ALBAWABA – The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced Wednesday that work is underway to introduce new incentives for qualified family offices and firms to encourage hiring locals and investment.
Tax incentives will also be adjusted to encourage these firms to invest in climate-related projects and undertake more philanthropy through Singapore, said MAS managing director Ravi Menon.
In a briefing after the release of its annual report, Menson highlighted that incentives will also be introduced to encourage investment in the country’s equity markets.
“Given our great success in being able to attract so much wealth here, we can afford to ask wealth to play a bigger role in our society and in our economy,” Menon said.
His comments come after outgoing MAS chairman Tharman Shanmugaratnam said last month that these firms’ contributions in these areas will be recognized.
Qualified family offices and offices are businesses set up by the ultra-rich to manage their affairs and investments.
Under the current tax laws, they are eligible to tax exemptions on a range of investments in Singapore.
These exemptions helped fuel a surge in the number of family offices based in the city-state from 400 at the end of 2020 to 1,100 in 202, according to Bloomberg.
Initially, these exemptions were expected to attract investments that would result in a surge in local hiring, the New York-based news agency reported. But even though the increase in family offices has boosted overall assets under management in the country, much of that wealth was not being invested in Singapore.
