Scope and property-tax liability
Published 31 December 2025 by IRAS with EMA and EDB input, this guide covers renewable-energy and low-carbon plants/assets. Property tax applies to immovable land, buildings, improvements and tenements: docks, wharves, piers, jetties, tanks, affixed energy-storage systems and network pipelines/cables/ducts/channels can all be taxable. Owners are liable. A lessee/grantee under a state lease/grant or public-authority lease such as JTC exceeding three years is deemed owner for this purpose. Actual treatment depends on facts and machinery function; the examples are not exhaustive.
Annual Value and the 10% non-residential rate
The guide computes property tax as Annual Value (AV) ×10%, the non-residential annual rate stated in this edition. AV generally represents estimated gross annual rent if let. For vacant/development land, including firm and foreshore land, AV is 5% of estimated freehold market value. Completed plants/assets are typically valued from investment costs, using 5% of estimated freehold capital value of land/buildings/installations or a contractor’s-test return on that value. Do not confuse the 5% AV valuation factor with the 10% tax rate, or assume every plant uses an identical compulsory method.
Fixtures and structural networks
Taxable fixtures can be attached physically or fixed by weight or purpose. Typical property includes buildings/sheds/roofed enclosures, slips/docks/jetties, and storage of raw/finished materials. Networks for circulation, distribution or transmission of materials, utilities or energy include above-ground, underground and undersea pipelines and cables. An asset’s green-energy label alone does not exempt land, structures or storage.
Three classes of fixed machinery
Fixed machinery has become a land/building fixture, often held by frames, bolts or weight. Direct manufacturing/processing machinery making, altering, repairing, decorating, finishing or adapting an article for sale is not taxable; examples are production-line and processing equipment. Service machinery is taxable: lighting/electrical installations, HVAC, fire protection, lifts, electricity and backup generators serving building/peripheral needs. Peripheral machinery is taxable: transport/distribution systems, weighbridges, cold/clean rooms and overhead cranes. The article for sale in this sector normally means energy produced from low-carbon sources for sale. A generator’s direct production role versus building-service role therefore matters.
Solar: building needs versus commercial production
Solar PV panels produce DC, converted by an inverter to AC through distribution boards. All civil/support structures remain taxable, including buildings, canopies, substations, roofed enclosures, struts and anchors. A solar system installed primarily to supplement a building’s electricity needs is taxable in its entirety. By contrast, parts of floating, land- or building-fixed systems that directly generate electricity for sale are not taxable; listed examples are PV modules, inverter, transformer, meter, cables and data communications. Do not extend that production exception to their taxable support structures or to an own-use building system.
Hydrogen ecosystem
Hydrogen carriers include ammonia/liquefied hydrogen; cracking extracts hydrogen, regasification restores gaseous hydrogen, and hydrogen-ready CCGTs burn hydrogen/natural-gas blends for electricity. Civil/support structures, buildings/land/fixtures, warehouses and raw/finished-material storage remain taxable, as do distribution/transmission pipelines and underground/above-ground storage tanks. Exceptions are machinery directly manufacturing/processing an article for sale: reactors, separators, gas turbines, heat exchangers, power-plant transformers/switchgear, and hydrogen regasification machinery directly preparing hydrogen for sale. The exception is functional, not an exemption for the entire hydrogen site.
Electricity import infrastructure
Imports connect overseas assets through subsea interconnectors to Singapore onshore interconnector/grid assets. Civil onshore structures, supports and import infrastructure within Singapore’s boundary are taxable, including areas extending into foreshore or territorial sea. Listed onshore assets are transition joints, grid assets, land cables, HVDC converter stations, line shunts, switching stations and substations; subsea cables are also listed. Do not treat an imported rather than locally generated electricity source as exempting its Singapore infrastructure.
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
Capture separates CO 2 at emission sources and compresses it for pipeline movement to aggregation/storage/export or another manufacturing user. All civil/support structures are taxable. Capture, compression, liquefaction and purification for storage only, and aggregation facilities are generally taxable because they are not manufacturing machinery. CO 2 storage/export terminals and jetties, transmission pipelines from emitters to aggregators/export jetties, and storage tanks are taxable. Machinery directly processing emitted carbon into an article for sale is not taxable. The distinction is direct manufacture of a saleable product versus capture/storage/transport functions. Enquiries go to IRAS Property Tax Division via Contact Us.
Official source
This article independently explains the substantive contents of the official PDF, including the relevant conditions, procedures and annexes. The linked document remains the authoritative source for its original wording, and later changes should be checked separately.
Read the official PDF ↗