PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON DRAFT INCOMETAX (AMENDMENT) BILL 2015

INTRODUCTION

1. The Ministry of Finance is seeking public feedback on the draft Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2015. 

2. We invite you to comment on the proposed policy changes and the drafting of legislative amendments which will give effect to these policy changes. Your views on the drafting will help us improve the clarity of the legislative amendments and help in the ease of compliance. 

SCOPE OF THE CONSULTATION EXERCISE

3. The draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2015 covers three planned changes to existing GST policies and administration resulting from on-going reviews of the GST system. These are:

a. Allowing the Comptroller of GST to impose a Travel Restriction Order on a person who fails to repay a tourist refund wrongly claimed under the Tourist Refund Scheme. Under the Tourist Refund Scheme, only eligible tourists are allowed to claim a refund of the GST paid on goods purchased in and brought out of Singapore. In view that a wrongful tourist refund owed is no different from a tax due to the Government, the Comptroller will be granted powers to impose a Travel Restriction Order on a person who fails to repay a tourist refund wrongly claimed under the Tourist Refund Scheme.  This ineligible claimant will be allowed to leave the country after he repays the refund wrongly claimed;
  
b. Revising the definition of "aircraft" for the purpose of zero-rating supplies made in relation to an aircraft, and extending zero-rating to specific supplies made in relation to non-qualifying aircraft. The policy intent is to zero-rate supplies of and supplies relating to aircrafts that are used for international travel and international transportation of passengers and goods. To affirm this policy intent, the definition of "aircraft" will be revised to refer to any aircraft that is wholly used or intended to be wholly used for international travel, or any military aircraft. Zero-rating will also be extended to specific supplies relating to international flights made by a non-qualifying aircraft, as they are regarded as consumed outside Singapore; 

c. Clarifying the scope of zero-rating in relation to merchandise for sale on board an aircraft or ship. This is a technical change to clarify that zero-rating applies to the supply of goods for use as merchandise for retail sale on board an aircraft or ship. 

4. The summary table  lists the above three changes and explains the amendments to the GST Act and related subsidiary legislations.

GUIDELINES

5. We would appreciate your participation to ensure that the consultation exercise is productive. Respondents are requested to observe these guidelines:

a. please provide your name and the organisation you represent (if any) to enable us to follow up with you to clarify any issues, if necessary; 
b. keep your comments clear and concise; 
c. please use the prescribed template  provided to help us understand your feedback better;
d. your comments should focus on how the legislative amendments can be better written to make them clearer and to make compliance easier; and
e. as far as possible, please explain your points with illustrations, examples, data or alternative formulations of the amendments.

6. This draft legislation is released only for the purpose of consultation and should therefore not be used for individual or business decisions as it does not represent the final legislation or regulations. All comments received during the consultation exercise will be reviewed thoroughly and, if accepted, will be incorporated into the Bill for introduction in Parliament. 

PERIOD OF CONSULTATION

7. The draft GST (Amendment) Bill 2015 for the changes in paragraphs 3a to 3c and the draft subsidiary legislation for the change in paragraph 3b are available for public consultation from 13 July to 31 July 2015. We regret that comments received after 31 July 2015 will not be considered for incorporation into the final Bill.  


FEEDBACK CHANNEL

8. We encourage all interested participants to submit your comments, using the prescribed template , through: 

a. email to pc_gstabill@mof.gov.sg ; or 
b. fax to 6337 4134; or
c. post to:  
Ministry of Finance
100 High Street, #10-01
The Treasury
Singapore 179434

SUMMARY OF RESPONSE

9. We will publish a summary of the main comments we receive on the Ministry Of Finance's website , together with our responses, by September 2015. The identity of respondents will not be disclosed in the summary. 


DOCUMENTS TO DOWNLOAD

10. For further reference, please see below for the relevant documents relating to this public consultation exercise.