The Manglish Finance Bill

I just had to add this. The freakin’ Finance Bill is bilingual. Here’s an extract of what is virtually the kind of language hopping you get to see in every page of the Bill…

4.  Akta Cukai Pendapatan 1967, yang disebut “Akta ibu” dalam Bab ini, dipinda dalam seksyen 2 dengan memasukkan selepas subseksyen (8) subseksyen yang berikut:

“(9)  Any reference in subsection 107C(4A), paragraph 2A of Schedule 1 and paragraph 19A of Schedule 3 to a company which has a paid-up capital in respect of ordinary shares of two million five hundred thousand ringgit and less tat the beginning of the basis period for a year of assessment shall exclude a company which is established for the issuance of asset-backed securities in a securitization transaction approved by the Securities Commission.”

Must be a 1Malaysia thing… the Education Ministry promotes language changes every decade or so, so should everyone else.

Painless Budget?

That’s what the Finance Minister called it. But was it painless? Let me count the ways…

1. Service tax on credit cards (yearly) – …. wait for it… payable upon issuance of the card! Imagine this scenario: You get an envelope in your mailbox and the letter says a bank has sent you a free for life credit card. But then, oh by the way, they’ve charged your card with RM50 because its a tax. Scenario 2: You work for a bank. You are issued a card by the bank because… well… you work for the bank. Your bank wants to ease the pain by bearing that tax for you. But then, it becomes a taxable perquisite to you and you get taxed on the freakin’ tax borne by your freakin’ employer just because the freakin’ government decided a piece of plastic has a RM50 tax! Every year!
2. RPGT – First, the Budget speech said it’s 5% on gains, to be implemented by the purchaser withholding 2% of purchase price. Then, the freakin’ Finance Bill came out and virtually said, “It’s the scaled rate that RPGT used to be at, only worse… the lowest tax ain’t 0% anymore, its 5%!” Which was why one of the Big 4 firms then said that the tax is a “knock out punch”. But then, FM2 aka Husni announced in the news that, “It’s not the scaled rate! It’s 5% flat!” So, now we have a limbo of a tax because someone got the drafting of the freakin’ law wrong. Oh yeah… one other thing… when the purchaser is in doubt on whether the seller is getting capital or revenue gain, withhold first. Let the seller go convince the government about the nature of their gain, if any.
3. Reduction in top scale individual tax from 27% to 26% – Amazingly, the speech refers to our top scale rate as the middle income group. I don’t know about you, but I feel insulted.
4. Personal relief on EPF contribution and life insurance to be increased from RM6,000 to RM7,000 – … gotta wait for this one also… BUT that RM1,000 is only applicable to premiums on deferred annuity schemes entered into after 1 January 2010. Okay, I haven’t a clue what that is… which means I have to go find out. Which makes it so “painless” a Budget for me.

No doubt there are some good news in this year’s Budget for some. I’ll get back to you on that later. Busy answering badgering calls from the credit card department.

The old man is right…

After yearly fiascos like this, I think the old man has a point.

The Unhappy Happy Hour

And so much for announcing it.

The Opposition’s Budget

I won’t bother to analyse this point by point due to the following reasons:-

1. You can read it for yourself… it’s in plain English.
2. It’s 106 pages long (imagine the number of glasses of water the poor Finance Minister has to gulp down, not to mention while standing in Parliament and reading for a couple of hours at least!)
3. Most of it is just dissing what the current government has done.
4. It’s very “opposition”… and by that I mean if DAP (as opposed to PR, because if PAS had a part in preparing this budget, you’d… cough! Islamic incentives… cough!… know) were to helm the federal government today, their Budget will never (should never) sound like that (because they’d then be dissing their own federal government and giving more autonomy to state governments).
5. Some of their proposals feel very leftist… especially the bit about “sharing risk”, where it sounded more like,”if SMEs fail, we’ll work out a way to save them with the banks”. I’m all for giving power back to the people/ more opportunities for the smaller players kinda leftish government… but saving failing businesses is pushing it a bit too far, I think. Just a tad uncomfortable for the pro-competition-better-for-the-consumer side in me.
6. Some of the proposals are pretty radical (one, at least, is recycled from last year), so operationally, I don’t think our current institutions, like the Inland Revenue, are equipped to administer the changes proposed, let alone understand what they mean. Even if they can, I suspect the cost of changing the operational procedures and awareness campaigns will just wipe out the funds allocated to the objectives before they could even start… (I have that much confidence in our tax authorities. Sue me.)
7. I didn’t have the time to read beyond page 57.
8. I really do have work to do.
9. Even if I don’t, there’s other more interesting news to read today courtesy of a rather interesting weekend politically.
10. I’m in my lazy patch. Now, go read it for yourself!

Anyone up for a slap in the face?

Here’s one.

Has anyone seen this Guideline?

I know, I know…. I haven’t been around. But I’m back. And seeing that the Budget is coming in two weeks’ time, I suppose you should be hearing more from me soon.

Anyway, I was reading this Risk Weighted Capital Adequacy Framework (a mouthful of a hint telling you the industry I work in) where it made mention of ”Guidelines for Tax Treatment of Issuance of Innovative Tier 1 Capital Instruments by Banks/Financial Institutions”.

Weird thing is… I can’t find this guideline. Anywhere.

Googled it. Nadda.

To the clued in… a little help?