Singapore’s Minister for Finance delivered the 2016 budget statement on 24 March 2016. The budget’s goals include transformation of the economy through enterprise and innovation. A number of measures would benefit small and medium-sized enterprises, including an enhancement of the corporate income tax rebate. The relevant tax proposals that would affect businesses also include changes to tax incentives (including the expansion and extension of several incentives) and measures affecting intellectual property rights.
An automation support package would be introduced to support companies’ efforts to automate, increase productivity, scale up and expand overseas. It would offer a 100% investment allowance for qualifying capital expenditure of up to SGD 10 million per project, and grants of up to SGD 1 million and enhanced financing support also would be available. It is unclear if all the proposed benefits could be applied at the same time, and the effective date for the measures is yet to be announced.
No changes are proposed to the corporate income tax rate (17% with a partial tax exemption on a company’s first SGD 300,000 of normal chargeable income), but the corporate income tax rebate would be raised from 30% to 50%.
The double tax deduction for internationalization that permits companies to deduct up to 200% of certain qualifying expenditure incurred on a range of qualifying market expansion and investment development activities would be extended by four years, until 31 March 2020.