Singapore, France revise agreement to avoid double taxation

Singapore and France have signed a revised Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation (DTA), said the Ministry of Finance Singapore and Ministry for Finance and Public Accounts France in a joint statement released today.

The revised DTA offers improved terms for businesses, such as lower withholding tax rates for dividends and includes anti-abuse provisions.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and Mr Michel Sapin, the French Minister of Finance and Public Accounts, signed the revised DTA in Singapore yesterday.

At the signing, both ministers expressed their confidence that the revised DTA would further enhance trade and investment flows, which would build on the existing good economic relations between Singapore and France.

They also noted both countries' excellent history of tax cooperation on exchange of information, as well as commitments to implement the new global standard on automatic exchange of information by 2018.

minlee@sph.com.sg