Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill 2014

CNPupdate

 

Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill 2014


Date Published: 1 October 2014


Authors: Bill Jamieson and Manisha Rai.




 

The Stamp Duties Amendment Bill (the “Bill“) was passed on 8 October 2014 following a public consultation conducted by the Ministry of Finance (“MOF“) from 7 to 25 July 2014.

The Bill provides for three changes to the Stamp Duties Act:

 

Granting the Commissioner of Stamp Duties certain discretionary powers to provide more convenience to taxpayers

Where the Commissioner is able to ascertain if there is an overpayment of stamp duty, the Commissioner will be granted with the direction to remove the requirement for taxpayers to lodge claims for a stamp duty refund and surrender original instruments for cancelling the stamp duty certificate.

 

Rationalising interest computation in the event of a claw-back of stamp duty relief

Under the existing regime, stamp duty relief is provided for the transfers of assets arising from business restructuring and mergers and acquisitions, provided the conditions of relief are satisfied. However, if the conditions are not met the relief will be withdrawn following which IRAS will charge an interest on the stamp duty payable from the date of execution of the relevant document. The Bill proposes to amend the Stamp Duties Act by charging interest from the date the stamp duty was refunded upon the granting of relief since some taxpayers tend to pay the duty after executing the document and before applying for stamp duty relief.

 

Extending Sellers’ Stamp Duty (SSD) relief to transfer of industrial properties arising from business restructuring

A new subsection will be added to the Stamp Duties Act to provide that industrial properties transferred due to corporate restructuring will be exempted from the SSD. According to the Parliament, the exemption is granted to minimise the impact of the SSD on non-speculative business transactions and will extend to transfers of industrial property arising from restructuring or amalgamation of companies and transfers between associated companies, for example.

 

 

Disclaimer: This update is provided to you for general information and should not be relied upon as legal advice.

 

CNPLaw’s Banking and Finance Lawyer

Bill Jamieson is a Partner at CNPLaw LLP. Bill is an English lawyer who is also registered to practise Singapore law in the areas of corporate law, banking and finance and securities laws. He enjoys working in the diverse and dynamic Asian market and helping his clients to achieve their goals.
Partner

    Bill’s practice focuses on corporate financing transactions, investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and employment law matters. His experience includes 10 years in the City of London and over 20 years in Asia. Before joining CNP, Bill was a partner in a well-known international law firm. He is recommended lawyer for Corporate and M&A, Banking and Finance, Investment Funds and Labour and Employment in Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021. Bill is one of the firm’s contacts for Interlaw, a network of independent full-service corporate law firms ranked by Chambers and Partners in its highest category, “Elite”, amongst all global law firm networks.


    The lawyers from the Banking & Finance Practice Group (BFPG) have always taken pride in providing a comprehensive range of banking and finance services to our clients, including domestic and foreign international banks, other financial institutions as well as non-bank lenders and borrowers, and foreign legal firms acting for parties outside Singapore.

    Our banking & finance practice covers the whole spectrum of domestic and international banking & financing work, including restructurings, financings and financial institutions advisory work. We can draw upon a broad base of partners, senior, mid-level and junior associates, all with strong and varied banking & finance product line and country experience.

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