Regulations for fiat on/off-ramps

Does Singapore impose taxes on fiat on/off ramp transactions?


For digital payment tokens, no.

According to IRAS e-Tax Guide on GST: Digital Payment Tokens

last revised on 4 November 2019

"With effect from 1 Jan 2020, supplies of digital payment tokens (cryptocurrency that fall within the MAS’s definition of “digital payment tokens”) will no longer be subject to GST. Specifically:

(i) The use of digital payment tokens as payment for goods or services will no longer give rise to a supply of those tokens. That is, if you use digital payment tokens to pay for the purchase of goods or services, you need not account for GST on the use.

(ii) A supply of digital payment tokens in exchange for fiat currency or other digital payment tokens, and the provision of any loan, advance or credit of digital payment tokens will be exempt from GST. Therefore, the supply of such tokens, being an exempt supply, will not contribute to your annual taxable turnover for the determination of your liability for GST registration."

Note that GST still applies to crytocurrencies outside the MAS definition of a "digital payment token".

For initial coin offerings (ICOs), "Taxes on ICO proceeds are dependent on whether the proceeds are considered as revenue and sourced in Singapore." "Generally, for an ICO of a utility token, ICO proceeds will be treated as deferred revenue (and hence taxable under the Income Tax Act). Whereas for an ICO of a security token, ICO proceeds will be capital in nature and thus not taxable."

According to IRAS (Pages)

However, note that "Businesses that buy and sell digital tokens in the ordinary course of their business are taxed on the profit derived from trading in the digital token. Profits derived by businesses which mine and trade digital tokens in exchange for money are also subject to tax."

On the other hand, "Businesses that buy digital tokens for long-term investment purposes may enjoy capital gains from the disposal of these digital tokens. However, as there are no capital gains taxes in Singapore, such gains are not subject to tax."


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