In a speech on 25 July 2012, at the international tax forum organized by the Tax Academy and CPA Australia, Singapore’s Minister of State for Finance and Transport disclosed that Singapore was looking to strengthen its network of double taxation agreements (DTAs), as well as making compliance with its tax rules easier. There would be two main strategies – strengthening its network of DTAs and facilitating compliance with its tax rules.
With regard to tax compliance complicated or ambiguous tax rules can also increase the compliance burden for businesses. In a recent study by PwC and the World Bank group, measuring the ease of paying taxes across 183 economies worldwide, Singapore was ranked 4th overall.
In last year’s budget, the government also announced the introduction of a foreign tax credit pooling system to give businesses greater flexibility in their claim of foreign tax credits and in so doing, make their tax compliance easier.
