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Singapore Plans to Remove Taxes on Cryptocurrencies
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According to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), the country plans to exempt cryptocurrencies from the goods and services tax (GST).
A new proposal in Singapore could make the goods and services tax (GST) unapplicable to cryptocurrencies starting 2020. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) is collecting comments from firms dealing with cryptocurrencies to come a decision.
The tax exemption will apply to “digital payment tokens.” The IRAS mentioned Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, ZCash, and Ripple as examples of cryptocurrencies which would be exempt if the law goes through. The effort, according to the IRAS, follows a worldwide trend where countries are trying to make the law more lax towards cryptocurrencies to draw in investments.
Singapore has been trying to make itself more crypto-friendly for some time as it tries to attract fresh highly-skilled labor and investment. Since Singapore does not compete with the rest of the world in global production, it must focus on finance and intellectual property. As Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing told reporters:
“But what will come to Singapore will be what we call high-mix, low-volume [production]. This is where trust, standards, quality assurance [and] intellectual property protection will become very important. We have seen more of such investments in Singapore.”
In November of 2018, CapBridge Pte LTD. announced plans to open up a security token exchange in Singapore. The exchange will be tokenizing shares of major stocks like Tesla and Apple.
Do you think Singapore could become a hub for the cryptocurrency sector? Let us know your thoughts below.
Image courtesy of The Straits Times.
Tim Fries
Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird's US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.
