Help for firms to cope with challenges arising from tax reform

Businesses will get help to cope with challenges arising from the introduction of a global minimum effective tax rate of 15 per cent, said Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah in Parliament.

- Prisca Ang

She was responding to MPs who spoke on Oct 14 about providing more support to businesses as the debate continued on Oct 15.

Singapore will implement two new top-up taxes, announced at Budget 2024, for large multinational enterprises (MNEs) with annual group revenue of at least €750 million (S$1.1 billion) in at least two of the preceding four financial years. The taxes will apply to a company's financial year starting on or after Jan 1, 2025.

The domestic top-up tax (DTT) will apply to the Singapore entities of a large MNE group, and will be payable if the group's effective tax rate in Singapore is below 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, the multinational enterprise top-up tax (MTT) will apply to large MNE groups that are parented in Singapore. If the effective tax rate of the MNE group's entities in any foreign jurisdiction is below 15 per cent, the tax will be imposed to top up the rate to 15 per cent.

The taxes ensure that Singapore is aligned with the international implementation of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS 2.0) framework, a global initiative that aims to address tax avoidance.

Ms Indranee said that if Singapore does not impose these taxes, affected MNE groups would have to pay the taxes to other jurisdictions that have imposed rules under BEPS 2.0.

"Hence, it is in Singapore's interest to impose the (domestic top-up tax and multinational enterprise top-up tax), so that we can collect the tax, rather than cede it to other jurisdictions," she said.