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The UK and Singapore have signed a second protocol to their existing Double Taxation Agreement (DTA), amending withholding tax rates.

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivered the 2012 budget address to Parliament on February 17, 2012, in which he presented a series of tax changes, some of which are highlighted below:

China has recently clarified that import value-added tax (VAT) and custom duty exemptions can be granted for non-priced equipment imported by outward processing entities (OPEs), when these entities obtain a legal personality as a foreign-invested corporation (FIC) and meet other related criteria.

Following the experiment in Shanghai, the Chinese government has approved Beijing to become the second city that implements a value-added tax (VAT) reform pilot scheme, according to the state-run China National Radio.

A number of local governments across China have recently announced plans to further raise minimum wage levels in an effort to keep up with the national minimum wage growth target of 13 percent per year, set in the latest 12th Five-Year Plan on Employment Improvement.