Have anyone yet go and count
After US withholding tax / estate duty tax
VS
Zero tax on dividend in local context
The predicate is incorrect, and thus the subject line draws an unnecessary and entirely avoidable comparison. If you're a tax resident of Singapore and not subject to any other tax jurisdiction then you'd typically invest in Irish domiciled/London listed stock index funds. The U.S. listed/traded stocks within those funds are then subject to a 15% dividend tax rate, the Ireland-U.S. treaty rate. (Other jurisdictions have their own dividend tax rates, and the fund managers pay whatever those dividend taxes are.) There's no estate or inheritance tax for the individuals I've described who hold these funds and their similarly situated heirs — not in Ireland, not in Singapore.
Singapore has a "one tier" tax system. Corporate profits are taxed before dividends are distributed. Conceptually it amounts to the same thing, though. It's a "tax wedge," it's just one of them instead of two. For Singapore that tax wedge is 17%. Therefore a U.S. company that has a ~2% effective corporate tax rate and pays dividends (then taxed at 15% via Irish domiciled funds) is in pretty much the same situation as a Singapore corporation with its 17% corporate tax rate. Lots of U.S. corporations pay little or no corporate tax (or even have a negative corporate tax rate), so this situation isn't too far away from reality for many corporations.
U.S. corporations can buy back shares of their stock without any shareholders (including funds) needing to pay dividend taxes. Tax residents of Singapore (who are not also tax residents of any other jurisdiction) pay no capital gains tax, so to the extent share buybacks boost capital gains that's a great arrangement. Acquisitions and R&D (for future growth) are also comparatively more attractive. U.S. corporations and investors know all this, so those stocks tend to be “capital gains heavy, dividends light” relative to Singapore corporations, other things being equal. Amazon (AMZN), for example, has never paid even one penny in dividends. But you’d be thrilled today if you bought Amazon stock several years ago.
I'm oversimplifying a bit, but that's the basic idea.
