Singapore legislation
Section 33B
Section 33B
Claiming of input tax on import of processed goods
(1)
The Minister may by regulations make provision for a taxable person other than a registered (Seventh Schedule — pay only) person to claim any tax paid or payable by such taxable person on the importation of goods as input tax under section 19 (as if the whole of the input tax were allowable under section 20), where the importation occurs in the following circumstances:
such taxable person makes a supply to the taxable person’s customer who is —
a person who belongs in Singapore; or
a taxable person who does not belong in Singapore other than a registered (Seventh Schedule — pay only) person;
the supply comprises the application of any process to, or the carrying out of any process on, goods which such taxable person’s customer consigns to the taxable person in Singapore;
in connection with the supply, such taxable person removes the goods to a country outside Singapore for a process to be applied to or carried out on the goods; and
such taxable person then imports the goods back into Singapore after the process in paragraph (c) has been applied to or carried out on the goods.
(2)
Regulations made under subsection (1) may —
prescribe the conditions (including conditions subsequent) to which a claim for the deduction of an amount of tax pursuant to that subsection is subject; and
require the taxable person to repay to the Comptroller, if any such condition is not satisfied, the amount of tax allowed to the taxable person in such form and manner, and in such time, as may be prescribed.
(3)
The Comptroller may, for the protection of revenue, impose conditions or restrictions in relation to any claim referred to in subsection (1).
(4)
In this section, “process”, in relation to goods, includes (but is not limited to) any treatment.
(5)
For the purposes of this section, the customer is treated as belonging in Singapore if the customer —
has in Singapore a business establishment or some other fixed establishment and no such establishment elsewhere;
has no such establishment in any country but the customer’s usual place of residence is in Singapore; or
has such establishments both in Singapore and elsewhere and among which the establishment of the customer that is most directly concerned with the supply referred to in subsection (1) being made to the customer, is in Singapore.
(6)
For the purposes of subsection (5) —
a customer carrying on a business through a branch or an agency in any country is treated as having a business establishment there; and
“usual place of residence”, in relation to a body corporate, means the place where it is incorporated or otherwise legally constituted.