Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 7 of 7
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 …
Tax Challenges In Debt Financing Involving Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
Tax Challenges In Debt Financing Involving Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
When digital tokens are used in debt finance, one cannot assume that the same orthodox tax treatment will apply. The highly specific nature of tax provisions means that they may apply very differently once digital tokens rather than fiat currency are involved. Through a case study of Singapore law, this article shows that if debt finance transactions involving digital tokens are not carefully structured, there may be severe tax consequences, including the inability to deduct borrowing costs or benefit from common tax incentives, and the possible incurrence of additional tax liabilities. This article submits that, under Singapore tax law, it …
Made Crypto Losses? Don't Assume The Taxman Will Subsidise You, Vincent Ooi, Vincent Ooi
Made Crypto Losses? Don't Assume The Taxman Will Subsidise You, Vincent Ooi, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The key points we made in the article are as follows:1) One might think that because income from transactions involving cryptocurrencies is taxable, the losses from such transactions would also be deductible. Unfortunately, the situation is not quite so straightforward.2) The key question is whether it is possible to establish that there was a trade or business (in trading cryptocurrencies). If so, then the deduction rules are a lot more generous. Otherwise, there will be quite a few restrictions:a) Losses from cryptocurrency transactions are unlikely to be useable to be set off against income from other sources.b) The losses will …
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 …
New Assets, (Largely) Same Old Rules: The Taxation Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
New Assets, (Largely) Same Old Rules: The Taxation Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
In this blog post, I highlight the fact that across jurisdictions, tax provisions specifically drafted to address the taxation of digital tokens are still quite rare, meaning that existing orthodox tax rules will have to be applied. However, care must be taken when applying tax provisions and one must be aware of the limits of "reasoning by analogy".Some tax provisions make reference to specific assets or asset classes and it cannot be assumed that digital tokens which look very similar to these assets will inevitably fall under those provisions. For example, no matter how much a digital payment token looks …
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 …
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 …