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Artificially Low Salaries And Tax Dodging, Hern Kuan Liu, Vincent Ooi Dec 2020

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 …


Will Create Resolve The Philippines’ Unemployment Woes Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic?, Krista Danielle Yu, Marites Tiongco Oct 2020

Will Create Resolve The Philippines’ Unemployment Woes Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic?, Krista Danielle Yu, Marites Tiongco

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a proposal to amend the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act (CITIRA) into the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) Act. The proposed amendments are as follows: (a) An immediate five percentage point cut into the corporate income tax (CIT) rate starting July 2020; (b) Maintaining for up to nine years the status quo for registered business activities enjoying the 5% tax on gross income earned (GIE) incentive; and (c) More flexibility for the President to grant a combination of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, which will be critical …


Tax Considerations For Funds Structuring In Asia, Vincent Ooi Oct 2020

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 Sep 2020

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 Aug 2020

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 Jul 2020

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 Tax Treatment Of Haircuts In Financial Reorganizations, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez, Vincent Ooi Jul 2020

The Tax Treatment Of Haircuts In Financial Reorganizations, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Over the past few years, Singapore has implemented various ambitious insolvency reforms aimed at making the country an international hub for debt restructuring. This article argues that while Singapore has put in place one of the most sophisticated restructuring frameworks in the world, some tax reforms might be useful to maximise the potential of this new restructuring framework. Namely, it will be pointed out that the tax treatment of debt forgiveness granted by creditors in corporate reorganisation (‘haircuts’) should be reviewed. Under the current legislation, these haircuts may be treated as taxable income. As a result, financially distressed debtors may …


The Anti-Avoidance Response To Professionals Incorporating Companies In Singapore, Vincent Ooi Jun 2020

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. …


The Wealth Tax: Apportionment, Federalism, And Constitutionality, Alex Zhang Jan 2020

The Wealth Tax: Apportionment, Federalism, And Constitutionality, Alex Zhang

Faculty Articles

Proposals of wealth taxation as a mechanism to combat economic inequality and raise revenue for welfare programs have dominated recent political debate. Despite extensive academic commentary, questions surrounding the constitutionality of a wealth tax remain unresolved. Previous scholarly approaches have drawn a dichotomy between two key cases. Supporters of the wealth tax emphasize Hylton's functional rule for identifying direct taxes, which must be apportioned under the Constitution, and reject Pollock, which invalidated the federal income tax on the grounds that it was a direct tax. Opponents of the wealth tax, in contrast, argue that Pollock, rather than …


Immigration, Emigration, Fungible Labour And The Retreat From Progressive Taxation, Henry Ordower Jan 2020

Immigration, Emigration, Fungible Labour And The Retreat From Progressive Taxation, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

With emphasis on the US, this chapter explores the role that taxation plays in the movement of people and capital. The chapter addresses the relationship between taxes and retention of capital, including tax incentives for capital investment, shifting tax burdens from capital to labor as progressive taxation wanes, and rules preventing the escape of capital from its current taxing jurisdiction. Next, the discussion moves on to consider how taxes supplement immigration policy to attract capital currently outside the jurisdiction. The chapter then queries whether taxes play any significant role in attracting or retaining skilled labor before identifying how tax trends …


Caregivers And Tax Reform: Before And After Snapshots, Shannon Weeks Mccormack Jan 2020

Caregivers And Tax Reform: Before And After Snapshots, Shannon Weeks Mccormack

Articles

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changed the way families are taxed, starting in tax year 2018. By rearranging a myriad of deck chairs, politicians painted rosy pictures of families reaping the benefits of tax reform. In reality, however, generalizations cannot be made and the extent to which any one family gains or loses depends on particular facts. Even more obscured is the way in which the TCJA changed –– and failed to change –– the taxation of different types of caregivers. This Essay seeks to provide needed clarity in this area. It begins by offering snapshots of how …


The Village Of Billionaires: Fair Taxation And Redistribution Amid Relative And Absolute Poverty, Alexis Brassey, Henry Ordower Jan 2020

The Village Of Billionaires: Fair Taxation And Redistribution Amid Relative And Absolute Poverty, Alexis Brassey, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

Tax justice and principles underpinning the international tax regime are in vogue. The idea that companies and individuals need to pay their "fair share", not just in the domestic sense but also the international sense, is now a mainstream position. This paper explores the problems relating to what might constitute a "fair share" by setting out what is meant when this expression is used. A reasonable assumption is to consider taxation as the means by which the state funds public services and in some jurisdictions, contributes to greater equality within society. Those goals, however, give rise to competing claims. This …


Avoiding Federal And State Constitutional Limitations In Taxation, Henry Ordower Jan 2020

Avoiding Federal And State Constitutional Limitations In Taxation, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

This article reviews some federal and state constitutional law challenges to tax legislation in the US and considers how taxing and other revenue raising legislation tends to withstand constitutional challenge.

Part I of this article examines instances in which the Supreme Court reviewed state taxing laws for conflict with the Constitution and overruled its earlier decisions in similar cases. One case involving a poll or capitation tax worked its way through the courts as the Constitution was being amended to prevent the states from using a poll tax in the future. Another case from 2018 resolves a longstanding tax collection …


Exploring The Impact Of Taxation On Immigration, Henry Ordower Jan 2020

Exploring The Impact Of Taxation On Immigration, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

Rules governing admission of immigrants to stable, developed countries vary widely among countries, yet wealthy immigrants with capital to invest and highly educated immigrants receive favorable admission decisions from immigration authorities more frequently and quickly than do conflict and economic refugees who will become part of a substantially fungible labor force. As preferred immigration destination countries limit the number of immigrants they will admit — the U.S. certainly does —, admissions are likely to follow a hierarchy based on expectations that certain immigrants will contribute significantly to the economy and welfare of the destination country in a manner that distinguishes …