Singapore to raise personal income tax rate for top earners, from 2016

SINGAPORE, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Singapore is raising the personal income tax rate for top income earners starting with their earnings in 2016, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced on Monday in his budget speech.

"I will raise the marginal tax rates that affect the top 5 percent of our income earners," he said.

The top marginal rate will rise to 22 percent from 20 percent for a chargeable income of over S$320,000 ($234,983).

Tharman also said state investor Temasek Holdings will be included in the net investment returns framework alongside sovereign investor GIC and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Under the framework, Singapore can spend up to 50 percent of expected long term real returns on the net assets managed by the sovereign fund and the central bank. ($1 = 1.3618 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Richard Borsuk)