10 November 2014
On 30 October 2014, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) issued an e-Tax Guide, “Research and development tax measures (3rd Edition)”.
This e-Tax Guide sets out the relevant research and development (R&D) tax measures as announced in Budgets 2008 to 2014. It clarifies on the existing definition of R&D and its qualifying criteria and helps taxpayers self-assess if their R&D activities are qualifying R&D activities for tax purpose.
The taxpayer need not apply to any government agency for these R&D tax measures, however this excludes R&D projects approved under section 14E of the Income Tax Act (ITA). The taxpayer must self-assess if his or her R&D activities are qualifying R&D activities for tax purpose and if so, make the relevant claims in the annual tax return.
This e-Tax Guide provides guidance in the following areas:
- Part A: Qualifying R&D project
- Part B: R&D tax deductions
- Part C: Administrative procedures
The definition of a qualifying R&D project covered in this e-Tax Guide is also relevant to the R&D claims made under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) Scheme under section 14DA(2) of the ITA .
In the third edition, the Guide is updated with the inclusion of Annex G – Application software R&D projects, which outlines the types of information that should be provided to IRAS.
The previous edition of the e-Tax Guide was published on 22 August 2014.
For full details, please refer the e-Tax Guide on the IRAS website.
Source: This article was extracted from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore’s (IRAS) website. Visit http://www.iras.gov.sg/ for more information.