Singapore

Companies (resident and non-resident) that carry on a business in Singapore are taxed on their Singapore-sourced income when it arises and on foreign-sourced income when it is received in Singapore. Non-residents are subject to withholding tax (WHT) on certain types of income (e.g. interest, royalties, technical service fees, rental of movable property) where these are deemed to arise in Singapore (for details, see the Withholding taxes section).

Tax on corporate income is imposed at a flat rate of 17%.

A partial tax exemption and a three-year start-up tax exemption for qualifying start-up companies are available.

Partial tax exemption (income taxable at normal rate):

Start-up tax exemption (income taxable at normal rate):

The start-up exemption is not available to property development and investment holding companies.

For income year 2024 (year of assessment 2025), eligible companies will receive a non-taxable CIT rebate cash grant of SGD 2,000. In addition, all companies will be granted a 50% CIT rebate, capped at SGD 40,000 if the company does not qualify for the CIT rebate cash grant or SGD 38,000 if it does.

Singapore adopts a one-tier taxation system, under which all dividends paid by Singapore-resident companies are tax-exempt in the shareholder’s hands.

Global minimum tax and domestic minimum top-up tax

Singapore has enacted the Multinational Enterprise (Minimum Tax) Act 2024 (MMT Act) and regulations to implement the Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) (referred to as the Multinational Enterprise Top-up Tax (MTT) in the MMT Act) and Domestic Top-up Tax (DTT), for in-scope multinational enterprise groups. The new law is effective for financial years starting on or after 1 January 2025. The IIR and DTT are two key components of the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Rules under the OECD’s Two-Pillar Solution to address the tax challenges of digitalisation of the economy. The MTT applies to Singapore parent entities in respect of the profits of constituent entities operating in any jurisdiction outside Singapore where the jurisdictional effective tax rate of such entities is less than 15%. The DTT applies in respect of the profits of the group’s constituent entities in Singapore where the effective tax rate of such entities is less than 15%. The undertaxed profits rule is not adopted at this stage.

For more detailed information and the most recent updates, please visit PwC’s Pillar Two Country Tracker.