Singapore.

Singapore abolished estate duty for deaths on or after 15 February 2008. The Republic operates a common-law inheritance system rooted in English law, with succession governed by the Wills Act (Cap. 352), the Probate and Administration Act (Cap. 251), and the Intestate Succession Act (Cap. 146). The Family Justice Courts handle probate applications, and the Singapore Academy of Law maintains the LawNet research platform.

Cross-border issues centre on Singapore’s territorial taxation, the absence of capital-gains tax, and the Republic’s prominent role as a regional trust and wealth-management hub. Singapore-law trusts under the Trustees Act 1967 (revised 2005) accommodate global family-wealth structures, and the Variable Capital Company (VCC) regime introduced in 2020 has expanded fund-management options. The Application of English Law Act (Cap. 7A) preserves applicability of pre-1993 English common law and equity.

The memoranda in this series address the recurring fact patterns in Singapore cross-border estate planning — including resealing of foreign grants under the Probate and Administration Act, Singapore-resident decedents with offshore assets, Singapore-law trust structures for global families, the Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) on death, the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) overlay, and the absence of estate-tax treaties with Canada and the United States.