Singapore legislation

Clause 45

of Goods And Services Tax Bill

Clause 45

Comptroller may disregard certain transactions and dispositions

(1)

Where the Comptroller is satisfied that the purpose or effect of any arrangement is directly or indirectly —

(a)

to alter the incidence or postpone the time due of any tax which is payable by or which would otherwise have been payable by any person;

(b)

to relieve any person from any liability to pay tax or to make a return under this Act;

(c)

to reduce or avoid any liability imposed or which would otherwise have been imposed on any person by this Act; or

(d)

to obtain any credit or refund of input tax or any increase thereof for any person which would not otherwise have been obtained,the Comptroller may, without prejudice to such validity as it may have in any other respect or for any other purpose, disregard or vary the arrangement and make such adjustments as he considers appropriate so as to counteract any tax advantage obtained or obtainable by that person from or under that arrangement.

(2)

Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Comptroller may, for the purposes of this section, deem —

(a)

any person (not being, apart from this section, a taxable person) who is a party to or has participated in any way in any arrangement, to be a taxable person;

(b)

any supply of goods or services, whether or not a taxable supply, that is affected by or is part of any arrangement, to be both made to and made by any taxable person or a person deemed to be taxable under paragraph (a);

(c)

any supply of goods and services to take place in any prescribed accounting period that, but for any arrangement affected by this section, would have been the prescribed accounting period in which the supply was made;

(d)

any supply of goods and services to have been made, or consideration for such supply to be given, at open market value.

(3)

In this section —

Definition

“arrangement” means any agreement, contract, plan, understanding, scheme, trust, grant, covenant, disposition, transaction and includes all steps by which it is carried into effect;

Definition

“tax advantage” includes —

(a)

any reduction in the liability of any person to pay tax;

(b)

any increase in the entitlement of a person to a credit or refund of input tax;

(c)

any reduction in the total consideration payable by any person in respect of any supply of goods or services; or

(d)

any postponement of the time when tax is due or payable.

(4)

This section shall 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 or the obtaining of any tax advantage.