Lawrence, aged 45, is married with a daughter aged 12. Three of them are citizens of the United Kingdom.

Lawrence has a 3-year Singapore employment with a global trading house (“GT”) incorporated and tax resident in Singapore. He arrived in Singapore on January 15, 2018, to be ready for the employment commenced on February 1, 2018. His family joined him in Singapore on July 20, 2018, and the daughter commenced school on the same date.

Lawrence’s wife, Linda started a small business selling handicraft jewelry box and sling bags at the art and craft market in Singapore. Her business was registered as a sole proprietorship on October 10, 2018, with a financial year-end of December 31.

Lawrence received the following in the year 2018 as a Chief Operating Officer of GT -

(i) A business-class airfare (cost $9,000) paid by GT to fly him to Singapore to begin his work.

(ii) The monthly salary of $16,000.

(iii) A contractual year-end bonus of $ 22,000 received on December 20, 2018.

(iv) Cash allowance of $10,000 for relocation to Singapore.

(v) A monthly entertainment allowance of $1,000 and he spent about 80% of this allowance to entertain clients and business associates.

(vi) A monthly education allowance of $800 for each child below 18 years old and live in Singapore.

(vii) A fully furnished apartment at East Coast Road with a monthly rental of $7,000 from February 1, 2018. The utility bill was paid by Lawrence and 50% of it was reimbursed by the employer. The total utility bill for the 11 months in 2018 is $15,500.

(viii) Lawrence was provided with a new “S” plated Volvo car from February 1, 2018. The cost of the car is $180,000 (inclusive of COE of $45,000) with a residual value of $35,000. The total mileage up to December 31, 2018 was 16,000km while 5,000km was for private mileage. Petrol cost was paid and borne by Lawrence.

(ix) Reimbursement of Linda’s dental treatments of $200.

(x) A home leave passage of $$10,000 for the family.

Additional information:

(i) Hotel accommodation cost of $4,500 from January 15-31, 2018 was paid and borne by Lawrence.

(ii) A discretionary performance bonus for the calendar year 2018 was paid in the first quarter of 2019. Lawrence received his performance bonus of $35,000 in March 2019.

(iii) Lawrence paid a total school fee of $4,000 for the daughter’s education in Singapore.

(iv) Lawrence has a twin brother in the U.K. who is unemployed for more than 2 years. To help the brother start a small business in the U.K, Lawrence has no other option but to sell the Bvlgari limited edition watch he bought 3 years ago for private collection. The watch was sold for $55,000 with a gain of $15,000. Lawrence extended an interest-free loan of $50,000 to his brother in the UK.

(v) Lawrence made a cash donation of $1,000 to Singapore Red Cross, an approved Institute of Public Character.

(vi) Linda’s business was doing great during the Christmas season. Below was the income and expenses statement for the period from October 10 - December 31, 2018.

Revenue	$9,200
Less: Cost of materials	$3,200
Rental of booth	1,000
Transportation (Taxi)	450
(4,650)
Net Profit	$4,550

Linda did not incur any other expenditure for the business and has no other income for 2018.

Question:
Compute the minimum tax payable by Lawrence and Linda for the year of assessment 2019, indicating “0” on items that are tax-exempt or are not taxable/deductible. For personal relief, all relevant reliefs based on the information given should be accounted for in the tax computation and where it is not available, please insert “0”.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

taxable incomegross income deductions Lawrences gross income356550 deductions240800 taxable incom... View the full answer