Taxman to hunt down evaders after Sept 30

GEORGE TOWN: The federal government is not likely to extend its Sept 30 deadline for Malaysians to voluntarily declare previously undeclared incomes, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

He told a forum here that the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme by the Inland Revenue Board had already been extended once before and another extension would defeat the purpose.

The deadline was initially set at June 30, but was extended in April to Sept 30.

“Even if we were to extend, we have to go through the Cabinet. I feel if we extend it again, it would make the whole thing meaningless,” he said.

He urged Malaysians to take up the offer, which provides low penalties for those voluntarily disclosing previous income which had not been declared.

“This ‘discount’ is one of a kind,” he said. “You do not believe me, you can ask (former PM) Najib Razak,” Lim said in a jibe at the former premier, who has been asked to pay RM1.6 billion in taxes due on assessed income of RM4 billion.

Speaking at a forum on the voluntary disclosure programme, hosted by the Penang Chinese Chambers of Commerce, Lim said the Inland Revenue would not go to homes of tax debtors by “toting AK-47s and wearing balaclavas” like the previous government, but would use a soft approach to get people to pay up.

He said those who wished to declare now should not be seen as tax evaders but as those who had overlooked or forgotten to have declared before.

“You declare through SVDP now, we will issue you a ‘clearance letter’ up to 2017. This means you do not need to worry about looking for old receipts, you are clear up to 2017 like Line Clear Nasi Kandar,” he said to laughter from the audience of about 100 people.

“But this does not mean if you settle your taxes, you are immune to other laws. If that is the case (fugitive financier) Jho Low can come back and escape from other charges,” Lim added.

Inland Revenue Board chief executive Sabin Samitah said after Sept 30, its team of investigators would start “risk analyses” and would begin to hunt those who had owed the government in income taxes.

“We will catch you after September. We have big data and let me tell you now, it is damn good. We know everything.

“Those who declare, we will accept your declarations in good faith. To those who made excess claims, teachers making money through home tuition, part-time work but have never declared, take this opportunity,” he said.

Sabin said the easiest to detect are online businesses, as all their transactions are made through online banking and have a clear-cut paper trail for the IRB to make a case.

He said a “clearance letter” would be given to taxpayers who took up the SVDP up to 2017 for individual taxpayers and year-ending March 30, 2018, for companies.


“For simple cases, we will give you the clearance letter in three days. You will not kena audit again,” he said.

Lim interjected, saying if a taxpayer has a case open on him in 2017 and 2018 and yet to be closed, then the SVDP will not render its previous cases closed.

“It also depends on the date of the previous investigations. And also, if a whistleblower comes up and says you are hiding money overseas, this disclosure programme cannot save you, he said.

Sabin said if one were to declare their offshore accounts, the IRB would not ask for the money, but merely ask a few questions, such as how much was first deposited and how it came up to the current amount.

“Say if you disclose RM100million is parked in an account in Singapore, we are not going to go there and take our money,” he said.

The SVDP allows those who had deliberately or inadvertently under-declared their incomes to pay lower penalties compared to the usual 45% to 300%.

Those who report by Sept 30 under the programme would only have to pay 15% penalties on their undeclared income. Those who did so before June 30 were offered 10% in penalties.

SVDP was introduced in the 2019 Budget and offered to individual, companies and organisations who are registered taxpayers, and also those who had never been registered before.

IRB collected RM137 billion from income taxes in 2018. This year, it aims to collect RM147 billion, it was reported.

If one opts for the SVDP, no auditing or investigation will be carried in the future.

The IRB expects to bring in around RM10 billion to RM20 billion to the tax coffers, it was previously reported.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...-after-sept-30/

Target number 1......najib n umno n umno crony....

this

YouTube earners must be targeted also

plz start with him first



never paid a dime and yet very proud

At least can collect few billions from them 🤣😂🤣

also those celebrities, MLM kaki

tambah 80-300% penalty, that is hell lot of money

End up those mlm kaki, influencer pinjam or rent fancy cars to kuda only even poorer than kepsi worker how

They already done Najib Umno.....

Takut

Many big fish to catch. Maybe later only small fry need to worry.

Najib may lose MP seat over tax arrears case
25 Jul 2019
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4813480

if taxman are smart
they will target all the ministries, politicians and their relatives
dont waste time on us small fries

oh my...

inb4 buka tabung donut, jual gelang

I insap dy.

Declared SVDP, paid additional RM20k for year 2014-2017.

Thank you LGE for making me insap, you da best

I got my auditors to kautim my account every year

If they come to me then they have to answer to my accountant

This post has been edited by SuperTuhan: Aug 13 2019, 10:13 PM

Heve they ever use the 300% penalty?