SMU Professor of Accounting Sum Yee Loong was of the opinion that increasing the personal income tax of high-income earners will not affect Singapore’s competitiveness, as only those whose annual income is higher than $160,000 will be affected by this change. He added that there is a large difference between the incomes of Singapore’s top five per cent and top 20 per cent of earners. As such, high-income earners may consider setting up their own businesses so as to pay 17 per cent of company tax, instead of the new personal income tax at 22 per cent.