Daily Archives: 25 Aug 2009

Singapore stays friendly amid taxing trend

KPMG feels global decline in income tax rates may come to an end soon

Singapore remains a tax-friendly environment, but a study by KPMG has found that the global decline in top personal income tax rates over the past seven years may end soon, as governments worldwide seek new sources of stimulus spending.

According to the latest Individual Income Tax and Social Security Rate Survey, Singapore’s taxable income level where the highest rate of personal income tax takes effect stood at US$217,317 – the third highest among the countries surveyed, excluding Switzerland.

At current exchange rates, this means that Singapore residents would bear the highest rate of personal tax only if their taxable income level exceeds S$320,000. At 20 per cent, the top tax rate also remains relatively low.

The finding came as the top average personal income tax rate dropped 0.3 per cent worldwide in 2009 to 28.9 per cent from 29.2 per cent in 2008. Continue reading

Questions on collective sale laws

I REFER to last Friday’s letter by the Ministry of Law, ‘Rights of all owners adequately protected’.

I am particularly troubled by the statement: ‘We have taken steps under the Land Titles (Strata) Act to ensure the rights of all owners are adequately protected and provide recourse for those who feel aggrieved for any reason.’ For any reason? According to current laws, the Strata Titles Board will consider only financial objections. Non-financial objections are deemed irrelevant. So anyone objecting to a collective property sale for non-financial reasons has no legal recourse.

Also, an objector to a collective sale may be ordered by the Strata Titles Board to pay the legal costs of the majority consenting owners if his objection fails. For an individual, the prospect of having to pay legal costs is intimidating and makes any application to the Strata Titles Board to object to a sale a non-starter. Continue reading