First class infrastructure, third class… (fill in the blank)

They never learn.

When more than a few handful of taxpayers highlight the issues, that means, they are no longer isolated cases. When more than a few handful tell you your officers treat taxpayers like suspects rather than clients, there should be merit to at least investigate whether their statement is true, because it should no longer be viewed as mere misguided perception. When more than a few handful tell you your rules do not place value on the accuracy and correctness in the application of the law, but seems more driven with how much taxes can we collect this year and it should top last year’s RM64billion, regardless of whether the taxes are collected rightly or otherwise, take it as a massive HINT that there is something wrong with the bloody system! And by system, we don’t mean THIS system!

Can you tell I’m pissed?

Now the downturn is Tax’s fault

How?

Tax policies around the world encourage companies to utilise debt rather than equity.

That’s how.

WTF’s that I plan to ignore (for now… or until they blow up in my face)

Sorry for the title. Let me just get right to the point. Today, I discovered two developments in tax. I’m sure I could have phrased the last sentence better, but I’m beyond caring right now.

The first is an addendum to a public ruling and the second one is a gazetted order for a new law.

The addendum was expected. There were rumours of it coming out sometime in March anyway, back when they surprised us with “Yes, it’s an exemption but no, it’s not really an exemption” addendum to the Public Ruling on Perquisites. This addendum, in addition to it being issued right smack in the month when people are already scrambling to file their tax returns and companies have washed their hands of the employees’ EA forms for the calendar year 2008, is obviously about ‘clarifications’ on benefits-in-kind granted to employees that are exempted from the year 2008. Like I said, I plan to ignore whatever’s in that addendum until shit hits the fan, so, let’s not get into what’s in it.

The gazette order, on the other hand, tells us the “good” news that those exempted benefits that we employees get, comes with a tax deduction for the companies giving them. All well and good at first glance. Only, technically, here’s the question: Why would this law be necessary?

To follow up with that question: You mean if not for this law, the companies would not have been able to enjoy a tax deduction for staff benefits?

Third (and last question, I promise): Are you kidding me?!

Fire fighting

That’s why I’ve been absent from the blogging world. In laymen’s terms, my ‘client’ got hit with tonnes of queries and adjustments by IRB, so, I’ve been busy like shit.

Today, there’s this piece of news telling us there’s a website that monitors the use of the funds of the stimulus packages. In laymen’s terms, how our taxpayer’s money gets spent will be disclosed in this website.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t access that website. In laymen’s terms, it doesn’t exist.

They pretend to giveth… and they snatcheth away before ye can even smell it

Inconsiderate power abusing pricks. That’s the new term I’ll use to describe them from now on.

First, the gazette ain’t even out yet, despite the “law” supposedly having been effective from 1 January 2008. But, they issue an addendum (read: a-them-dumb, because they are) to the Public Ruling that places ridiculous restrictions so that those exemptions that the taxpayers thought should now help in belt-tightening times, are C4-ed into pieces and places far and wide it surprises even this seasoned-getting-used-to-their-idiotic-antics-tax-practitioner.

To explain my rants, let me remind you taxpayers that in Budget 2009, it was announced by the now Defense Minister that employees were meant to be given such goodies as tax exemptions for meal allowances and child care allowances from employers, amongst a slew of exemptions.

The A-Them-Dumb now reads…

Meal allowance provided to an employee for purposes such as overtime or outstation/overseas trips and other similar purposes in exercising his employment is meant to cover meal expenses of the employee. Such meal allowance is paid according to the employee’s position, duties or place where the employment is exercised. As such, any allowance pertaining to meal expenses is chargeable to tax and does not fall under this exemption. Similarly, a per diem allowance which is meant to cover meal expenses for an employee in exercising his employment is also not included in this exemption.

Reality check. A flippin’ two year old would relate a meal allowance to covering meal expenses! Which part of the word “meal” don’t you get in ”meal allowance”?! If it’s not meal expenses, then what? Use the money to buy seeds to cultivate our gardens on our apartment balconies, is it?!

Now, let’s look at how working parents are encouraged to leave their teenagers home alone to join street gangs, lepak and/ or beef up the Mat Rempit population…

For the purpose of this exemption, child means a child of the age of 12 years and below and who is a legitimate child or step-child of an individual or his wife/ husband or a child proved to the satisfaction of the Director General to have been adopted by the individual or his wife/ husband in accordance with any law.

Let’s top off this lump of shit with the fact that the a-them-dumb was issued less than 3 weeks before every employer must submit the details of every one of their employee’s taxable income. Nothing like icing that matches the cake, is there?

The feelers are out…

… for Budget 2010, can ya believe it?

Really. The professional accounting bodies are sending out requests for the Malaysian taxpayer’s wishlist for next year.

What was in the newly gazetted Finance Act again?

Oh yeah.

Nothing yet.

P.S. I spent the last three days at our southerly-bloated-with-reserves-reducing-tax-rate-again-to-flippin’-17%-!!!-30-circulars-a-month-ASEAN-member-neighbour.

Where the previous administration had no follow up, this one has a different but similar theme…

And the theme is postponement.

And the bug is contagious. GST consultations for industries that were supposed to happen in December got pushed to January and then, February. In the month of February, the dates were flying about all over the already short month and now, there’s talk that some sessions could be postponed again.

In the private sector, tax courses organised in Hong Kong got moved to Singapore and then postponed to another date “a couple of months” into the future (read: indefinitely). Locally, one training course was also postponed, with no tentative date given.

Do we even need to go into politics at this point? Why not? A certain party election was… [fill in the blanks, this is getting predictable] to March.

P.S. Notice how the Finance Minister is grinning from ear to ear in every single picture taken of him in the last couple of days? Eeee… beh tahan.

Update @ 11am: GST sessions postponed indefinitely… again.

Spite the federal government by keeping the opposition states well funded

Translates to: Pay your property assessments, fellow Selangorians, Penangites, Kelantanees, Perakians (despite your current limbo) and… err… am I missing a state?

Anyway, February is the month for settlement of your assessment. That goes straight to the state government. Lets you keep your house and keep the state run machinery oiled. Keeps the opposition from having to beg for federal funds all the time. Keeps the shmucks in power from being all smug about turning down the opposition states their dues and requests when that happens. Lots of positive things. 

P.S. Hmmm… (pondering the message I should be sending to assessment payers of Be-End led states)

Update @ 5.30pm: Perakians, you have been betrayed. Plus, not to mention our tax monies are funding those froggies’ travelling costs to Putrajaya to show their still-dare-to-show-face muka tembok! Toads! All of them!

The rear seat belt syndrome

I can’t think of a better name for it…

The laws are finally out (a week after its effective date).

But instructions on the application of the law aren’t.

Essentially the regulations and rules that give some sense to how we should, if we should stuff the fourth fella into that back seat implement the law as it applies to us. Those are not out. And no one knows when they’ll be out. No one knows the nature of the rules, if they ever come out. No one knows if the law and the rules will clash when if they do come out. No one knows if the darn rules will even be practical enough for the taxpayer to apply. 

Remember those tax rules that are supposed to govern those subprime looking securities ABS? Yeah. Beats the hell out of me too.

If you made a mistake, don’t tell…

That’s what the law is advocating. Okay, I think I mentioned this one before (can’t remember which post though), but they decided to just ram it through cause the man’s leaving in March make it law anyway.

There is a new section introduced in the gazetted Finance Act 2009 that provides for “Amendment of return”. It basically says that now, under the law (as opposed to previously, I suppose, was illegal to have done so), one can make amendments to his tax returns (hold the “Huh?!”)… but only if the amendment is to increase his tax payable (No, wait. Not yet).

Plus, the law allows for the amendment to happen within one year from when one submitted his original tax returns (no big revelation there).

Of course there’s a penalty, stupid! There’s an increase to that tax, by the way. Of 15.5%, after one sat down with a calculator and worked out the B + [(A + B) x 5%] mumbo jumbo. Yeah. That supposed, “Ooo… its so much better if you amended your returns, cause unlike before, now there’s no penalty. Only a token increase… an itsy bitsy one”. Par-leeze!

And because we’re in Malaysia, we need a little bit of nonsense to inject our tax law with a bit of… well, Malaysia Boleh-ness. (No. The up there isn’t really the full nonsense yet.)

The part of the IRB’s website telling us how they impose penalties on offences state that if one made a voluntary declaration (before a case has been taken up for audit or investigation) within a year from the submission of the original tax returns, one would be penalised by 15%.

Given that, would anyone of rational state of mind, want to amend their tax returns?

Oops! Sorry. You can “WTF?!” now.