Moving to Singapore in 2026: Territorial Taxation, Business Hub and Quality of Life

Singapore taxes on a territorial basis with a short progressive scale. A person is treated as tax resident for a year of assessment in particular if they stayed or worked in the city-state 183 days³ during the previous calendar year.

The resident scale starts at 0%⁴ on the first bracket and peaks at 24%⁵. This top marginal rate is half that of the major European countries, on a high income.

The most significant point, however, lies elsewhere: gains from the disposal of property, shares or financial instruments are, as a general rule, not taxable. The rate applicable to capital gains is 0%⁶.

This absence of tax on capital gains is not unconditional: gains made in the course of a trading activity may be reclassified as business income and taxed accordingly. The boundary is assessed on indicators — frequency of transactions, financing, intention — and it is the main point of vigilance for an active investor.

Companies

Corporate income tax is a single rate of 17%⁷ on taxable profit, with partial exemptions for start-up companies and sector-specific tax credits.

There is no withholding tax on dividends paid by a Singapore company, as the system is one-tier: profit is taxed at company level, and the distribution bears no second layer of tax.

The preferential regimes for family office funds, by contrast, are documented by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which approves them. Income from designated investments is exempt there, provided that the fund maintains throughout the incentive period an amount of designated investments of from SGD 20,000,000⁸ under schemes 13O and 13OA, or from SGD 50,000,000⁹ under scheme 13U, employs a minimum number of qualified investment professionals, at least one of whom is outside the family, and incurs minimum spending in Singapore.

We do not publish the details of the exemptions applicable to start-up companies: they rely on criteria that we have not been able to verify against a dated official source.

Lastly, it is worth measuring what Singapore's territoriality covers. Foreign-source income received by a resident individual is, in principle, not taxed when it is received in Singapore, subject to exceptions and conditions specific to certain categories. As elsewhere, the principle is checked income by income and not applied as a general rule: it is the analysis of the source and the nature of the flow that decides.

Singapore pursues a selective and explicit immigration policy. Long-term residence almost always goes through a work pass, whose categories are ranked by level of pay and qualification.

For the investor, the dedicated programme — the Global Investor Programme — rests on three quantified options since its revision in March 2023. The first requires an investment of at least SGD 10,000,000¹⁰ in a new business entity or in the expansion of an existing business; the second, an investment of at least from SGD 25,000,000¹¹ in a fund approved under the programme; the third, the setting up of a family office whose assets under management reach at least from SGD 200,000,000¹². The options that predated this revision, with lower thresholds, have been abolished.

The order of magnitude places the programme: it is not aimed at an ordinary expatriate but at entrepreneurs and families with substantial wealth, and it comes with substance requirements and an in-depth review.

Three statuses that are often confused must be distinguished: the work pass, which is tied to an employer; permanent residence, which is independent of it; and citizenship, which requires renouncing any other nationality, as Singapore does not allow dual nationality for adults.

The pay thresholds of the various categories of work pass, as well as the criteria for granting permanent residence, do not appear in the official sources we were able to consult: we do not put figures on them.

One last point sets Singapore apart from most destinations: the stability of its rules. Thresholds change, but the institutional framework and administrative predictability are among the highest in the world. For a long-term wealth project, this predictability is worth as much as a percentage point of tax rate, and it explains part of the premium the country charges on housing.

This is the area where Singapore is most restrictive, and it must be understood before any project. The acquisition of housing by foreigners is tightly regulated, and landed properties such as detached houses are in principle closed to them without specific authorisation.

Above all, acquisitions by non-residents and by residents owning several properties bear additional duties whose level is, to our knowledge, among the highest in the world. They have been raised several times as part of the policy of controlling prices.

We do not publish the rate of the additional duties applicable to foreign buyers: it has changed several times and we have no dated official source to cite. As this figure is decisive — it can represent a major fraction of the price — it must be verified with the authorities before any commitment.

The practical consequence is simple: for the vast majority of expatriates, the property question in Singapore is a question of renting, not buying. The rental market is tight and leases are short, which exposes tenants to frequent rent revisions.

Public housing, which houses the majority of the population, is not accessible to foreigners on the same terms, which concentrates expatriate demand on a narrow private segment.

Singapore regularly ranks among the most expensive cities in the world for an expatriate. The absence of tax on capital gains and a moderate rate scale do not automatically offset this level of spending.

We do not publish a typical monthly budget: we have not found an official Singaporean series measuring a basket of expenses comparable to that of an expatriate.

Three items dominate and add up. Housing, the first of them, in a narrow private rental market. International schooling, whose fees are among the highest in the world and which concerns all expatriate children, as public schools are hard for them to access. And the car, whose cost is deliberately dissuasive through the certificate of entitlement system.

This last point is not a drawback for everyone: public transport is excellent and the city is compact. But it must be anticipated by anyone who planned to keep a car-based lifestyle.

1. First obtain the pass corresponding to your situation: it determines your settling in, your bank account and your children's schooling;
2. plan schooling well in advance, as places in international schools are limited;
3. treat the property question as a rental question, unless there is a specific project that has been costed against the additional duties;
4. for an active investor, document the investment nature of one's transactions, since the boundary with trading determines the taxation of gains;
5. deal with the departure from France according to its own criteria and under the applicable convention.

We do not publish processing times for Singaporean permits: we have no official source that is both dated and quantified.

• The capital gains exemption is not absolute: an activity amounting to trading is taxable as business income.
• The additional stamp duties on property purchases by foreigners are the country's main financial obstacle: they must be quantified before any project is undertaken.
• Citizenship requires renouncing one's original nationality: this is a choice of a different nature from that in countries that allow dual nationality.
• The cost of schooling and housing can absorb the tax advantage for a middle-income family.
• The Singaporean passport gives visa-free access to about 195¹³, one of the best levels in the world — but at the price of the renunciation mentioned above.

Finally, Singapore is a destination where the trade-off depends less on the tax rate than on the structure of unavoidable expenses. A single person on a high income clearly comes out ahead; a family of four with two children in school must redo the calculation item by item, and the result is not always what a comparison of tax scales suggests.