KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB) recorded 486,360 cases of voluntary tax declarations under the special voluntary declaration programme (PKPS) as of June 23.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah told the Dewan Rakyat here today that the PKPS, which began on Nov 3 last year and ends on Sept 30, offers lower penalties of between 10% and 15% compared with up to 300% once it lapses.
“The voluntary declarations received are being processed by the IRB. The amount in collection will be announced at year-end,“ he said in reply to a question from Wong Kah Woh (PH-Ipoh Timur) on the implementation of the PKPS rationalisation and the number of taxpayers participating, as well as the amount in additional tax collected from it.
Amiruddin said among the categories under the PKPS is the reporting of previous income or a lower income declared, claiming for more than what was spent or not allowed, relief, having claimed for a higher rebate.
Also included in the PKPS is the reporting of profit on the disposal of assets, namely land, shares in realty companies and letters of attachment that had not been stamped.
Answering a supplementary question from Wong on the government’s approach towards tax collection, Amiruddin said it took a friendly stance in this regard towards taxpayers and it included the PKPS initiative.
He also said the government would use the Automatic Exchange Of Information (AEOI) facility under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to obtain information holders of overseas accounts and those who refused to declare their tax, reports Bernama
But Amiruddin said the government would take an “unfriendly” approach with Malaysians who fail to come forward to declare their overseas income to the IRB.
He said the government can trace overseas bank account details as they are available under the OECD’s AEOI.
“The government has implemented the Special Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (SDVS) with a low penalty to encourage disclosures of undeclared and under-declared income.
“However, if they fail to do so, we have the AEOI, through which we have the relevant details to go after those with offshore accounts if they don’t step forward to declare their income. If they still fail to do so, then we (government ) will have to take an ‘unfriendly’ action,“ Amiruddin said in reply to another supplementary question by Wong.
Wong asked if the government would take a more friendly approach in tax collection as the approach taken by the IRB to send notices on the SVDS had caused worry among the public.
He said those who had made declarations under scheme until June 30 will face a 10% penalty for undeclared or under-declared incomes.
He added that those making their declarations between July 1 and Sept 30 will face a 15% penalty.
