Taxpayers can now have rebates deducted monthly Petikan Thestar 6 Ogos 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: The Schedular Tax Deduction (STD) scheme has been reviewed to enable the deduction of rebates and relief to be done on a monthly basis, Inland Revenue Board chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah said.

Previously, she said rebates and relief were only taken into account when taxpayers claimed for it when they filed their income tax returns annually.

“By deducting on a monthly basis, we can have real-time payment of taxes due,” she said, adding that this was in line with the agency’s policy to provide the best service to the public by emphasising on accuracy of information.

Hasmah was speaking at the National Tax Conference 2009 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here yesterday. The two-day conference which ended yesterday attracted more than 1,300 participants comprising auditors, tax agents, consultants and accountants.

Hasmah also announced that as of June 30, a total of RM3.13bil had been refunded to 331,034 taxpayers.

Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia (CTIM) president Dr Veerinderjeet Singh called for a review of tax agents’ licencing process.

The process must be revamped as the profession must be involved in self-regulating exercises, he said.

“CPD (continuing professional development) must be imposed and monitored by the profession (tax agents), not by the regulators.

“The current system has led to administrative constraints and certain undesirable consequences,” he said, adding that the CTIM could continue to follow up on the issue in the interest of having a clear, fair and transparent framework to regulate tax practitioners.

Federation of Malaysian Manu-facturers council member Datuk Md Khair Ahmad said small and medium-scale enterprises were facing constraints because banks were overcautious and their existing credit lines had been recalled.