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Category: Singapore News

Published: 25 June 2020

• The rental relief framework provides mandated co-sharing of rental obligations between the Government, landlords and tenants
• The new rental relief framework will also be applicable for eligible Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) and tenants of government properties
• These measures are intended to establish a baseline position for the handling of tenants’ rental obligations:
  • Rental relief provided by Government and Landlords
  • Eligibility Criteria of SMEs
  • (For Landlords) Application for Assessment
  • Repayment scheme for rental arrears
• Rental relief provided by Government and Landlords
  • Eligible SMEs which are occupying tenants (including subtenants and licensees) can receive a total of 4 months’ waiver of base rental for qualifying commercial properties (e.g shops), and a total of 2 months’ waiver of base rental for industrial and office properties, provided by the Government and landlords

• • • Government  Assistance
      • Owners of qualifying commercial properties (e.g. shops)
        • Approximately 1.2 months of rent through the property tax rebate
        • Additional cash grants approximately equivalent to 0.8 month of rent
        • Landlords will be required to grant eligible smes 2 months’ waiver of their base rental
      • Owners of industrial/ office properties
        • Approximately 0.36 month through the property tax rebate
        • Approximately 0.64 month of rent
        • Landlords will be required to grant 1 month’s waiver of their base rental
      • Conditions:
        • With not more than $100 million in annual turnover reported in their tax returns filed for year of assessment 2019, and
        • (i) entered into before 25 march 2020 or
        • (ii) entered into before 25 march 2020 but expired and renewed automatically, or in exercise of a right of renewal in the contract
    • Landlord
      • The rental waivers may subject to conditions be offset by any previous direct monetary assistance provided by the landlord to the tenant (or subtenant/licensee) and/or any passing on of the Property Tax Rebate from property owners to their tenants
• Eligibility Criteria for Additional Rental Relief to be provided by Landlords
  • Occupying tenants (including subtenants and licensees) will need to satisfy all criteria below to be eligible for the mandatory rental relief co-shared by landlords:
    • SME at the group level (≤$100 million turnover in 2019);
    • Substantial drop in average monthly revenue during COVID-19 (average monthly revenue from April to May 2020 on an outlet level reduced by 35% or more, compared to April to May 2019); and
    • The tenancy must be in force on 1 April 2020 and must have been: (i) entered into before 25 March 2020; or (ii) entered into before 25 March 2020 but expired and was renewed automatically, or in exercise of a right of renewal in the contract
•  Landlord’s application for assessment
  • Landlords will have the opportunity to apply to have an Assessor determine whether the tenant satisfies the eligibility criteria. The case will be examined by an Assessor, who will ascertain the tenant’s (or subtenant’s/licensee’s) eligibility. The legislation will require that tenants provide the necessary information to determine eligibility to the landlord upon request
  • The landlord may also seek an assessment on the grounds of financial hardship if they are unable to provide the additional rental waiver. This will take into consideration the annual value of the landlord’s properties and the proportion of the landlord’s dependence on the rental income for his livelihood
  • If the landlord meets the grounds of financial hardship, the Assessor can halve the amount of additional rental relief that needs to be provided by the landlord, i.e. 1 month waiver of base rental for qualifying commercial properties, and half a month waiver of base rental for industrial and office properties
  • The Assessor’s determination will be binding on both the landlord and the tenant
•  Repayment scheme for rental arrears
  • If the tenant fails to make a payment under the statutory repayment scheme within a prescribed period of time, or the tenant terminates the lease or licence, or the landlord terminates the lease agreement for any other default by the tenant, the statutory repayment scheme will be cancelled, and the landlord will be entitled to:
    • Immediate payment of all the arrears
    • Take steps under the contract for rentals not paid.
  • Landlords may also draw the existing security deposits to offset accumulated rental arrears during the repayment period. They may do so, until there is the equivalent of one month of rent remaining in the security deposit. At the end of the repayment period, the tenant will be obliged to reinstate the security deposit to the contractual amount
  • Tenants who have rescheduled the payment of arrears will have to provide specified documents and information to their landlords if: (a) the lease agreement is terminated or repudiated during the repayment period; and (b) there are 2 or more rescheduled repayment instalments outstanding
  • The documents and information to be provided will include filing a statutory declaration on their statement of accounts from April 2020 until the termination or repudiation of the lease. The tenant will also be required to set out how he proposes to repay the outstanding rental arrears

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Category: Singapore News

Published: 02 June 2020

After around two months of circuit breakers, our Singapore office has also resumed operations since 02/06/2020.

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Category: Singapore News

Published: 27 May 2020

Singapore government has announced Fortitude Budget on 26/05/2020.

1. Enhanced Jobs Support Scheme (JSS)
   • Extension of JSS to cover wages paid in August 2020
   • Update of base tier of support for severely-affected sectors
   • Only employers who are not allowed to resume operations will continue to receive 75% support for wages paid to local employees, during the period for which they are not allowed to resume operations, or until August 2020, whichever is earlier. Pro-ration will be applied if operations resume in the middle of the month
   • The below table will apply once the employer is allowed to resume operations
2. Supporting Enterprises
   • Helping with Cash Flow, Costs and Credit
     • Foreign worker levy waiver and rebate
       • Extended by up to 2 months for businesses that are not allowed to resume operations after the circuit breaker
         • 100% waiver and $750 rebate in June 2020
         • 50% waiver and $375 rebate in July 2020
     •  Deferment of Higher CPF Contribution Rates
       • Increase in CPF contribution rates for senior workers deferred by 1 year, from 1 January 2021 to 1 January 2022
3. Rental Relief for Tenants in Government and Private Non-Residential Properties
   • Rental Relief for SME Tenants in Private Non-Residential Properties
     • For SME tenants (i.e. with not more than $100 million in annual turnover*) with qualifying leases or licenses commencing before 25 March 2020
     • *This will be based on Corporate Tax and Individual Income Tax returns for the Year of Assessment 2019

     • No	Rental relief schemes	Qualifying criteria	Amount of relief for qualifying commercial property	Amount of relief for other nonresidential properties (e.g. industrial and office properties)
       1	Property Tax Rebate for nonresidential properties, announced earlier in the Unity and Resilience Budgets	The rebate is given to property owners, who are required to pass it on fully to their tenants*	100% Property Tax Rebate (equivalent to about 1.2 month’s of rent)	30% Property Tax Rebate (equivalent to about 0.36 month’s of rent)
       2	Government cash grant [New]	SME tenants in private properties**	Cash grant of ~0.8 month’s of rent, which will be automatically disbursed to property owners from end-July 2020 Landlords are required to pass on the benefit to their SME tenants	Cash grant of ~0.64 month’s of rent, which will be automatically disbursed to property owners from end-July 2020 Landlords are required to pass on the benefit to their SME tenants

     • For property owners whose properties are only partially let out, or whose properties are let out to both SME and non-SME tenants under a single property tax account, they will not automatically receive the government cash grant. In such instances, the property owner should submit an application to IRAS, and provide supporting documents, including proof of SME tenants within its property. IRAS will pro-rate the government cash grant accordingly
   • Mandated rental waiver by landlords
     • The Ministry of Law will also be introducing a new Bill mandating that landlords grant rental waivers to qualifying SME tenants
     • If the new Bill is passed by Parliament, SME tenants of qualifying commercial properties who have suffered a significant revenue drop will benefit from a total of four months of rental relief shared equally between the Government and landlords
   • Rental relief for government tenants

     • Tenant Type	Previous	New	Total
       Stallholders of hawker centres and markets	3 months	2 months	5 months
       Commercial	2 months	2 months	4 months
       Industrial, office and agricultural	1 month	1 month	2 months

4. Supporting for Digital Transformation
   • Adopting e-payments
     • Bonus of $300 per month over 5 months to encourage adoption of e-payments by stallholders in
       • Hawker centres
       • Wet markets
       • Coffee shops
       • Industrial canteens
   • Digital Resilience Bonus

   • 	Baseline	Category 1 ($2,500)	Category 2 ($2,500)	Category 3 ($5,000)
     Food Services	PayNow Corporate and e-invoicing	Business process solutions: (i)Accounting; (ii)HR/Payroll (iii)Digital ordering (dine in/takeaway)	Digital presence: online food delivery (via food delivery platforms or own online shopfront) or e-procurement	Data-driven operations: data mining and analytics
     Retail	PayNow Corporate and e-invoicing	(i)Accounting; (ii)HR/Payroll; (iii)Inventory management	Digital presence: e-commerce	Data-driven operations: data mining and analytics

5. SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package
   • Enhanced Hiring Incentive

Details

Category: Singapore News

Published: 29 April 2020

IRAS

ACRA

Tax Season 2020

Portal to e-File tax return:  https://mytax.iras.gov.sg/ESVWeb/default.aspx

Income Tax for Trusts -  Form T

Persons Required to Submit Form T

• Legal personal representative (administrator/executor) of an estate of a deceased; and
• Trustee of an estate held in trust,  private trust or settlement

Income to Declare in Form T

• Income earned one day after the date of death from assets left behind by a deceased person; or
• Income from assets held under a private trust/settlement

Income Tax for Clubs and Associations -  Form P1

Persons Required to Submit Form P1

• The president,
• Honorary treasurer,
• Secretary or
• Any other member of the management committee 

Submit to:

The Comptroller of Income Tax Compliance,
Clubs, Trust and Gaming Branch
55 Newton Road, Revenue House
Singapore 307987

Note: IRAS will not issue any reminders to the clubs or associations

Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI)

ECI is an estimate of the company's taxable income (after deducting tax-allowable expenses) for a Year of Assessment (YA).

All companies must file Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) within three months from the end of their financial year except for companies that qualify for the administrative concession and those that are specifically not required to file.

Waiver to File ECI

GST Returns

GST-registered businesses are required to use CorpPass to e-File their GST returns through https://mytax.iras.gov.sg/ESVWeb/default.aspx

S45 Withholding Tax Forms

Payers are required to e-file and pay the withholding tax to IRAS by the 15th of the second month from the date of payment to the non-resident

Tax Clearances for Foreign Employee

When non-Singapore Citizen employee ceases employment in Singapore, goes on an overseas posting or plans to leave Singapore for more than three months

Employer must notify IRAS at least one month in advance

Employer shall withhold all monies due to the employee from the date aware of his impending cessation of employment or departure from Singapore

Applies to all work pass holders including Personalised Employment Pass (PEP) holders

Details

Category: Singapore News

Published: 22 April 2020

Singapore Government has extended the soldarity budget on 21 April 2020.

1. Jobs Support Scheme wage subsidy
   • Extend the 75% wage subsidy under the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) to all sectors for the month of May

   • Payout	Date of Payment	Aviation and tourism	Food services	Others
     		Computation of Payout Capped at first $4,600 of gross monthly wages Based on:
     Payout 1	Apr 2020	+ 75% of Oct 2019 wages + 75% of Nov 2019 wages + 75% of Dec 2019 wages	+ 75% of Oct 2019 wages + 50% of Nov 2019 wages + 50% of Dec 2019 wages	+ 75% of Oct 2019 wages + 25% of Nov 2019 wages + 25% of Dec 2019 wages
     Additional Payout in May	May 2020	+ 75% of Nov 2019 wages	+ 75% of Nov 2019 wages	+ 75% of Nov 2019 wages
     Payout 2	Jul 2020	+ 75% of Feb 2020 wages  + 75% of Mar 2020 wages + 75% of Apr 2020 wages	+ 50% of Feb 2020 wages + 50% of Mar 2020 wages + (75% of Apr 2020 wages  – 25% of Oct 2019 wages*)	+ 25% of Feb 2020 wages + 25% of Mar 2020 wages + (75% of Apr 2020 wages – 50% of Oct 2019 wages*)
     Payout 3	Oct 2020	+ (75% of May 2020 wages  – 75% of Nov 2019 wages)** + 75% of Jun 2020 wages  + 75% of Jul 2020 wages	+ (75% of May 2020 wages  – 75% of Nov 2019 wages)** + 50% of Jun 2020 wages + 50% of Jul 2020 wage	+ (75% of May 2020 wages  – 75% of Nov 2019 wages)** + 25% of Jun 2020 wages + 25% of Jul 2020 wages

   • * This adjustment is for the temporary JSS enhancement for the month of April 2020. Any negative quantum for a single employee will be offset from the overall JSS payout for the employer. 

     ** Any negative quantum for a single employee will be offset from the overall JSS payout for the employer

   • Extend to Director-Shareholder

     • Companies registered on or before 20 April 2020

     • For the wages of shareholder-directors with Assessable Income of $100,000 or less for Year of Assessment 2019

     • Included in the May 2020 and subsequent JSS payouts

     • Back-payment for companies with qualifying shareholder-directors whose wages were excluded from the first JSS payout in April 2020 will be included in May 2020 payout also

2. Waiving the Foreign Worker Levy (FWL) due in May and provide employers with another $750 in FWL rebate for every foreign worker in employment
3. Solidarity Payment for adult Singaporeans
   • About 90% of adult Singaporeans received the Solidarity Payment of $600 through direct bank transfer on 14 April 2020.
   • The rest will be receiving this payment through their recently registered bank accounts on 28 April 2020, or by cheque from 30 April 2020 onwards.
   • The remaining Enhanced Care and Support – Cash will be paid out from end-June 2020, together with the $300 for each parent of a Singaporean child aged 20 and below in 2020, and $100 cash for Singaporeans aged 50 and above in 2020 (replacing the PAssion Card top-up)
4. Temporary Relief Fund and COVID-19 Support Grant for lower- to middle- income Singaporeans
   • Lower- to middle-income Singaporeans who require urgent help with their basic living expenses can apply for the Temporary Relief Fund which provides a one-off cash grant of $500 in April.
   • From 1 May 2020 onwards, Singaporeans who are unemployed due to COVID-19 can apply for the COVID-19 Support Grant, which provides a cash grant of $800 a month for three months. MSF will provide more details on how to apply soon