Tax audit

Abstract

The study looks into relevant aspects of the tax systems in the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore relating to tax audit. It also aims to understand what tax audit is about, as well as provide an insight as to why tax audit is not implemented in Singapore. This is done by evaluating the feasibility and desirability of implementing tax audit in Singapore. Tax audit is implemented only in certain countries. As such, it is a relatively new concept in Singapore. This topic was chosen to provide the authors and its readers with an in-depth understanding of tax audit, its implications, nature and characteristics. To better understand the issues, a literature review was done, before the questionnaires were sent out to professionals from public accounting firms, Nanyang Technological University and the Inland Revenue Department (A specimen of the questionnaire is attached in Appendix 1). Interviews with some of these professionals were also conducted to gain a more in-depth understanding of the issues involved. While the respondents provided some very interesting views, they are not the authority on why Singapore has not implemented tax audit. The IRD is the best authority on this subject.However, tax matters are highly confidential and hence the author is unable to seek their opinions officially on this subject. A discussion on some of the questions in the questionnaires can be found in Appendix 2.