"ketetapan umum dipatuhi" : The 2006 LHDN* rant #2:

You know how when you’re signing in for an internet banking session you’re prompted with a caveat like “I have read and understood and agree to comply with the Terms and Conditions of Use”? ........ Or when installing certain software, you also get prompted with something similar? ....... And those Terms & Conditions seem to be 3 pages long, small print and full of legalese which you can’t possibly absorb in one sitting anyway? ........ But you are expected to say “yes” otherwise you can’t use the services? ......So you say “Yes” but hope that all goes well cos you know those T&C are biased in the favor of the bank should anything go wrong…

The “ketetapan umum dipatuhi” question on the new Income Tax form seems to be of the same spirit.

As far as I knew, the translation was something like “general requirements have been adhered to” … and everyone I asked last year had no idea what this was about, and I think all of us just went ahead and indicated YES on the form… after all, when in doubt, best to say yes, eh? What do do,,,,, we HAVE to submit the form; the explanation for this question is totally lacking in the Buku Panduan (Guide Book); and leaving the space blank will probably cause problems with processing, knowing how things (don’t) work around here…

This time around, I wanted to try to see what it is that I’m saying YES to.

Again, the Buku Panduan was no help. Neither was the LHDN website – can’t believe they don’t have a search function on their page!!??

But thanx to Google, found an Income Tax Help discussion thread within the United Subang Jaya Forum that had two pertinent posts. See the first two on the top of this page: one recommends saying NO, the other YES! Arrggh!! Which??? But taking a step back, I realized the most important thing in there was actually finding out the proper translation of “ketetapan umum dipatuhi”: “compliance to public rulings”.

Which rang a vague muffled bell: pretty sure I *had* seen something about “rulings” on the LHDN page.

So back I went.

And yahoo!!! Found them!! (If you’re looking, go to the drop-down menu of Laws & Regulations and you’ll find them).

Hmmppph! Turns out that there are all these guidelines that have been issued "for the purpose of providing guidance for the public and officers of the Inland Revenue Board". These rulings set out "the interpretation of the Director General of Inland Revenue [DGIR] in respect of the particular tax law, and the policy and procedure that are to be applied".

They have fantastic titles like Perquisites from Employers, and Computation of Total Income for Individual.

On one hand, having this Y/N question in the form could be a (subtle) (forced) program of awareness & education by LHDN of the masses? You know, force people to educate themselves about these guidelines and clarifications.

Then again, seeing how blur everyone is about what these ketetapan umums *are* let alone patuhing them, it seems to be more along the lines of them putting words in our mouths, forcing us to make a statement we don’t understand; making it easy for them to come after us if there are (willful?) mistakes in our tax submissions…

From a PWC article Public rulings - must you comply? Public Rulings has no force of law. Yet, ordinary tax-payers should be concerned.

a. Is a "yes" tantamount to a declaration that the taxpayer has full knowledge of all the public rulings and gives an undertaking that all these public rulings have been complied with? If not, then what does "yes" mean? To what extent is the taxpayer legally bound to make sure that a "yes" means "yes!" and not "I think so, yes"?

b. On the other hand, what is the consequence of a "no"? Would the taxpayer be subjected to a tax audit if he admits to not complying with a particular ruling? And if non-compliance has resulted in lower tax payable, would an additional assessment based on the IRB's interpretation as stipulated in that ruling be raised? Plus a penalty for purported understatement of chargeable income that had arisen as a result of adopting a contrarian position?

c. What happens if the box is left blank by the taxpayer who, in all honesty, does not know whether he has complied with all the rulings? Though the law does not prescribe any penalty, can the IRB reject the tax return form as incomplete and treat any subsequent re-submission as late submission upon which a penalty would be imposed? This seems hardly fair to the taxpayers, the majority of whom are in the "don't know" category, to be forced to make a declaration which is not true, one way or other.

It would therefore seem that the burden of responsibility imposed upon the taxpayer to either answer "yes" or "no" is not one which can or should be taken lightly, and it would only be fair for them to be apprised of the answers to these questions before they make the declaration.

Exactly! I really want to know the consequences of either reply!

But looks like nothing is really known yet, eh?

I suppose I'll just go ahead and say YES again this year.

After all, I won't be the only one saying YES without really knowing what I'm declaring let alone its implications!!

F*ck it, am mailing in my submission tomorrow.

The 2006 LHDN* rant #1

* LHDN = Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri = Internal Revenue Board = the taxman

While certainly not fruitful, my LHDN errand today was thankfully relatively painless (once I got there lah… so many miscomms in the apartment today, *o*m*g*, not even going to *go* there...)...

My focus was on a mysterious “business tax file” (type OG, as opposed to SG, for those who are curious/know/care) that mysteriously got created about two years ago; unfortunately the “home” of the file – the Kelana Jaya tax office – was as much help as the main Jalan Duta office: not much. They can’t say how or why the file was created, seeing as I certainly to NOT own a business of any sort!

It’s not reassuring that they don’t seem concerned about it being a case of identity theft, especially when they seem totally ignorant and unconcerned as to how&why such a file could be opened in my name without my knowledge/consent!

And it doesn’t help that despite the file having been “frozen” at my (verbal) requests in Oct 2004 & April 2005, they keep sending that Borang B!

Hello, LHDN people?!!? If that file is really frozen, no need lah to send that friggin Borang B! What do *you* think I am going to think when I receive it – of course lah I’ll be concerned that somehow the file in your system has been reactivated!

And guess what I have been told for two years in a row, by LHDN staff, when I asked why I continued to receive the Borang B and what I was supposed to do about it:

“Oh, it’s frozen, so no need to submit lah. Don’t worry.”

Then why send that friggin form?

And why am I not reassured?

*sigh*
Seeing as so much about this is beyond my control, I figured for me to get some sort of closure on this, I decided to make a comprehensive file note describing this OG-saga, starting from early 2004 when I first knew something was wrong. It’s now filed along with the unsent Borang B, at the back of the file where I keep all my tax stuff. I figure somewhere down the road, if something were to crop up regarding this “business file”, I can say that a long time ago I tried to do something about it, and all I was told by LHDN was DON’T WORRY.

.. and that, my friend, is what you call closure ..

…or as closured as one can get in cases like these lah…

btw: my job position, according to the OG file, is Pengarah Syarikat (Director). Kinda cool, eh? It's certainly not true, but kinda cool to see that rank with my name on it, LOL!

… and the (IRB/LHDN) saga continues …

Today’s headlines grabbed my attention: “Quick refunds” screamed the Sunday Star, with its subheadline “IRB: Money back in a month for taxpayers.”

How many of you thought “Whoohooo, I’ll get my refund by early June!”? Take a closer read: did you see that “… it will reimburse those with refunds due to them within one month of request”?

Wait wait wait… request?? You mean submitting the form & calculations that already state the amount due, and providing the bank account number in the bl**dy form.. all that not enough one ah? Got to go to the bl**dy tax office and “request” somemore ah?

Oh my godddddddddddddddddddddd!

If they demand that whatever $$ due is to be paid as the form is submitted, why can they not reciprocate by immediately processing the forms with refunds due the same way and refund accordingly?????

Why bother with putting a checkmark on the back of the envelope saying “refund due” if it does not get processed any differently?

In fact, why even bother giving them our bank account information if we have to go make a request for the refund, which I am SURE will involve filling up a form providing the account information again? btw: *NOW* they say refunds can be either by direct debit or by cheque: previously it seemed that they would only refund via direct debit hence them asking for our bank account information. Did they change their minds??

I find this sooooooo frustrating... I consider this as yet another example of something being implemented, but not all the way.

I guess I should not be surprised...

Oh well, since I wanted to go visit the Kelana Jaya office to try to solve the mystery of how that second account got established in the first place, I suppose I’ll do it sooner rather than later so I can “request for the refund” at the same time.

Pity all those who have to make a trip to the office *just* to make the request.

“Malaysia Boleh”?? Yep... as usual :p

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

... the (threat of a) pen is mightier than ... ?

"Look," I said in frustration, "Just please print out the page in your system saying that Kelana Jaya received my submission in early April. I'll just enclose that together with a letter I will write to protest this situation."

Does that sound like a threat to you? certainly not to me! But after almost 30 mins dealing with this hapless Income Tax officer who did not seem to see the inconsistencies in their data that I was pointing out, and was therefore adamant that my submission was late, and that i was therefore liable for that RM100 penalty,,, i was ready to just throw in the towel, pay the penalty under protest, and write one of my legendary feedback letters to LHDN. ... and yet, when the officer came back with the printout, she was singing a totally different tune! Perhaps she didn't want to have a boo-boo highlighted, even though the 'fault' lay with the Kelana Jaya office, not there at Jalan Duta. But hey, to have the officer offering to ask her management's permission to amend my 'received date' .. whoohooo!! I walked out of the tax office feeling like I had won a small victory!

Here's some background on why I made a trip to LHDN this morning:
Early 2004: I received TWO different Borang B: one correct/normal (from Jalan Duta), the other issued by the Kelana Jaya office and having all my details but wrong IC number. The latter was a total surprise to me.
End March: I submitted my assessment (on the ‘correct’ form), and enclosed the ‘wrong’ form, pointing out to LHDN the wrong IC and asking them to investigate why this should happen in the first place.
30 April: Deadline for tax assessment submission.
June 2004: I vist LHDN Jln Duta to ask what’s going on, because I received a letter from Kelana Jaya thanking me for a blank form submission implying no income for last year. Then what HAD happened to my actual submission, book receipts, insurance statements etc? The officer I met said not to worry, they DID have my submission and it was being processed. He also went ahead and ‘deactivated’ the mystery account. Uh huh, there didn’t seem to be any initiative to find out WHY out of the blue Kelana Jaya would create a file on me, with wrong information… I figure, nevermind, it’s their internal business. So far so good, right?
October 2004: Here’s the cruncher. The Borang J arrived, with that surprising RM100 penalty. So off I go to visit LHDN to get to the bottom of this..

And after an extended argument cum discussion with the poor LHDN officer, here’s (probably) what happened:
23rd March 2004: My submission sent (in my records it was sent to Jln Duta… maybe I got my envelopes mixed up and used the one addressed to Kelana Jaya? After all they did send me two different forms with two different return addresses?)
5th April 2004: my ‘package’ received in Kelana Jaya. They stamped ‘received’ on the ‘wrong’ form (which was issued by them and therefore 'theirs') and process it (resulting in the June letter from Kelana Jaya). The ‘correct’ form (which was NOT 'theirs') was set aside to be processed later.
21st May 2004: Kelana Jaya finds my 'correct' form, finally get around to stamping ‘received’ on it, then only do they forward it to Jalan Duta, who of course receive it ‘late’

So: for RM100... Why didn’t the person in Kelana Jaya chop BOTH forms on 5th April 2004?
RM100 isn’t *that* much money, I hear some of you say. Well, firstly, since I am no longer employed of course I do not want to simply throw money at LHDN; and more importantly: I KNOW I wasn’t late so as a matter of principle I want to make sure my record is ‘clear’!

So, as I mentioned above: I walked out of the Income Tax office feeling like I'd won a small victory. Of course the reality remains to be seen lah.. will permission be granted? Will the officer call me back? Well, if I dont hear from them be the end of the year, rest assured that I will send them a letter that I hope will be a non-magic equivalent of a 'howler' as described in the J K Rowling's Harry Potter series!!

Till then, I'll let my $$ sit in my bank account and gather interest just a little bit longer!