5 April 2012

Income Tax Act (Amendment of Seventh Schedule) Order 2012, published on 30 March 2012, shall come into operation on 1 April 2012.

The Order revises Part II of the Seventh Schedule to the Income Tax Act iro the application fees for a ruling to:

(a) a non-refundable application fee of $535 (inclusive of goods and services tax), which must accompany the application (para 1 (a)).

(b) a further fee, calculated at $133.75 (inclusive of goods and services tax) per hour (or part hour), beyond the first four hours, spent in consideration of the application by the Comptroller, including any time spent by the Comptroller in consulting with the applicant (para 1(b)).

Prior to this Order, the fees for (a) and (b) were $525 and $131.25 respectively.

The fee for the provision of an advance ruling is based on cost recovery and its structure is as follows:

• Application fee of $535 (inclusive of GST) is payable upon application and is  non-refundable even if the ruling request is rejected by the Comptroller of Goods and Services Tax (CGST) (e.g. where  the arrangement is hypothetical) or subsequently withdrawn by the applicant (regardless of the reasons for withdrawal). This is to deter frivolous requests and it takes into account the time the CGST spent on considering whether to accept the request
• further time-based fee of $133.75 (inclusive of GST) per hour for each or part hour  subsequent to the first four hours taken to provide the ruling, and
• reimbursement fee for any costs and reasonable disbursements the CGST incurred for the advance ruling, and any fees paid by the CGST for external  professional advice with the agreement of the taxpayer.

Source: e-Gazette and IRAS