Pay income tax via credit, debit cards

SEPANG: Taxpayers can now pay their income tax using Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit cards, as well as debit cards.
It can be done through the "ByrHASIL" portal provided by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) at https://byrhasil.hasil.gov.my/
However, those who pay taxes by credit cards will have to bear an administration fee of 0.8%.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the new tax payment method is the latest initiative by the IRB in collaboration with Maybank to ensure tax payments can be made easier and faster.
The partnership is the first of its kind by the banking institution, which charges an administration fee of 0.8%, compared with the market rate of 1.8% offered to credit card users, he said when launching the service in conjunction with the 19th Revenue Day celebration at Menara Hasil, here today.
"This provides more convenience to the taxpayer, where previously payments had to be made in cash at the counter, via Cash Deposit Machine and internet banking."
Ahmad Maslan said this new payment mode is expected to increase the number of online payments to 25% compared with 13.12% (987,655) from 7.53 million transactions recorded last year.
Through this new initiative, he said, IRB is confident this year's direct tax collection will reach RM142.646 billion, despite external challenges such as falling oil prices and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
He said the ministry is confident this year's tax collection will surpass last year's amount of RM133.694 billion.
Ahmad Maslan said, however, the implementation of GST is expected to reduce income tax collection by as much as RM6.12 billion.
He said the implementation of the minimum wage policy is also expected to cause a drop in corporate tax by almost RM2.4 billion, while Bank Negara estimated corporate operational cost to be affected by as much as RM10 billion.
"We are confident this year's target will be achieved through collective efforts made by IRB to establish effective and convenient methods for taxpayers to pay their taxes," he said.
Ahmad Maslan also said a memorandum of understanding between the Customs Department and IRB was formalised earlier to exchange information on registered taxpayers. "For example, from information gathered, we discovered that 50,000 companies which have registered with IRB have yet to register for GST."
A total of 325,279 companies have registered for GST, which is set to be implemented on April 1 and is estimated to rake in RM23.2 billion revenue for the federal government.