On 20/05/2013,
you requested for the version in force on 20/05/2013
incorporating all amendments published on or before 20/05/2013.
The closest version currently available is that of 01/01/2008.
13S.
—(1) Subject to subsection (4), there shall be exempt from tax the income derived by an approved shipping investment enterprise from the chartering or finance leasing of —
(a)
any sea-going ship for use outside the limits of the port of Singapore and acquired during the period of approval of the shipping investment enterprise referred to in subsection (3) to —
(i)
a person who is neither resident in nor a permanent establishment in Singapore; or
(ii)
an approved international shipping enterprise; or
(b)
any sea-going Singapore ship for use outside the limits of the port of Singapore and acquired during such period of approval to a shipping enterprise within the meaning of section 13A.
[7/2007]
(1)
(2) The Minister or such person as he may appoint may, at any time between 1st March 2006 and 28th February 2011, approve a shipping investment enterprise for the purposes of subsection (1).
[7/2007]
(3) The approval under subsection (2) shall be subject to such conditions, and shall be for such period not exceeding 10 years, as the Minister may specify; except that the Minister may extend the period so specified for such further periods as he thinks fit.
[7/2007]
(4) The Minister or such person as he may appoint may, in respect of any sea-going ship or class of sea-going ships, specify the period during which the income of the sea-going ship or class of sea-going ships may be exempted from tax under subsection (1) not exceeding —
(a)
in the case of any ship used for the carriage of goods or passengers, towage or salvage, a period of 30 years; or
(b)
in the case of any dredger, seismic ship or any ship used for offshore oil or gas activity, a period of 40 years.
[7/2007]
(5) In determining the amount of the income of an approved shipping investment enterprise from the chartering or finance leasing of sea-going shipswhich is exempted under subsection (1), the allowances provided for in sections 16, 17, 18, 19, 19A, 20, 21, 22 and 23, other than allowances made to a lessee of a sea-going ship under regulations made under section 10D —
(a)
shall be taken into account notwithstanding that no claim for those allowances has been made; and
(b)
shall only be deducted against the income referred to in subsection (1), and the balance of those allowances shall not be available as a deduction against any other income, except that any balance remaining unabsorbed at the end of the tax exempt period of the enterprise shall be available as a deduction against any other income for the year of assessment which relates to the basis period in which the tax exemption ceases and for any subsequent year of assessment in accordance with section 23.
[7/2007]
(6) Where an approved shipping investment enterprise incurs a loss during the tax exempt period of the enterprise in respect of activities referred to in subsection (1), that loss —
(a)
shall be deducted in accordance with section 37; and
(b)
shall only be deducted against the income referred to in subsection (1), and the balance of the loss shall not be available as a deduction against any other income, except that any balance remaining unabsorbed at the end of the tax exempt period of the enterprise shall be available as a deduction against any other income for the year of assessment which relates to the basis period in which the tax exemption ceases and for any subsequent year of assessment in accordance with section 37.
[7/2007]
(7) The Comptroller shall for each year of assessment for which the income of an approved shipping investment enterprise is exempt from tax under subsection (1) issue to the enterprise a statement showing the amount of income exempt from tax under subsection (1); and Parts XVII and XVIII (relating to objections and appeals) and any rules made under this Act shall apply, with the necessary modifications, as if such statement were a notice of assessment.
[Act 34/2008, wef Y/A 2009 & Sub Ys/A:2008-ACT-34]
[7/2007]
(8) Subject to subsection (9), where any statement issued to an approved shipping investment enterprise under subsection (7) has become final and conclusive, the amount of income shown therein shall not form part of the statutory income of the enterprise for the year of assessment to which the statement relates and shall be exempt from tax.
[7/2007]
(9) The Comptroller may, before any such statement has become final and conclusive, treat a specified amount of the income of an approved shipping investment enterprise as exempt from tax pending such statement becoming final and conclusive.
[7/2007]
(10) As soon as any amount of the income of an approved shipping investment enterprise, being a company, has been exempted from tax under subsection (1), the amount of the income exempted shall be credited to a special account (referred to in this section as the account) to be kept by the enterprise for the purpose of this section.
[7/2007]
(11) Where the account of an approved shipping investment enterprise is in credit at the date on which any dividends are paid by the enterprise out of the amount credited to that account, an amount equal to those dividends or to that credit, whichever is the less, shall be debited to the account.
[7/2007]
(12) So much of the amount of any dividends debited to the account under subsection (11) as is received by a shareholder of an approved shipping investment enterprise shall, if the Comptroller is satisfied with the entries in the account, be exempt from tax in the hands of the shareholder.
[7/2007]
(13) Any dividends debited to the account shall be treated as having been distributed to the shareholders of the approved shipping investment enterprise or any particular class of the shareholders in accordance with the proportion of their shareholdings in the enterprise.
[7/2007]
(14) Section 44 shall not apply to any dividends or part thereof which are exempt from tax under this section.
[7/2007]
(15) Where an amount of dividends exempt from tax under this section has been received from an approved shipping investment enterprise by a shareholder, then, if that shareholder is a company, any dividends paid by that company to its shareholders, to the extent that the Comptroller is satisfied that those dividends are paid out of that amount, shall be exempt from tax in the hands of those shareholders; and section 44 shall not apply to any such dividend or part thereof.
[7/2007]
(16) Notwithstanding subsections (12) and (15), no dividend paid on any share of a preferential nature shall be exempt from tax under this section in the hands of the shareholder.
[7/2007]
(17) An approved shipping investment enterprise shall deliver to the Comptroller a statement of the account made up to any date specified by him whenever called upon to do so by notice in writing.
[7/2007]
(18) Notwithstanding anything in this section, where it appears to the Comptroller that —
(a)
any income of an approved shipping investment enterprise which has been exempted from tax under subsection (1); or
(b)
any dividend which has been exempted from tax in the hands of any shareholder,
ought not to have been so exempted for any year of assessment, the Comptroller may, at any time within 6 years (if that year of assessment is 2007 or a preceding year of assessment) or 4 years (if that year of assessment is 2008 or a subsequent year of assessment) after the expiration of that year of assessment —
(i)
make such assessment or additional assessment upon the enterprise or any such shareholder as may appear to be necessary in order to make good any loss of tax; or
(ii)
direct the enterprise to debit the account with such amount as the circumstances may require.
[7/2007; 53/2007]
(19) Parts XVII and XVIII (relating to objections and appeals) and any rules made under this Act shall apply, with the necessary modifications, as if an assessment or a direction under subsection (18) were a notice of assessment.
[7/2007]
(20) In this section —
“approved international shipping enterprise” means an international shipping enterprise approved by the Minister or such person as he may appoint, subject to such conditions as he may impose;
“finance leasing” means the leasing of any sea-going ship which has the effect of transferring substantially the obsolescence, risks or rewards incidental to ownership of the sea-going ship to the lessee;
“international shipping enterprise” has the same meaning as in section 13F(6);
“registered business trust” has the same meaning as in the Business Trusts Act (Cap. 31A);
“sea-going ship” includes any dredger, seismic ship or any vessel used for offshore oil or gas activity;
“shipping investment enterprise” means —
(a)
a company incorporated and resident in Singapore; or
(b)
a registered business trust;
“Singapore ship” has the same meaning as in section 13A(16);
“tax exempt period”, in relation to an approved shipping investment enterprise, means the period from the date the enterprise first acquires, during the period of approval of the enterprise, a sea-going ship for use outside the limits of the port of Singapore to the date where no income of any sea-going ship of the enterprise is eligible for exemption from tax under subsection (1).
[7/2007]