20 May 2013

In a joint statement issued by Ministry of Finance, Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, Singapore will take four key steps to further strengthen its current Exchange of Information (EOI) framework:

• Extend EOI assistance to all existing tax agreement partners, without having to update existing bilateral tax agreements as the extension of EOI assistance will be subject to reciprocity.
• Sign the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, expanding Singapore’s network of EOI partners by 11 jurisdictions, including Brazil and the United States.
• Allow IRAS to obtain bank and trust information from financial institutions without having to seek a Court Order.
• Conclude with the United States an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) that will facilitate financial institutions in Singapore to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). This will require all financial institutions outside of the US to pass information about financial accounts held by US persons to the US Inland Revenue Service (US IRS) on a regular basis.

Under the internationally agreed Standard for EOI for tax purposes, the number of jurisdictions that Singapore will be able to exchange information will expand from 41 to 83.

The legislative amendments to effect the above changes are expected to be made before the end of this year.

Source: Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS)