Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong says that the country’s current income tax rules apply to money made from NFT transactions and trading in it.
Singapore’s income tax treatment will depend on how the NFT is used and what type of NFT it is.
Singapore Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said in a speech to parliament that income from NFT transactions or trading would be taxed the same way as other income. ” NFT transactions will not be taxed in Singapore because the country does not have a capital gains tax,” says Wong.
The announcement comes as a result of recent tax changes that many economists think will help reduce inequality, strengthen the social contract, and make it easier to spend money in the long run.
People in Singapore were warned by regulators in January not to make decisions about digital investment vehicles, especially in the new areas of NFTs and the metaverse. Even though Singapore has been called Asia’s next crypto hotspot, it has urged other countries to keep a closer eye on digital assets. In the past, it had been shown that the risks of technologies like blockchain and decentralized finance had been thoroughly investigated.
The People in the central bank say they won’t keep an eye on what’s going on in the NFT market. MAS Senior Minister and Minister in Charge Tharman Shanmugaratnam has said in response to a question about regulating NFT activities:
“MAS does not and cannot possibly regulate all things or products that people choose to invest their money in. We consider the substance of an asset when assessing whether a product or activity should come under MAS’ regulatory remit. MAS does not currently regulate NFTs given the nature of their underlying assets, such as the few examples earlier. This is also the stance taken by most other leading jurisdictions.”
Shanmugaratnam said that MAS has a “tech-neutral posture” and that it “looks through” the token’s “fundamental properties” to see if it should be regulated by the government. He also urged users to be very careful. If an NFT has the characteristics of a capital markets product under the Securities and Futures Act, it will have to follow the rules set by the MAS (SFA).
MAS’s managing director, Ravi Menon, says that the city-state doesn’t want to ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because they could be important in the future.
