LHDNM: Good news and bad news!

Yep, I was at the LHDNM (Income Tax) office @ Jalan Duta last Friday.

Good news: The visit was not as painful as expected.
Bad news: I still can’t cross this off my “To Do” list.

Here’s why:

Good news:
One of the many people I met was the same person who dealt with me last year, and she remembered having handled my case. She told me to “just ignore” the Borang B for the mysterious second account, to not even send it in, as she knows the account is (supposed to be) frozen. .
Bad news:
Doesn’t answer the question of how this second account was set up in the first place. I do mean to find out, but I’ll do that after the first tax deadline of 30th April. This will entail a journey of discovery: have no idea where the Kelana Jaya office is!


Good news:
For the first time in my history, LHDNM owes ME money! While being able to claim the cost of my dad’s hearing aid helps a bit by reducing my taxable income by RM1000, the main reason I’m not in the red with them is that my ex-employer deducted so much from my monthly paychecks past year. I guess I musta been bumped up into a higher deduction bracket or something.
Bad news:
I wonder when I am gonna see that RM1200…


Good news:
Having previously paid taxes owed up till 2002, according to my records at the time of my visit I only owed them for 2003.
Bad news:
According to their records, there was a discrepancy of RM600 or so. When I challenged that, I had to sit around and wait for yet another officer to ‘interview’ me.
>>>... but...
Good news:
After quite a bit of verbal foreplay, figured out that they are missing record of payment for Sept – December 1995 (my first few months of work), and the the discrepancy was only for RM140 or so. To fix it, all they need is proof that the deductions were submitted by the employer, then my account would be credited accordingly.
Bad news:
I need to contact payroll (left a message: he wasn’t around) to get them to furnish the evidence, then bring that to LHDNM, and personally hand it over to the person in charge. It’s labor intensive, but I don’t trust anybody to do this without screwing up…

So, I have just a bit more to go before I have the satisfaction of crossing LHDNM off my list:
1. actually submit my assessment form for 2004
2. get & pass on the Sept-Dec 1995 info
3. visit Kelana Jaya to find out more about the 'other account'

Here's hoping 1 & 2 are done by next week, and #3 by mid-May...

And for those who may be curious, here are some statistics of my visit:

Duration: 3 hours
(9am – 12 noon, most of which was spent waiting…)

No. of queue numbers: three
Different numbers issued for “assessment”, “collection” and “payment”

No. of people talked to: four
#1: Assessment: General
#2. Assessment: Interview
#3. Collection: General
#4. Collection: Interview

No. of floors visited : three
1 st: Assessment: General and Collection: General & Interview
6 th: Assessment: Interview
G: Payment