Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Tax Law (19)
- Asian Studies (12)
- International and Area Studies (12)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (12)
- Taxation-State and Local (5)
-
- Business (4)
- Business Organizations Law (3)
- Taxation (3)
- Estates and Trusts (2)
- Labor and Employment Law (2)
- Science and Technology Law (2)
- Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (1)
- Commercial Law (1)
- Computer Sciences (1)
- Contracts (1)
- Corporate Finance (1)
- Internet Law (1)
- Physical Sciences and Mathematics (1)
- Rule of Law (1)
- Securities Law (1)
Articles 1 - 27 of 27
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Curious Case Of The 0.1 Per Cent Service Charge, Vincent Ooi
The Curious Case Of The 0.1 Per Cent Service Charge, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Just before 1 August 2022, a coffeeshop zi char chain announced that it would impose a 0.1% service charge. This decision was reversed within two weeks due to "customers' reactions".While the rate might appear to be absurdly low and not worth the trouble of imposing, this article suggests that there was more to the situation than first meets the eye. GST regulations require merchants to list GST inclusive prices unless the goods and services are provided by hotels and F&B outlets that are subject to a service charge. The 0.1% rate is thus explicable as a likely attempt to get …
Holding Residential Property On Inter Vivos Trusts In Singapore: Transfers Of Interests, Vincent Ooi
Holding Residential Property On Inter Vivos Trusts In Singapore: Transfers Of Interests, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
As a response to the “missing beneficial owner” problem highlighted by the Zhao Hui Fang case, amendments have been made to Singapore’s stamp duty regime. ABSD will now be levied at 35% on transfers of residential property to trustees, with a remission available if certain conditions are met. These conditions effectively mean that residential property held on inter vivos trusts in Singapore must be given to beneficiaries without conditions or powers of revocation or variation. This has major ramifications for succession planning, since such restrictions largely defeat the purpose of using a trust to hold property in the first place.
Making Singapore A Regional Centre For Philanthropy, Kim Kit Ow, Vincent Ooi
Making Singapore A Regional Centre For Philanthropy, Kim Kit Ow, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The article highlights the strong ecosystem in Singapore where charitable initiatives are supported and encouraged, and builds on DPM Lawrence Wong's recent comments that the Government is reviewing its tax incentive schemes to encourage increased philanthropic giving.As a starting point, we suggest three simple ways in which tax incentives could be enhanced:1) increasing the enhanced tax deduction for donations from the current 2.5 times the amount of qualifying donations to 3 times for certain causes where there is a significant amount of public spending;2) extending the period for which tax deductions for donations can be carried forward for from the …
Holding Residential Property On Inter Vivos Trusts In Singapore: Transfers Of Equity Interests, Vincent Ooi
Holding Residential Property On Inter Vivos Trusts In Singapore: Transfers Of Equity Interests, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Following amendments to the ACD regime in Singapore, transferring equity interests to and from a trust with no beneficial owners will attract ACD, as will the exercise of a power of appointment by a trustee to grant equity interests to a beneficiary. Renunciation of interests in a bare trust will also attract ACD. Together with the introduction of ABSD (Trust), it is now impractical to use trusts to hold residential properties for succession planning purposes. Remaining options are to gift the properties without any strings attached or bequeath the properties in a will and risk subsequent changes to death taxation.
An Automation Tax- Adopt With Caution, Vincent Ooi
An Automation Tax- Adopt With Caution, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The post highlights three main issues that may result from the rapid and widespread automation of jobs: 1) declining tax revenues; 2) inequitable distribution of gains and losses from automation; and 3) social costs of job displacement, such as social support and retraining programmes for displaced workers.An automation tax may be imposed on a temporary basis to manage (slow) the rate of displacement of workers due to the adoption of automation technologies, but should not be a permanent feature. Otherwise, there will be a risk of loss of competitiveness in the long-term, possibly resulting in even greater economic harm.One main …
A Framework For Understanding The Taxation Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
A Framework For Understanding The Taxation Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
As a relatively new area, the taxation of digital tokens can give rise to several dangerous misconceptions. This article lays out five propositions to counter these misconceptions: 1) digital tokens are not a single monolithic asset class attracting uniform tax treatment; 2) the common trichotomous division of digital tokens into payment, utility and security tokens is derived from securities regulation and should not be blindly adopted into tax law; 3) the three classes are not mutually exclusive and hybrid tokens may exist; 4) the fact that an asset is a digital token rarely changes its tax treatment by itself, which …
Stamp Duty Traps To Watch Out For, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Stamp Duty Traps To Watch Out For, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
On 15 December 2021, the Ministry of Finance introduced a new package of measures designed to cool the residential property market. The measures include increases in Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (“ABSD”), the tightening of the Total Debt Servicing Ratio, adjustments to the Loan to Valuation limit for loans from HDB and a planned increase of housing supply.Notably, there were significant increases in the ABSD rates applicable to almost all categories of buyers. The ABSD rates only remained unchanged for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents purchasing their first residential property (0% and 5% respectively). This article focuses on the implications of …
The Taxation Of Cryptocurrency Gains, Vincent Ooi
The Taxation Of Cryptocurrency Gains, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Taking Singapore as an example, this article lays out a series of tests for determining whether gains arising from the disposal of cryptocurrencies are trade or business income, “all other income” or capital gains. It also considers the possibility of a presumption that individuals engaging in such transactions are gambling.
Tax Avoidance By Professionals: Where Are We With Wee Teng Yau?, Vincent Ooi
Tax Avoidance By Professionals: Where Are We With Wee Teng Yau?, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Wee Teng Yau represents the first case on tax avoidance by professionals to come before the Supreme Court. This note attempts to reconcile the judgments of the High Court and the Income Tax Board of Review, which both made findings that the taxpayer had engaged in tax avoidance, but which approached the case rather differently on some points. Apart from a clear rejection of the “personal exertion” principle as having no legal basis under Singapore law, it appears that the common conclusion is that professionals incorporating a company would not constitute tax avoidance in itself, but if this was coupled …
Artificially Low Salaries And Tax Dodging, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Artificially Low Salaries And Tax Dodging, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In the recent case of Wee Teng Yau v Comptroller of Income Tax, the Singapore Supreme Court considered the issue of tax avoidance by professionals for the first time. The case involved a dentist, Dr Wee, who was initially employed by Alfred Cheng Orthodontic Clinic Pte Ltd (ACOC). Subsequently, he incorporated Straighten Pte Ltd (SPL), of which he was the sole director and shareholder. Dr Wee continued to provide the same dental services to ACOC's patients as he had done before. However, instead of paying Dr Wee directly for his services, ACOC paid for his services to SPL, which in …
Tax Considerations For Funds Structuring In Asia, Vincent Ooi
Tax Considerations For Funds Structuring In Asia, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Tax considerations play a major role in the decisions of fund managers of where to base their funds. The highly mobile nature of capital has resulted in tax competition, leading to several host jurisdictions for funds in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Labuan, and the BVI) having very similar tax characteristics in terms of low effective corporate income tax rates; no capital gains taxes; no exit taxes; a single tier of taxation; and generally no withholding taxes. Other ways in which jurisdictions have attempted to distinguish themselves include a strong Double Tax Agreement network, certainty on the taxation of the carried …
Tax Implications Of Covid-19 In Singapore, Vincent Ooi
Tax Implications Of Covid-19 In Singapore, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
As taxpayers in Singapore deal with a radically changed business environment due to COVID-19, there is a need to make non-routine decisions quickly. These decisions can have significant tax implications, which will likely manifest themselves later as the economy recovers. It is critical for taxpayers to understand the tax consequences of their decisions, even as they focus on issues of immediate survival. While the majority of the relevant tax principles are not new, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the need to apply these existing principles to new situations and increased the frequency of certain activities that may have been …
Singapore Property Tax Law As It Stands: The Rebus Sic Stantibus Principle And The Statutory Formula, Vincent Ooi
Singapore Property Tax Law As It Stands: The Rebus Sic Stantibus Principle And The Statutory Formula, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The Singapore jurisprudence appears to have adopted the proposition that the rebus sic stantibus principle is to be disapplied where section 2(3) of the Singapore Property Tax Act (“PTA”) (the “Statutory Formula”) is applied. This article argues that this proposition perhaps ought to be stated more precisely. The principle is only disapplied where section 2(3)(b) is applied because it would run contrary to the statutory fiction imposed by section 2(3)(b) that the land is to be valued as if it were vacant land. There should be no disapplication of the principle where section 2(3)(a) is applied due to the absence …
Revisiting The Automation Tax Debate In Light Of Covid-19 And Resulting Structural Unemployment, Vincent Ooi
Revisiting The Automation Tax Debate In Light Of Covid-19 And Resulting Structural Unemployment, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
As lockdowns ease around the globe and businesses reopen, the threat of jobs being automated by machines and workers being displaced as a result has significantly increased. Businesses must keep the number of workers on site to a minimum to comply with safe distancing measures. Under these constraints while social distancing remains the norm, automation might be the way forward for companies that still want to continue production while minimising human contact. The threat of a workforce being replaced by robots and automation, a threat that has already alarmed the labour movement, is heightened with Covid-19. There will be considerable …
The Anti-Avoidance Response To Professionals Incorporating Companies In Singapore, Vincent Ooi
The Anti-Avoidance Response To Professionals Incorporating Companies In Singapore, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The issue of whether the incorporating of companies by professionals in Singapore constitutes tax avoidance has attracted considerable attention. The recent case of GCL v. CIT provides some guidance in this area. It reaffirms the general two-part test in CIT v. AQQ, requiring one to first apply the objective predication principle before moving on to consider the subjective bona fides commercial reason exception. It establishes that the mere fact that a professional incorporated a company through which to practise would not be sufficient to constitute tax avoidance, since such an arrangement is common and widely used, with established commercial benefits. …
Taxing "All Other Income" In Singapore And Malaysia, Vincent Ooi
Taxing "All Other Income" In Singapore And Malaysia, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Section 10(1)(g) of the Singapore Income Tax Act is a ‘sweeping-up’ provision which catches all income not falling under sections 10(1)(a)–(f). More than 50 years after its introduction, the application of section 10(1)(g) is still unclear despite the test laid out in IB v CIT. This article notes that the current jurisprudence is limited to cases involving gains or profits from the disposal of assets. It argues that the reliance on the Australian Myer Emporium test in IB v CIT was misplaced and that the section 10(1)(g) test should not have a sole focus on intention. Rather, it proposes a …
General Anti-Avoidance Rules And The Rule Of Law, Vincent Ooi
General Anti-Avoidance Rules And The Rule Of Law, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
General Anti-Avoidance Rules (“GAARs”) grant tax authorities wide powers to counteract tax avoidance transactions notwithstanding that the taxpayer may have complied with the strict letter of the law. These wide powers raise questions of possible conflicts with fundamental principles such as the Rule of Law, and Distributive and Corrective Justice. The main difficulty arises in attempting to reconcile the need for a GAAR to apply to unpredictable and rapidly developing situations, and the principle of certainty as one of the foundations of the Rule of Law. This paper begins by defining tax avoidance, establishing a moral duty to pay tax …
Singapore's Consistent, Agile Support For Innovation And Ip In A Digital Age, Sam Sim, Vincent Ooi
Singapore's Consistent, Agile Support For Innovation And Ip In A Digital Age, Sam Sim, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Singapore has been agile in refining its support for companies investing in the acquisition, development, enhancement and exploitation of intellectual property rights, which is the key to innovation in the digitalised economy of the future.Sam Sim and Vincent Ooi outline the main tax measures announced in recent budgets.
The Case For Redistributive Taxation In Singapore, Vincent Ooi
The Case For Redistributive Taxation In Singapore, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In light of the recent debate on whether Singapore should consider imposing wealth and inheritance taxes on ultra-high net worth individuals, this article seeks to address two key questions: 1) whether wealth should be taxed; and 2) how wealth should be taxed. The first question is one of moral philosophy while the second is one of tax policy.
Automation Tax Vs Robot-Tax, Vincent Ooi
Automation Tax Vs Robot-Tax, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The positive impact of developments in technology on the economy has historically outweighed the disruptive impact on employment. Society has benefited from the efficiency gains derived from the application of technology in production, while workers displaced by these technologies have largely been successfully retrained and employed in other jobs. However, the pace of development of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” now presents a risk of mass displacement of human labour, particularly in tasks that are repetitive and menial. The “Fourth Industrial Revolution” is characterised by significant progress in a closely-linked cluster of areas such as robot dexterity, machine learning, processing power, …
Proposed Reforms To Singapore Goods And Services Taxation In The Digital Economy, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Proposed Reforms To Singapore Goods And Services Taxation In The Digital Economy, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
With the rapid development of the digital economy and the increasing importance of GST as a source of tax revenue, the Singapore Government has proposed several reforms to tighten the collection of tax revenue and tap its tax base more efficiently. The reforms focus on activating the currently dormant “reverse charge” mechanism to collect GST on supplies of services “imported” by businesses; creating an “overseas vendor registration regime” to catch digital products “imported” by individuals; and clarifying the “place of supply” requirement for supplies of digital products. This article considers the reforms from the perspective of a foreign business that …
Taxation Of Automation And Artificial Intelligence As A Tool Of Labour Policy, Vincent Ooi, Glendon Goh
Taxation Of Automation And Artificial Intelligence As A Tool Of Labour Policy, Vincent Ooi, Glendon Goh
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Rapid developments in automation technology pose a risk of mass displacement of human labour, resulting in the need to support and retrain displaced workers (a negative externality). We propose an “automation tax” that would slow the adoption of automation technology in appropriate circumstances, giving workers and social support systems time to adapt. This could be easily implemented through changes to the existing schedular system of depreciation/ capital allowances, reducing the uncertainty of its application and implementation costs. Such a system would be flexible enough to keep up with rapid technological developments. Two main dimensions may be adjusted to produce intended …
Stamp Duty Relief And Anti-Avoidance Provisions, Vincent Ooi
Stamp Duty Relief And Anti-Avoidance Provisions, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Reliefs from stamp dutyIn certain circumstances, stamp duty reliefs may be applicable to instruments that would otherwise be dutia-ble, provided that the reliefs are claimed within specified statutory time limits. Such reliefs are distinct from stamp duty remissions, which may be granted by the Minister through the exercise of his powers under Sec-tion 74 of the Stamp Duties Act (Cap 312, 2006 Ed.). Under Section 74 of the Stamp Duties Act, the Minister has the discretion to prospectively or retrospectively reduce or remit duties subject to such conditions as he may impose. This power may be exercised on a general …
Gst Contract Review, Vincent Ooi
Gst Contract Review, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
GST contract review—overviewTax lawyers are often asked to review a commercial contracts from a Goods Services Tax (“GST”) perspec-tive. This note focuses on contracts for the supply of services or goods, and not a contract for the sale and purchase of a business.Understanding the GST consequences of the contractThe contract that you are asked to review will usually contain a GST clause, but it is insufficient to look only at that clause. As further explained in Practice Note: How to review a commercial contract for GST purposes, you should also review the whole contract so that you can establish:• What …
Shining A Light On Tax Avoidance, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Shining A Light On Tax Avoidance, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Tax avoidance is a technical legal term which has a precise meaning in law. This can be compared to the more general term of "tax dodging", which has no such technical legal meaning. In light of this, we think it might be useful to explain the concept of tax avoidance.
Stamp Duty Issues In Singapore Corporate Practice, Vincent Ooi
Stamp Duty Issues In Singapore Corporate Practice, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
A new dimension to the determination and computation of stamp duties payable in corporate transactions has been introduced due to the Additional Conveyance Duties (“ACD”) Regime. For companies with significant residential property holdings, liability to pay ACD potentially extends to all transactions involving the issuance, transfer or cancellation of equity interests. This paper considers the impact of ACD on several common corporate transactions in Singapore, addressing the risks practitioners may face in being blindsided by potential tax liabilities. Besides highlighting potential pitfalls, this paper explores the use of advance rulings and preferring debt financing over equity financing for tax optimisation.
Broad, Inflexible And Redundant?: Fixing The Anti-Avoidance Rule In Section 75a Finance Act 2003, Vincent Ooi
Broad, Inflexible And Redundant?: Fixing The Anti-Avoidance Rule In Section 75a Finance Act 2003, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Sections 75A - 75C of the Finance Act 2003 (‘the Sections’) were enacted with the intention of countering schemes that have the effect of reducing Stamp Duty Land Tax (‘SDLT’) liability. These sections were subjected to criticism right from the start, with practitioners noting its exceptionally broad scope and some going so far as to call it ‘fundamentally deficient’ and ‘almost unworkable in practice’. The recent decisions of the First-Tier Tribunal in Project Blue Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners (‘Project Blue FTT’) and its subsequent appeal to the Upper Tribunal in Project Blue Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners …