Singapore banks report Indonesian clients suspected of tax evasion

Customers are participating in Indonesia’s tax amnesty.

Singapore banks are reporting to local police Indonesians who are participating in tax amnesty as assets of clients may be at fault of tax evasion.

A Reuters report revealed that Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) instructed banks last year that they must file a report when a bank client takes part in a tax amnesty as assets of customers may not be compliant to existing laws.

The city-state is toughening the implementation of its tax evasion law following a money-laundering investigation into state-backed fund 1MDB in Malaysia that revealed how banks failed to control suspicious money flows.

Meanwhile, Indonesia launched a tax amnesty aimed at wooing back some of the cash its ultra rich citizens have stowed in Singapore.

Indonesians account for an estimated $200 billion of private banking assets managed in Singapore, or 40 percent of the total.

Read the full report here.