23 January 2015

On 22 January 2015, the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) issued an e-Tax Guide, “Research and development tax measures (4th 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 fourth edition, the Guide is updated with the inclusion of “Annex H – Food & Beverages Industry (F&B)” which aims to guide taxpayers from this industry to evaluate if the projects undertaken by them qualify for R&D tax incentives.

The previous edition of the e-Tax Guide was published on 30 October 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