From a taxpayer's perspective, what do you think of the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme launched by the new government?
"voluntary?"
"why would I bother?"
"I won't be the unfortunate ones who get audited..."
"will IRBM share my information with other law enforcement agencies and bring me more trouble?"
"can I trust this initiative? it's a new government..."
These are some of the common concerns among taxpayers on the special voluntary disclosure programme. While pondering their validity, let us examine some relevant facts:-
- Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) is a member of the Global Forum and has been receiving financial information from abroad.
- Malaysia has implemented an Automated Exchange of Information (AEOI) with foreign tax authorities initiated by the OECD on Common Reporting Standards. Through this initiative, information on substantial ownership of assets such as banks and properties are among the information that can be accessed by IRBM.
- IRBM has enough information in hand, using big data and third-party sharing, to know the income position of a taxpayer, even without them submitting their tax forms.
Will you still bet on always being the left out,"lucky" ones ...
Now you will be glad to learn that the government launched the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) and has sent notice under Section 79 of Income Tax Act to approximately 80,000 individuals, companies and other taxpayer categories to allow taxpayer to voluntarily declare any unreported income for Malaysian tax purposes. This applies to those who failed to declare income tax return, submitted inaccurate income tax return, overclaimed expenses, overclaimed reliefs / deductions/ rebates, or took advantage of offshore accounts.
You can now pay reduced penalty rates under Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme:
Between 03.11.2018 – 31.03.2019 : 10% of tax payable
Between 01.04.2019 – 30.06.2019 : 15% of tax payable
01.07.2019 onwards: Penalty will be 80% - 300 % of tax payable
If you interested in finding out more about this new programme or if you have tax filing issues, please call us at 03-89381773 and let our professional accountants assist you in avoiding unnecessary compound!
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