CPF changes

Changes in how CPF is refunded into your account when you sell your property:-

The CPF (Amendment) Bill 2012 Second Reading Speech by Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin

CPF News-Release 10 Sept 2012

REFINEMENTS TO THE CPF HOUSING REFUND POLICY

Sir, I will now move on to the next amendment that will give effect to refinements that we are making to the CPF housing refund policy. CPF members may use savings in their CPF Ordinary Account (OA) to purchase a property. When members sell off their property, we require them to refund the CPF savings that they have used for their property.

Current housing refund policy

Members who sell their property before age 55 are required to refund into their CPF account the principal amount that they had withdrawn for the property, including the prevailing OA interest that would have accrued on this amount, or P+I in short. This refund aims to restore the member to the position as if he had not withdrawn his CPF savings for the property. Members may still use the refunded amounts towards the purchase of their next property.

The current housing refund requirements change when a member is past age 55. At age 55, a member is required to set aside the Minimum Sum (MS) from his existing CPF balances, and he may withdraw his CPF savings in excess of the MS after having also set aside the required amount in his Medisave Account for his healthcare needs. So when a member sells his property after age 55, only the amount needed to bring the member up to his MS must be refunded, since amounts above the MS can be withdrawn anyway. In other words, for a member who sells his property after age 55, he will refund his MS shortfall or his P+I, whichever is lower. Remaining proceeds from the sale of his property is received in cash. While the current refund rules for members over 55 avoid collection of housing refunds in excess of MS, there may be certain scenarios involving more than one co-owner, where the refunds required of the co-owners may not match the amount of CPF each co-owner used to pay for that property. When this arises, co-owners can decide to distribute the cash proceeds among themselves such that the total of the cash proceeds and CPF refunds for each co-owner matches the amount that each co-owner had contributed towards payment of the property. However, where the co-owners are no longer on good terms, the distribution of cash proceeds becomes more contentious and the co-owners may not always be willing to consider the amount that the other party has contributed towards the property. In cases where the property is sold at a loss, there may not be any cash proceeds for distribution. This is when the current housing refund requirements may create some unhappiness among members. Some of the Members of this House would have received appeals of such nature.

New housing refund policy

We are therefore refining the housing refund policy to address this issue. We will now require members aged 55 and above to refund their P+I. This means the same refund rule will apply to all members regardless of their age. This refinement will ensure co-owners receive CPF refunds that are commensurate with their usage of CPF savings for the property. Sections 21, 21A and 21B of the Act will be amended to give effect to the new housing refund policy.

Where the P+I refund exceeds the MS shortfall for members aged 55 and above, they need not worry that the new refund rule makes them retain in their CPF a higher amount than what is necessary. The refunded amount will first be used to set aside their cohort Minimum Sum in their RA and the required Medisave amount in their MA, and the excess can be withdrawn. This is no different from the existing requirement that applies to all members past age 55 who wish to withdraw their OA and SA savings in excess of the MS.

Under the new housing refund rule, for members aged 55 and above, any remaining housing refunds after setting aside the required amounts (in the RA and MA) will be automatically disbursed to the member in cash, unless he chooses to retain it in his CPF accounts. Changes will be made to section 15 of the Act to give effect to this policy. The majority of members can expect to receive the disbursed funds within one to two weeks of the crediting of the housing refunds into their CPF accounts.

Sir, the new housing refund policy will ensure that the distribution of proceeds from the sale of property reflects the CPF usage among the co-owners, while at the same time not require older members to retain in their CPF more refunds than are necessary. The new housing refund policy will take effect on 1 January 2013. My Question: With the new rules, does the Waterfront View High Court ruling in 2007 still hold? Just asking