In 2018, two articles in The Straits Times described how some professionals were incorporating one or more companies in an attempt to gain tax advantages. The issue was the difference between the highest personal income tax rate of 22 per cent and the corporate tax rate of 17 per cent, which...

With the rapid development of the digital economy and the increasing importance of GST as a source of tax revenue, the Singapore Government has proposed several reforms to tighten the collection of tax revenue and tap its tax base more efficiently. The reforms focus on activating the currently...

Rapid developments in automation technology pose a risk of mass displacement of human labour, resulting in the need to support and retrain displaced workers (a negative externality). We propose an “automation tax” that would slow the adoption of automation technology in appropriate...

Academic discussion of justice and taxation has focused on determining the moral limits of taxation. This article is concerned specifically with the moral limits on the redistributivity of taxation. Rawlsian principles enable us to determine the moral upper and lower bounds of redistribution...

A ‘Contracting Problem' arises when software is used to autonomously enter into contracts without human input. Questions arise as to how and whether there can be an expression of an objective intention to be legally bound. This article considers three leading solutions to the Contracting...

This article draws a distinction between “decisional negligence”, which concerns the negligence exhibited by a professional advising his client in a decision to pursue a course of action, and “operational” negligence which concerns the manner in which a professional acts upon his...

A strong reciprocal relationship has existed between Singapore Company Law (“SCL”) and the economy since Independence in 1965. Swift Parliamentary responses to economic events and successful implementation of Government policies has made it possible to clearly attribute cause and effect to...

Section 10(1) of the Income Tax Act (Cap. 134, 2014 Rev. Ed.) (“ITA”) is the charging provision which provides for income tax to be payable for each year of assessment (“YA”) upon the income of any person. Income is taxable if it falls within one of the enumerated heads of charge under...

A new dimension to the determination and computation of stamp duties payable in corporate transactions has been introduced due to the Additional Conveyance Duties (“ACD”) Regime. For companies with significant residential property holdings, liability to pay ACD potentially extends to all...

The Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill (Bill No. 18/2017) (the “Bill”) was passed on 10 March 2017 as an urgent bill. The Bill introduced a new Additional Conveyance Duties (“ACD”) regime, designed to levy stamp duties on transfers of interests in Property-Holding Entities (“PHEs”) and...