Income Tax

Its time to file for income tax, again.

• Individual relief = RM9,000.

• Which means, RM750/month, or RM25/day for all expenses, including food,  accommodation, transportation, household expenses, utilities, clothing, entertainment etc.. How can anyone living in a city survive with RM750/month, with the ever-rising living cost ?

• Rebate for books = RM1,000. Anyone spending that kind of money for books ?

• Rebate for broadband subscription = RM500. mana cukup ?

• Rebate for house installment = RM10,000. Why only for property bought between 10^th March 2009 till 31 December 2010 ?

• Minimum taxable income ( for a singleton ) = RM2,450 net

• if we calculate it backward, Minimum taxable income ( RM2,450 ) = [ Annual Income ( RM17,856 ) – Individual rebate( RM9,000 ) – EPF ( RM6,000 ) ] -  Tax relief ( RM400 ). 

• Thus, an average singleton earns more than RM1,488/month are taxable.  Unless he/she is entitled to a lot more of rebates and reliefs.

• In 2010, there are 5.5 million registered individual taxpayers in Malaysia ( NST, Tax refunds in 30 days, 24 Mar 2012 ), out of 11,129,400 employed labour force ( Department of Statistics, Principal Statistic of the Labour Force, 1982-2011 ).

• Which means, of 11,129,400 employed labour, almost half of them are not paying tax, either they earn less than RM1,488/month, or simply don’t pay.   

• Per capita income of average Malaysian = USD9,656 ( @ RM28,968  º RM2,414/month )  ( World Bank, 1990-2010 )

• Average Malaysian’s income are taxable, why only half of the workforce pay tax?

  

• IRB collected RM15,574.59 million in 2009 from individual taxpayers. (  IRB Annual Report, 2009 )

• IRB’s Annual Report dare not to publish the number of taxpayers, why?  How many taxpayers contributed to the tax revenue ?