RM649mil excess tax refunded late. Petikan TheStar 21/10/2009

Reports by ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMAN, SIRA HABIBU, TAN SIN CHOW, MANJIT KAUR, and LESTER KONG

THE Inland Revenue Board was late in refunding a total of RM648.70mil in excess tax payments to taxpayers between 2006 and last year.

The delay, according to the Auditor-General’s Report, was between 10 days and two years for those wo filed their returns manually and up to one year for those who did it through e-filing.


The report was based on an audit carried out on the Internal Revenue Board (IRB) in January and from August to October last year.

It said the delays were due to changes made to the Self-Assessment System, incomplete or inaccurate information provided by the taxpayers and the fact that IRB staff were overburdened with other duties.

“The IRB client charter states that excess tax should be returned to the taxpayer within three months for those doing manual or postal filings or one month for those carrying out e-filing.

“Of 424 transactions checked, 54.5% of them involving RM648.70mil in excess tax payments were not returned to the taxpayers for a period of between 10 days and two years for manual filings and up to one year for e-filings,” the report said.

In the Auditor-General feedback report, the IRB explained that it had supplied a tax payments guideline which was included in the IRB website to avoid delays.

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Board under fire for late tax refunds. Petikan NewStraitsTimes 20/10/2009

KUALA LUMPUR: The auditor-general took the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to task for late settlement of some RM648.7 million in tax refunds between 2006 and last year.

Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, in his report, said the delay ranged from 10 days to two years for manually-filed statements and up to a year for those who used e-filing.

He said while there were various factors that contributed to the delays, a major reason was poor staff allocation to match workload.

"The IRB needs to study the actual number of staff needed to manage tax returns at each collection branch or unit so that it is in line with the workload."


The report stated that IRB must stick to the time given to settle tax refunds as set in its customer charter to improve its delivery system.

Ambrin stressed the customer charter must also be "clear and specific" as to procedures related to tax refunds.

He said taxpayers must be informed of their responsibility to follow what was required of them when filing their taxes to avoid future delays.

The report also highlighted 16 cases where IRB wrongly gave more than RM2 million in tax refunds.

Of the cases, four involved company transactions worth RM2.33 million while the rest involved individual transactions worth RM11,721.

Ambrin said IRB must take immediate steps to recover the excess refunds.

He said to make sure such incidents did not happen again, the board needed to create a common format so all branches could prepare uniform tax returns.

Ambrin pointed out that IRB also needed to prepare annual reports for the purpose of auditing, as they were unable to establish the true balance remaining in the fund.

Between 2006 and last year, IRB received 1,834,094 cases.

It has completed 1,788,006 or 97.5 per cent of the cases, with 20,212 still being processed and another 25,776 pending.

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LHDN lewat bayar balik RM648.70j lebihan cukai. Petikan Berita Harian 20/10/2009

Jumlah pegawai, beban kerja di unit pungutan perlu selaras

KUALA LUMPUR: Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) lewat membayar balik sejumlah RM648.70 juta kepada pembayar cukai antara 10 hari hingga dua tahun bagi kes manual dan hingga setahun bagi kes e-Filing.

Jumlah membabitkan 421 transaksi yang disemak itu merangkumi 231 atau 54.5 peratus transaksi membabitkan 821 kes di mana lebihan cukai pendapatan lewat dibayar balik.

Ketua Audit Negara, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, berkata kelewatan itu antaranya disebabkan pembangunan Sistem Taksir Sendiri (STS) untuk memproses Borang Nyata Cukai Pendapatan dilaksanakan secara berperingkat, maklumat atau dokumen yang dikemukakan pembayar cukai tidak lengkap atau diragui dan ketidakupayaan LHDN menangani masalah ini disebabkan pegawai bertanggungjawab perlu menguruskan tugas lain.

"LHDN perlu mematuhi tempoh penyelesaian kes pembayaran balik lebihan cukai pendapatan yang ditetapkan Piagam Pelanggannya bagi meningkatkan sistem penyampaiannya dan antara langkah berkesan adalah dengan mengkaji semula bilangan pegawai yang sebenarnya diperlukan untuk mengurus pembayaran balik lebihan cukai pendapatan di setiap cawangan atau unit pungutan supaya ia diselaras dengan beban kerja," katanya dalam Laporan Ketua Audit Negara 2008 yang dikeluarkan di sini semalam.

Ambrin berkata, pada masa sama, pembayar cukai juga wajib memastikan maklumat taksiran, baucar dividen asal lengkap dan lebihan bayaran cukai pendapatan bagi tahun taksiran tertentu ditolak hutang cukai pendapatan, cukai keuntungan harta tanah dan jumlah perbandingan bagi kes syarikat.

Selain itu, laporan itu juga menunjukkan daripada 1,83,094 kes permohonan bayaran balik lebihan cukai pendapatan bagi tempoh 2006 hingga 2008, LHDN selesai menyemak 1,788,106 kes atau 97.5 peratus, manakala 20,212 kes sedang disemak dan 25,776 kes lagi belum dibuat semakan.

"Sejumlah RM18.22 bilion bayaran balik lebihan cukai pendapatan dicatatkan membabitkan 1,219,653 kes atau 68.2 peratus antara tempoh 2006 hingga 2008," katanya.

Mengenai ketidaktepatan maklumat dalam Borang BE, katanya, semakan Audit mendapati 1,198 borang bagi tahun taksiran 2005 hingga 2007 di enam cawangan iaitu Jalan Duta, Cheras, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Seremban dan Kuching silap diisi seperti tuntutan jumlah pelepasan, pendapatan bercukai, pelepasan bagi anak kurang 18 tahun, perkiraan cukai yang perlu dibayar dan rebat cukai individu.

"Ketidaktepatan maklumat ini melewatkan proses mengemas kini status jumlah cukai dikenakan kepada pembayar cukai, mengakibatkan perkiraan cukai perlu dibayar atau dibayar balik tidak tepat dan meningkatkan kes yang perlu diaudit Unit Audit Meja," katanya.

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