Public Consultation on Proposed Finance (Income Taxes) Bill 2025

Ministry of Finance

Consultation Period: 18 Jun 2025 - 11 Jul 2025

Status: Closed

Detailed Description

INTRODUCTION

1. The Ministry of Finance is seeking public feedback from 18 June to 11 July 2025 on the proposed Finance (Income Taxes) Bill 2025. The Bill proposes 33 amendments to the Income Tax Act 1947 (“ITA”) and 17 amendments to the Multinational Enterprise (Minimum Tax) Act 2024 (“MMTA”) to effect:

   1. Tax measures announced in the 2025 Budget Statement (16 ITA amendments);

   2. Changes arising from MOF’s periodic review of Singapore’s income tax system (17 ITA amendments);

   3. Clarifications that are in accordance with the Pillar Two Global Anti-Base Erosion Model Rules, commentary and administrative guidance (“GloBE rules”) (11 MMTA amendments);

   4. Expansion of regulation-making powers necessary to operate the GloBE rules (three MMTA amendments); and

   5. Miscellaneous amendments (three MMTA amendments).

SCOPE OF THE CONSULTATION

Proposed amendments to the ITA

2. There are 16 amendments to effect measures announced in the 2025 Budget Statement. Key amendments include the following:

   1. Corporate Income Tax (“CIT”) Rebate. To provide support for companies’ cash flow needs, a CIT Rebate of 50% of the CIT payable will be granted in Year of Assessment (“YA”) 2025. Companies that are active and have employed at least one local employee in Calendar Year 2024 will receive a minimum benefit of $2,000 in the form of a CIT Rebate Cash Grant. The total maximum benefit that a company may receive is $40,000.

   2. Personal Income Tax (“PIT”) Rebate. As part of the SG60 package, a PIT Rebate of 60% of tax payable will be provided to all tax resident individuals for YA 2025. The rebate will be capped at $200 per taxpayer.

   3. Tax incentives recommended by the Equities Market Review Group¹. To encourage new listings in Singapore and increase investment demand for Singapore-listed equities, the following tax incentives will be introduced:

      1. Listing CIT Rebate for new corporate listings in Singapore;

      2. Enhanced concessionary tax rate of 5% for new fund manager listings in Singapore; and

      3. Tax exemption on fund managers’ qualifying income arising from funds investing substantially in Singapore-listed equities.

3. The 17 remaining amendments arise from MOF’s periodic review of Singapore’s income tax system to better reflect policy objectives and to improve tax administration. These include granting income tax exemption for government payouts to individuals that are intended to achieve social and economic objectives such as retirement adequacy and upskilling.

Proposed amendments to the MMTA

4. There are 14 amendments to clarify the definitions and rules in the MMTA and provide regulation-making powers required to operate the GloBE rules. They ensure that Singapore’s Multinational Enterprise Top-up Tax and Domestic Top-up Tax regime remains in accordance with the GloBE rules. The three remaining miscellaneous amendments pertain to editorial changes.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION

5. Respondents are requested to observe these guidelines when providing feedback:

   1. Please identify yourself and the organisation you represent (if any) so that we can follow up to clarify any comments if needed.

   2. Be clear and concise in your comments, and use the template provided to organise your feedback.

   3. Focus your comments on how the drafting of the proposed legislative amendments can be better written for clarity and to facilitate compliance.

   4. As far as possible, explain your points with illustrations, examples, data or alternative formulations of the amendments.

6. This proposed legislation is released only for the purpose of consultation and should not be used for individual or business decisions as it does not represent the final legislation.

7. All comments received during the consultation will be reviewed thoroughly and if accepted, will be incorporated in the Bill for introduction in Parliament.

FEEDBACK CHANNEL

8. We request that all interested parties submit your comments using the template, through email to pc_itabill@mof.gov.sg.

SUMMARY OF RESPONSE

9. We will publish a summary of the main comments received on the Ministry of Finance’s website, together with our responses, by Q4 2025. The identities of respondents will not be disclosed in the summary.

DOCUMENTS TO DOWNLOAD

10. Please refer to the proposed Finance (Income Taxes) Bill 2025 and its accompanying Explanatory Statement for details. The Annexes provide a brief description of the 50 proposed amendments.

11. Please click on the links below to download the relevant documents for this public consultation.

Other useful references:

• You may obtain a copy of the ITA and MMTA at https://sso.agc.gov.sg.

• For more details on the tax changes, you may refer to the circulars on IRAS’ website.
  

¹ For more details on the first set of measures by the Equities Market Review Group, please refer to:  https://www.mas.gov.sg/-/media/mas/news/media-releases/2025/annex-a---first-set-of-measures-by-the-review-group.pdf