Latest news with #SSD
Business Times
13 hours ago
- Business
- Business Times
Should Seller's Stamp Duty be replaced by capital gains tax?
[SINGAPORE] Strong guardrails are in place to help ensure a stable housing market in Singapore. This includes levying seller's stamp duty (SSD) on transactions of homes which are sold within a specified holding period. SSD of 1 per cent for the first S$180,000, 2 per cent on the next S$180,000 and 3 per cent on the remainder was applicable to sale of homes with a holding period of under one year when SSD was first introduced in February 2010. Today, SSD rates are much higher and the holding period before a seller can sell a home without attracting SSD is much longer. The latest changes to SSD saw the holding period and rates increased. Effective from Jul 4, SSD rates are 16 per cent for a holding period of up to one year, 12 per cent for a holding period of more than one year and up to two years, 8 per cent for a holding period of over two years and up to three years, and 4 per cent for a holding period of over three years and up to four years. SSD is not payable where the holding period exceeds four years. SSD is applied based on a home's transacted price or its market value, whichever is higher. Perhaps it's not surprising that the SSD regime got tougher. In recent years, the number of private residential property transactions with short holding periods rose sharply, in particular the sub-sale of uncompleted units. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up Certainly, many people view buying a home as a long-term investment and those buying for owner-occupation may envisage holding on to the said home for well over four years. Also, the need to hold a private home for over four years before selling it so as not to attract SSD is hardly onerous compared with a minimum occupation period (MOP) of five years or more for Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats. The MOP is the time period that an owner must physically reside in a flat. However, new HDB flats are sold at subsidised prices unlike private homes and some HDB flat buyers receive housing grants. Impact on housing mobility The tighter SSD regime will adversely impact housing mobility and possibly affect some private homebuyers who buy a unit predominantly for living and not for investing. Firstly, there are sound reasons why homeowners may want to sell a home within four years of purchase. For example, a breakdown in a relationship between parties who jointly bought a private home or the need to raise funds to finance a family emergency, deal with a job loss or pursue a business venture could drive owners to sell a home within a fairly short holding period. Being 'pushed' by the SSD regime to hold onto a home for longer than is desired may add undue stress to homeowners caught in the above circumstances. Secondly, the SSD regime can sting particularly hard should an economic recession cause home prices to fall sharply. In the above scenario, financial pressure may drive many owners, including buyers of new uncompleted condos, to sell their private homes at losses. And the losses will be exacerbated for owners, who are financially stretched but not bankrupt, by the need to pay SSD where homes are held for four years or less. Currently, individuals who own residential properties need not pay SSD if they have been adjudged a bankrupt and are required to dispose of their homes as a result of bankruptcy. Capital gains tax Maybe, applying SSD to the sale of homes should be replaced by introducing capital gains tax on the sale of property whether residential or non-residential. Afterall, why drive housing speculation to other segments of the physical property market? Currently, gains from selling property in Singapore are generally not taxable. However, gains from sale of property may be taxable if one is assessed to be trading in property. Taxing the gains from selling a home can be fairer than applying SSD on homes sold within a holding period of four years or less regardless of whether the transaction was profitable. Capital gains tax on property sales could be applied using higher rates for shorter holding periods and lower rates for longer holding periods. To emphasise the long-term nature of property investment, the tax can apply to properties that are held for say eight years or less. Also, costs incurred by owners on building improvements could be taken into account when computing capital gains for tax purposes. Progressive payment Ultimately, in land scarce Singapore, applying a capital gains tax to sale of various types of physical property might be effective in curbing speculation and raising revenue. While many people buy private homes here for owner occupation, some buyers may be driven solely by the aim of making a fairly quick buck. Buying a choice uncompleted unit at a new condo's launch using the progressive payment scheme and selling the unit before it's fully completed and paid for could still work despite the tougher SSD regime. Take the purchase of a S$2 million new uncompleted condo home. Assume the unit is sold at 15 per cent above the purchase price after three and a half years, ahead of obtaining the temporary occupation permit or certificate of statutory completion. In the above case, the profit on the purchase price of S$300,000 can comfortably cover Buyer's Stamp Duty and SSD of S$161,600 as well as agent's selling commission and legal fees. Moreover, having 40 per cent of the unit's purchase price still unpaid at the time of its disposal will enhance the seller's investment returns. The government intervenes actively in the local private housing market. Rightly, buyers have to be financially prudent and locals buying homes for owner occupation enjoy preferential treatment. Nonetheless, there will be investors, including relatively short-term ones, eyeing potentially lucrative financial returns from buying private homes. Whether applying SSD or capital gains tax on sale of homes is fairer or more effective in managing housing demand is debatable. Still, while tough measures will help keep speculators at bay, some speculative activity in private homes could persist should demand stay strong.
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Punjab: Act in 15 days over missing saroops, Dallewal tells state govt, SGPC
Jagjit Singh Dallewal-led Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM-non political) on Saturday extended support to the indefinite protest that the Sikh organisation — Sikh Sadbhawna Dal (SSD) — has been spearheading at Dharam Singh Market along the heritage street near Golden Temple for the last five years. The protesters have been demanding justice in the case of missing 328 saroops of Guru Granth Sahib in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's (SGPC) publishing house. They gave a 15-day ultimatum to the SGPC and the state government for action. Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal addressing mediapersons in Amritsar on Saturday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT) Led by Golden Temple's former hazuri ragi (gurbani exponent) Baldev Singh Wadala, the SSD, along with other Sikh bodies, had launched the indefinite stir in November 2020. The agitators have been seeking stringent action against the SGPC functionaries indicted in an Akal Takht-appointed penal's probe report on the issue of 328 missing saroops, besides wanting to know the whereabouts of the saroops. Accompanied by other SKM (NP) leaders, including Baldev Singh Sirsa and Sukhdev Singh Bhojraj, Dallewal turned up at the protest site on Saturday and announced to support the cause. 'Apart from being farmers, we are also Sikhs. And Guru Granth Sahib is our guru who guides us. On behalf of the farmers' forum, I had committed during the Khanauri border morcha that we would support the morcha being undertaken by Wadala. The time has come to support this morcha,' he said. Dallewal, who is also the president of BKU (Ekta-Sidhupur), further said, 'We fear a conspiracy. The Akal Takht probe report recommended FIRs against those indicted, but no case has been registered so far. If no action is taken by the SGPC or the state government in 15 days, we will call a gathering here to take further steps.' The matter of missing saroops allegedly came to light on June 26, 2020, after the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) wrote a letter in this regard to the Punjab government and the Akal Takht. The SGPC faced backlash and an inquiry was conducted by the Akal Takht under its supervision. According to the inquiry report, 328 saroops were found less in the record of the SGPC publication house. As the SGPC failed to give details, the saroops were considered missing. The misappropriation continued for several years, up to 2015, as per the inquiry report. Countering the charges, the SGPC maintained that it was not a sacrilege. It said that it was a case of misappropriation committed by the employees concerned.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Micron Increased QLC SSD Performance With Its Adaptive Write Technology
Writing SSDs are the primary storage technology for PCs, industry applications and data centers. In data centers that means they are where data frequently accessed is stored. This is because the provide useable amounts of storage capacity and better performance than alternative technologies for the price. The companies making SSDs have slowed in the introduction of more layers as the cost impact of added layers counts have declined. As a consequence, NAND flash companies are finding ways of increasing the cell density in the layers and particularly by increasing the number of bits stored per cell. However using higher bit per cell technology such as quad-level cells or QLC come with performance and endurance trade-offs. Micron announced its 2600 QLC NVMe SSD for PCs and client devices recently. The product uses Micron's 9th-generation QLC NAND and it features the companies Adaptive Write Technology, AWT. The company improved the performance of this SSD from other QLC SSDs by using multiple bits per cell technology. The 9th-generation product has a 276-layers and its six-plane architecture and string stacking allows higher degrees of parallelism and increases read and write commands issued to the NAND simultaneously to improve performance. Performance is up to 3.6 GB/s. The image below shows the various sizes of this M.2 SSD. Micron 2600 SSD Family The Micron 2600 NVMe SSD is now shipping to OEMs globally in 22x30mm, 22x42mm, and 22x80mm form factors, with capacities ranging from 512GB to 2TB. These form factors, capacity options and a single-sided design makes this product useful for handhelds, ultra-thin laptops and workstations. SSDs built with only QLC NAND are naturally slower than SLC or TLC NAND, particularly with large file transfers. The Micron AWT uses a multi-tiered single-level cell, SLC, tri-level cell, TLC and QLC dynamic caching architecture to improve sequential write speeds. Improved write performance provides up to four times faster sequential write speeds while continuously writing up to 800GB of data to a 2TB SSD. Micron's tech brief on AWT says that its continuously adjusts among different NAND modes based on the volume of written data, the SSD capacity, how the SSD is used and other factors. Using the SLC optimizes for speed, TLC provides a balance between speed and capacity and QLC is optimized for maximum capacity. AWT manages traffic on the SSD by controlling which of these modes is used to enable performance benefits from SLC and TLC modes with the native capacity advantage of the QLC mode. An illustration of how this is done is shown in the figure below. Micron Adaptive Writing Technology AWT seeks to store data initially on SLC and TLC cells and migrate that data to the QLC cells, freeing up the faster cells for new data. This is particularly useful in large file writes. By writing data initially on the SLC and TLC cells performance is much better than if the data were written directly to the QLC cells. Micron says that its AWT drives are particularly good for frequent and large file transfers such as loading or reloading an operating system, transferring large files or installing large software packages. Fast SSD write speeds are also important for those who work with high-resolution video editing or other content creation tasks. Because of better performance with large file transfers, gaming and software development can also benefit from using these SSDs. Micron uses SLC and TLC combined with QLC flash and its adaptive write technology to increase the performance of its QLC 2600 M.2 SSD.
Time of India
2 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Tribal students in Odisha learning from real-life experiences
Bhubaneswar: At Budhikhamari High School in Mayurbhanj, a group of class-VIII students are reading a handmade chart of their village haat, complete with sketches, market timings, and pricing patterns. Similarly, in Rayagada district, another group of students records the daily lives of local weavers. These aren't extracurricular activities; they are part of core classroom lessons. In many of Odisha's tribal schools, students are learning from their surroundings. The ST, SC Development (SSD) department has implemented a pilot project on Project Based Learning (PBL) in 80 schools, covering 11,000 students in four districts of Rayagada, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, and Gajapati in the 2024-25 academic year. The pilot project not only aimed at providing joyful learning but also improving academic performance. 'All these activities have improved our teamwork, creativity, and critical thinking. We shared our ideas and took interest and pride in our work,' said Smrutirekha Mohanta, a class-VIII student from Budhikhamari High School. Teachers said they noticed a change in students' interest in academics. 'Some students who were hesitant to speak earlier now participate and share their answers with confidence and excitement. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Women 60+ Are Ditching Pads For A Better Alternative DRYGUARD Learn More Undo There is demonstrable enthusiasm and improvement in student performances, especially in the tasks assigned as part of Project-Based Learning,' said Ramachandra Tiadi, a teacher at Government Girls High School, Arishakani in Rayagada. According to official sources, the early outcomes are promising as 87% of teachers reported a positive shift in student engagement and learning. More than 70% of students actively participated in group work. Among 8,139 students assessed, 53% improved in Odia and 70% in Social Science between summative assessment-1 and summative assessment-2. Notably, over 4,300 students in Social Science and 2,500 in Odia registered more than 15% growth. Similarly, in Keonjhar, 88% of class 8 students and 57% of class 7 students showed improvement in social studies and Odia respectively. Rayagada recorded the highest overall academic growth, with nearly 70% of students improving their scores. 'I commend the efforts of Mantra4Change, teachers, and all stakeholders who contributed to these initiatives. I encourage teachers to fully embrace this approach and leverage the power of PBL and BaLA to create meaningful learning experiences for students across Rayagada district,' said Parul Patawari, Collector of Rayagada. The SSD department, in collaboration with non-profit organisation Mantra4Change and Education Above All Foundation, is implementing the pilot project in four districts. A state-level task force has also been designed, while over 239 teachers received training, mentoring, and practical classroom tools under the programme. 'We conducted a baseline assessment and aligned our modules with the NEP and curriculum. Teachers were supported with summary videos and practical tools that made classroom integration easier. For expansion, a cascading training model is in place with 200 master trainers across 11 regional zones. A state-level PBL Task Force is also proposed for 2025–26,' said Sushree Sangita Mohanty, Program Associate at Mantra4Change.
CNET
3 days ago
- CNET
Prime Day Deal: The Best External Mini Hard Drive Is on Sale, But You Must Act Fast
There are many reasons to purchase an external hard drive. You can transfer large files, improve gaming performance and even expand available storage. Now, you can buy one in the final hours of Prime Day 2025. The SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD, CNET's pick for the best rugged external mini SSD, is on sale for a whopping 43% off at $120. This deal is available for this device in black only. Other colors, such as "monterrey" and "sky blue," are also on sale, but not as heavily. In testing, we loved the ruggedness of this portable hard drive. It can handle a sustained spray of water and is dust- and shock-resistant. It importantly also features USB-C for fast transfer speeds. With speeds up to 1,050MB/s, this mini SSD is perfect for most users, unless you regularly work with very large files. Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. "Your speed will vary if you're moving a mishmash of files to or from the USB drive," said CNET Executive Editor David Carnoy during testing. "But when copying a single large file you should be able to get close to that fast transfer speed." Why this deal matters With the SanDisk 2TB Extreme Portable SSD, you'll have a device that packs quite a punch for its size. It's suitable for most users, which is a major plus. The fact it's $90 off is the cherry on top in our book. It's a piece of tech that will be worth the investment.
