Singapore's tax incentives meet global standards
An international body overseeing global tax practices has said that Singapore's tax incentives meet the international standards on countering corporate tax avoidance.
The Forum on Harmful Tax Practices said in a report yesterday that it had reviewed 164 countries, finding that governments have dismantled, or are in the process of amending, nearly 100 preferential tax regimes to improve the international tax framework.
The reviews were aimed at studying the progress these countries have made in updating and implementing tax policies to ensure companies do not exploit tax incentives to avoiding paying their fair share.
The reviews were focused on a practice called "base erosion and profit shifting" (BEPS).
This involves multinationals avoiding taxes by engineering lower profits in countries where taxes are high and correspondingly reporting higher profits in low-tax jurisdictions.
In recent years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has set out international standards to dismantle unfair tax regimes that enable such practices.
The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that as a member of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS, Singapore is committed to implementing internationally agreed standards to counter BEPS. The Republic has implemented all four globally agreed standards, such as participating in the review, it noted.
- THE STRAITS TIMES
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