21 June 2012

On 18 June 2012, IRAS issued a fifth edition GST guide on “Property Owners and Property Holding Companies”

This guide explains how GST affects property owners or a property holding company and gives guidance on the application and treatment of GST for property transactions. The type of residential property that qualifies for GST exemption is also explained.

In this edition, revisions have been made to:

• paragraph 3 to clarify the definition of residential property where it referred to as vacant residential land, and residential building, flat, or tenement (referred to as ‘building’), and
• paragraph 8 to clarify the GST treatment for serviced apartments where if a furnished serviced apartment is let out, only the rental of the bare unit is exempt.  The rental of the furniture and fittings, provision of utilities as well as the provision of services such as house-keeping, security and maintenance of common facilities are taxable.

Source: This article was extracted from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) website.