Pending tax incentive applications from single-family offices hit 200

Applicants are required to open and maintain an account with a MAS-licensed bank.

There are about 200 pending tax incentive applications from single-family offices (SFOs) in Singapore, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s  (MAS) Senior Minister and Minister in charge, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

The MAS official added that all SFOs applying for tax incentives are required to open and maintain an account with a bank licensed by the central bank.

“The bank is in turn required to conduct customer due diligence. This includes assessing whether there is a clear and legitimate purpose for the use of the SFO structure, ascertaining the ultimate beneficial owners, and corroborating the sources of wealth and funds of both the SFO and any beneficial owner/s,” Shanmugaratnam said.

Shanmugaratnam revealed this in response to questions from the parliamentary on whether there is a growing backlog of applications for family offices.

Family offices can be either multi-family offices (MFOs) or SFOs. Currently, there is one pending MFO licence application.