Enhanced Property Tax Rebate for 2020

In the Budget 2020 Statement on 18 February 2020, it was announced that property tax rebate will be granted to owners of qualifying non-residential properties to ease the cost pressure of certain industries which are more badly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. As part of the Resilience Budget announced on 26 March 2020, the property tax rebate previously announced is now enhanced, by increasing the amount of rebate and covering more types of properties. With the enhancement, owners of qualifying properties will be granted rebates of up to 100% on their property tax payable for the period of 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

The Government introduced new legislation on 7 April 2020. Under the new legislation, property owners are obliged to pass on to their tenants the full amount of property tax rebate received for each property tax account that is attributable to the tenanted property. Further details will be made known on the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (IRAS) website in mid-April 2020.

The table below shows the property tax rebate announced in Budget 2020 as well as the enhanced property tax rebate announced in the Resilience Budget.

	Property Tax Payable for	Property Tax Rebate as Announced in Budget 2020	Enhanced Property Tax Rebate
A.	Hotel room or function room of a hotel registered under the Hotels Act	30%	100%
B.	Serviced apartment or serviced apartment function room
C.	Premises of the following that are used or intended to be used for Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE): Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre; Singapore EXPO; and Changi Exhibition Centre.
D.	All the premises of the following: Changi Airport; Singapore Cruise Centre; Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore; and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.	15%
E.	Premises that are used or intended to be used as: Backpackers’ hostel, boarding house, guest house or students’ hostel that is not a hotel; Hotel that is not a registered hotel; Shop or warehouse retail building; Restaurant; Sports and recreation building; Amusement centre; Cinema or theatre; Medical clinic, hospital, nursing home, hospice, place of rehabilitation or convalescent home; Childcare centre or kindergarten; School; Driving school; Purpose-built workers’ dormitory; or Tourist attraction.	15%
F.	All the premises of the following: Marina Bay Sands; and Resorts World Sentosa. The above rates in (A) – (E) do not apply to Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.	10%	60%
G.	Other non-residential properties. Some examples are: Premises used for an industrial or agricultural purpose Offices Business or science park Petrol station Warehouse	0%	30%
The above property Tax Rebate does not apply to any other premises or part of any premises used or intended to be used for any residential purpose or as a facility for the exclusive use of residents of residential premises. No property tax rebate shall be given to vacant land or land under redevelopment.

IRAS will send out the rebate notices by 31 May 2020. Owners of qualifying properties can expect to receive their refunds by 30 June 2020.