Singapore nabs seventh spot in ease of paying taxes

It earned a score of 91.58 out of 100.

Singapore ranked seventh in terms of ease of paying taxes with a score of 91.58 out of 100 in PwC's Paying Taxes index.

According to a report, the Lion City's tax and contribution rate (TTCR) hit 20.3% in total. TTCR is the rate which includes taxes and mandatory social contributions borne by companies. TTCR hit 1.5% for profit taxes, 17.8% for labour taxes, and 1% for other taxes.

Singapore also had the second shortest time for tax compliance in Asia Pacific at 64 hours, in line with Brunei Darussalam. The time to comply with corporate income tax (CIT) takes 24 hours, labour tax time takes 10 hours, whilst consumption tax time takes 30 hours.

Singapore also has one of the fewest numbers of payments, which reflects development in terms of online filing and payment. There is only one filing for profit and labour taxes, whilst there are three filings for other taxes.

Moreover, Singapore has the second easiest process in the new indicator of post-filing taxes, right after New Zealand and before Jordan. Its DTF score is 71.97.

"The new post-filing indicator in the Paying Taxes methodology will be valuable to measure the level of success of governments over time in implementing an efficient VAT system," PwC explained.

VAT compliance, or the time to comply with VAT refund, takes 4.5 hours, whilst VAT waiting time, the time to obtain a VAT refund, takes 21.1 weeks.

Meanwhile, CIT compliance time is at 17 hours, whilst CIT completion time is at 62.7 weeks.