How Taxes Affect Business Decisions In Singapore

How Do Taxes Affect Business Decisions Singapore

Since taxes are deducted from operating expenses, businesses would want to know how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore. Other than purchasing during the year to obtain a tax benefit on the said taxable year, there are different ways businesses can consider bringing down their taxable income.

Business Tax Planning

Before diving into how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore, you must first understand that taxes exist as an integral portion of running thriving businesses. Still, there are many tax exemptions and reliefs available regarding stamp duty, capital gains tax, and GST. Learning all these take time, so many business owners choose to engage a licensed corporate service firm, such as Premia TNC.

Instead of devoting time to carry out an effective company tax planning program, the business owner can focus on other aspects of running a business in Singapore. After all, firms like Premia TNC can help their clients spot areas of tax savings with their insights into Singapore’s tax laws and regulations.

Rules on Corporate Income Tax

The next step of understanding how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore is knowing what are the standard rules on corporate income tax in the country. Effective on the first day of 2003, Singapore implemented a single-tier system for corporations’ income tax. This means that stakeholders are not taxed twice on the same income.

Thus, the firm’s paid tax on its net chargeable income stands as the final tax. Also, this denotes that all dividends disbursed by a firm to its stockholders are exempt from other taxation. On top of that, capital gains, such as gains on forex from capital dealings and the sale of tangible assets, among many others, are not subject to tax in Singapore.

Essentially, the income tax of corporations in Singapore is assessed on their chargeable income of the preceding year at a 17% rate.

5 Tips for Newly Founded Companies

Singapore has all that a new company desires, including financing systems, tax incentives, business-incubating infrastructure, cash grants, and other tools. The government has even rolled out some initiatives to drive the nation toward a thriving ecosystem for startups. Here are some of the most useful tips to help you in understanding how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore:

1. Recognition of earnings or losses for new companies

Recognizing your company’s earning or losses is the first tip for understanding how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore. Several newly founded firms operate beyond a year before finalizing their first accounts. Hence, this first set, which generally only covers 12 months, extends beyond a year. Therefore, the gains or losses must be assigned and recognized in two different YAs or Years of Assessment.

It is essential for companies to detect the profit earned and costs incurred directly for every YA. The company can do this by basing the transactions on actual profit dates and the charges incurred. If this is not possible, then the time-sharing method is used.

The time-sharing method dictates that the profit earned and costs incurred must be apportioned based on the days of the matching YAs. In a way, it would be like getting the average and multiplying it by the number of days in each YA.

2. Corporate income tax e-Learning videos

These IRAS videos are for company representatives who are in charge of preparing and submitting CIT (corporate income tax) returns. Besides addressing these procedures, the videos also cover other issues related to CIT.

3. Finding out the firm’s first Year of Assessment or YA

The company’s initial YA remains the year involving the base time when the firm is incorporated. It is subject to the closing of the financial year selected and the first accounts’ ending date. Hence, the primary YA of the company can differ from other companies incorporated on a similar day.

4. Expenses incurred before the commencement of business

Generally, before business commencement, costs known as organizational expenses, are not deductible from taxable earnings. This is because the company incurred these costs to establish business operations; hence, it is not entirely and exclusively producing income from operations. However, to facilitate businesses in company development, income expenses incurred a year ahead of the deemed business commencement date can be deducted for taxable earnings.

Due to this, company owners should learn more about this matter, the deduction process, and the proper way to determine the actual business commencement date to better understand how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore.

5. New Company Start-Up Kit

This kit is an IRAS tool that serves as an interactive e-Learning guidebook to learn more about the income tax obligations in filing for corporations. In addition, this kit provides businesses with the information needed for the primary tax filing procedure, from the company set up to submitting the initial Estimated Chargeable Income or ECI and Forms C-S, C-S (Lite), and C.

Benefits of Tax Residents in Singapore

The benefits of being a tax resident in Singapore is also part of understanding how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore. The company’s tax residency is fixed wherever the business stands managed and controlled. For instance, if the board or central management controlling the firm are not based in Singapore, the firm is not a Singapore tax resident.

Similarly, this is true once the company’s board meetings are held out of Singapore, despite having its daily business in Singapore. In addition, enterprises qualifying as tax residents will make them eligible for many tax incentives offered by Singapore, which can bring down the effective tax rate for the overall corporate income tax or CIT.

New companies are eligible for these incentives, such as a 75% tax exemption on the initial SGD 100,000 of chargeable income for the first 3 consecutive YAs. On top of that, Singapore resident firms may enjoy exemptions on the tax of certain kinds of foreign-sourced income received in the city-state.

Examples include service income, branch profits, and dividends, provided qualifying conditions are met. Note that residents of Singapore are not assessed on their foreign-sourced income that do not enter Singapore. Tax residents also enjoy assistance from Singapore’s over 90 DTA or double tax avoidance agreements.

Additionally, tax residents hold the benefit of doing business with Asian markets via the country’s wide-ranging FTAs or free trade agreements. Furthermore, Singapore withholds tax on some payment categories to non-residents. 

These payment categories include interest, royalties, movable property lease, and management and technical support fees. As mentioned above, Singapore holds an extensive system of DTT or double-taxation treaty avoidance. DTTs can give tax relief, like reduced rates on tax withheld or overseas tax credits. However, a COR or Certificate of Residence must be on hand as proof of tax residency and eligibility for these benefits.

Wrapping Things Up

Business owners have the option to stop worrying about how do taxes affect business decisions Singapore. The solution is simply engaging a professional company service provider as early as right now! Doing so will facilitate the company’s achievement of its desired business development.  

A corporate service provider with professional registered tax consultants, such as Premia TNC can help business owners better understand the proper way for their company to meet the requirements of relevant tax rules. Our corporate tax team gives advice pertinent to organizations and provides adequate tax support to enable compliance with the law in Singapore.

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