Singapore legislation
Section 33
Section 33
Comptroller to disregard certain transactions and dispositions
(1)
Subsection (2) applies where the Comptroller is satisfied that the purpose or effect of any arrangement is directly or indirectly —
to alter the incidence of any tax that is payable by or that would otherwise have been payable by any person;
to relieve any person from any liability to pay tax or to make a return under this Act; or
to reduce or avoid any liability imposed or which would otherwise have been imposed on any person by this Act.
(2)
Without affecting any validity that the arrangement may have in any other respect or for any other purpose, the Comptroller must disregard or vary the arrangement and make any adjustment that the Comptroller considers appropriate, including (but not limited to) the computation or recomputation of gains or profits, or the imposition of liability to tax, so as to counteract any tax advantage obtained or obtainable by that person from or under that arrangement.
(3)
Subsection (1)(c) includes increasing any qualifying deduction by a transferor company to be transferred to a claimant company under section 37B, in order to reduce or avoid any liability imposed or which would otherwise have been imposed on the claimant company by this Act.
(4)
Nothing in this section prevents the applicability of subsection (1) to a case, or any action of the Comptroller under subsection (2) in a case, from being questioned in an appeal against an assessment in accordance with Part 18.
(5)
In this section —
Definition
“arrangement” means any scheme, trust, grant, covenant, agreement, disposition and transaction and includes all steps by which it is carried into effect;
Definition
“claimant company” and “transferor company” have the meanings given by section 37B(19);
Definition
“qualifying deduction” has the meaning given by section 37B(14).
(6)
This section applies to any arrangement made or entered into before, on or after 7 December 2020, but not one made or entered into before 29 January 1988.
(7)
This section does not apply to any arrangement carried out for bona fide commercial reasons and had not as one of its main purposes the avoidance or reduction of tax.