RESEARCH and development (R&D) here is expected to get a healthy boost with the expected passing of new targeted tax measures, but much more could be done to foster this vital activity.
That was the message from PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) seminar at Suntec City on Tuesday as experts shared their views on a tax reform bill that is expected to be passed in Parliament next week.
A slew of measures was announced in February's Budget aimed at giving more tax relief to big and small firms.
They include widening the scope of R&D tax deductions from manufacturing and services to 'any area' as long as the companies perform R&D in Singapore, and a further 50 per cent tax concession, bringing the total to 150 per cent.
Still, PwC's tax partner Abhijit Ghosh said that Singapore's shift to a knowledge-based economy driven by R&D means the tax provisions on R&D need to be simplified and liberalised further.
Mr Ghosh, offered one suggestion of doing away with a requirement to get Economic Development Board approval as this was time consuming.
A second proposal was to allow firms incurring foreign tax credits on royalty income to pool or carry forward this withholding tax so they can offset it against future or different sources of income.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
