various parts of the world, or to intensify the low-tax high-profit intellectual property protection instruments - while branches in the countries of destination countries pay higher taxes. Companies also use tax havens as a means to hide actual figures from investors and to manipulate their budgets and statements of accounts.Meanwhile, the OECD estimates that the 116-square-kilometer Jersey island attracts 500 billion dollars in assets of approximately 32 thousand companies, whose accounts are mostly mail boxes. Switzerland attracts 1,500 billion dollars, compared with 1,300 billion dollars for Britain, 740 billion dollars for Luxemburg, 670 billion dollars for the Caribbean and Central America, 370 billion dollars for Singapore, 370 billion dollars for the United States and 150 billion dollars for Hong Kong.These tax havens seemed to be easy targets to save money. The massive aids to troubled banks, and the plans to cushion the impact of the financial crisis on economy and employment, all blow the budget deficits. For these reasons, the idea of recovering lost taxes appealed to the summit leaders.This rush to monitor off shore financial centres is justified by the argument that they allow key financial players the full liberty to develop high risk insane and diversified activities and speculations. These havens did not cause the subprime mortgage crisis in America, but played a role that until now remained widely underestimated. A report by the Government Accountability Office in the U.S shows that part of the virtual offshore banking system was established by American banks in the Cayman Islands, in order for these offshore banks to promote on the behalf of American banks complex money bonds, something that was the basis of the multidimensional crisis.Whether it is about the failure of the British Northern Rock bank, the American Bear Stearns, the German Hypo Real Estate, the Icelandic banks, or the embezzlements by Bernard Madoff or Sir Allen Stanford, the main events of this crisis definitely pass through tax havens. For this reason, the decision to reorder these offshore centres came as a necessary condition to ensure effective reshuffling of the world monetary system.However, the attack on safe havens does not put an end to the perversions of financial globalization, despite the stringent measures taken by central banks, which are now ready to monitor the mechanisms adopted when tackling risks, and to cater for the highly diversified money instruments.The American Secretary of Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, said: "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society. Too many individuals, however, want the civilization at a discount."Will the world's public finances regain what they lost to tax havens?----------------------------Latest updates at Singapore News Alternative:1. OECD estimates S'pore attracted US$370 Billion as a tax haven2. Criminalizing attempts aimed at provoking discrimination against sexual minorities3. Inconsistencies in Josie Lau’s Television Interview4. Saudi Prince looks to sell Singapore Raffles hotel5. MPA lures Bengal Tiger to Singapore6. Asia tourism reels as firms cut back business travel7. June start for Firefly's Singapore route8. Las Vegas Sands amend debt agreements.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUST22374620090427Singapore says to improve disclosure on tax evasionMon Apr 27, 2009 5:55am EDT TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Singapore will revise its laws this year to improve disclosure on foreigners evading income taxes in their home countries, the island nation's finance minister told his Japanese counterpart according to a Japanese Finance Ministry official.Singapore agreed at the beginning of March to bring its tax laws in line with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) standards after the Paris-based group put it on a "grey list" of countries that have not signed international accords to combat tax evasion.Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano welcomed Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's pledge, the official told reporters after the two met on Monday.World leaders said at a Group of 20 summit this month that they would crack down on tax havens, including sanctions against non-cooperative jurisdictions, by using information from the OECD.Singapore's government has previously denied suggestions that the country is a tax haven. It has strict bank secrecy laws and has been promoting itself as a rival financial centre to Hong Kong to attract banks such as UBS (UBSN.VX), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Citigroup (C.N) to manage money for rich local and foreign clients.Tharman also told Yosano that he hoped officials could agree on a broad range of measures, including expanding currency swaps, at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, South Korea and Japan on May 3, according to the official.Asian countries pledged last year to pool bilateral currency swap arrangements under the Chiang Mai Initiative in an $80 billion multilateral fund that could be tapped in emergencies. ASEAN groups Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Brunei. (Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Jan Dahinten)----------------------------Latest updates at Singapore News Alternative:
No wonder MM recently made a trip up to Russia. :rolleyes:FT.com / Asia-Pacific - Singapore sees surge in rich Russian interestSingapore sees surge in rich Russian interestBy Kevin Brown in SingaporePublished: October 21 2009 18:34 | Last updated: October 21 2009 18:34Singapore is attracting a surge of Russian investment as rich business people seek a politically stable home for their personal wealth as well as exposure to Asia’s rapid recovery from the global financial crisis.Officials and bankers say significant sums have been deposited in the island state’s booming private banking sector, with Russian money also flowing into the stock market through investments in property and luxury services companies.Michael Tay, a former Singapore ambassador to Moscow who now heads the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation secretariat, said in an interview with the Financial Times that some Russian shipping and IT companies were also considering listing in Singapore.“They are exploring it, keeping the options open. Some of them are considering initial public offerings,” said Mr Tay, who since 2006 has run an annual forum in Singapore at which Russian business people can meet Singapore’s political and business leaders.This year’s conference attracted several hundred Russians, including billionaire businessmen Araz Agalarov, a property developer, Roustam Tariko, head of Russian Standard Bank and owner of Russian Standard vodka, and Suleiman Kerimov, a parliamentary deputy whose wealth derives from holdings in Gazprom and Sberbank.The growing interest of Russian investors in Singapore has been accompanied by a rise in trade which has made the city-state Russia’s 30th biggest trading partner, up from 40th in 2002. More than 5,000 Russians are resident in Singapore, compared with 300 six years ago.“There are a lot of people with oil and gas money from Russia and Kazakhstan looking for opportunities to invest,” said a senior banker, who asked not to be named. “This is the personal wealth of Russian business people ... looking for lucrative investment opportunities. Some of that is coming to Singapore.”The increase in Russian interest in Singapore follows the abandonment of total banking secrecy in Switzerland under pressure from the US and European Union countries concerned it was being used to avoid taxes.However, bankers said the Russian interest was driven less by tax and secrecy than by a desire for exposure to rapid Asian growth via Singapore’s politically stable and English-speaking financial community.Switzerland and Singapore have both accepted exchange of information requirements drafted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that are intended to ensure that countries can pursue suspected tax avoiders in offshore jurisdictions.Singapore’s parliament on Monday passed legislation incorporating the requirements in domestic law, and expects to qualify before the end of the year for inclusion on a “white list” of co-operating countries.Global and regional banks are scrambling to expand their private banking operations in Asia, keen to win some of the wealth created by strong regional economic growth. Last week, Singapore’s OCBC bank beat HSBC of the UK to acquire the Asian private banking assetsof ING of the Netherlands for $1.4bn.----------------------.
Singapore complies with OECD tax standardsFri, Nov 13, 2009AFP SINGAPORE - Singapore on Friday cleared the final hurdle for complying with stricter standards for global banking centres after signing an agreement with France on the sharing of tax information.The signing enabled the city-state to get off a "grey list" of countries that have not yet fully implemented standards set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the industrialised nations' club.The Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) was signed by Singapore's Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his French counterpart Christine Lagarde.It was the 12th such agreement signed by Singapore - the minimum required by the OECD for a country to enter the elite "white list" of financial centres - and will come into force after formal passage by both parliaments."I am particularly pleased to sign today the 12th protocol which allows the withdrawing of Singapore from the OECD grey list," Lagarde said.The French minister said it was a "significant breakthrough" to see "such an important financial place" like Singapore reaching the OECD white list.Shanmugaratnam said Singapore "will not stop at 12 agreements.""We expect to sign several more by the end of the year and will continue to negotiate such DTAs," he added.Singapore last month passed a law aimed at tightening the screws on cross-border tax cheats to comply with the OECD standards.The island, a top Asian regional banking and corporate centre and a favourite for the world's millionaires to safely park their money, has denied being a haven for tax evaders.
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