Friday 26 February 2016

Door shuts on Foreign Workers Recruitment





What did the government do?

Earlier this month, the authorities in Malaysian has imposed a recruitment freeze on foreign workers and it would be enforced with immediate effect.

The announcement came a day after Malaysia's Human Resource Minister Richard Riot Jaem signed a contract with Bangladesh to bring in 1.5 million workers from the country in stages and it raised major concerns by groups for the safety and the impact on the local labour market. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the freeze was to push more Malaysians to take up employment opportunities in sectors slated for foreign workers.

Interestingly, the government is now urging all employers to hire local workers as employees. Without giving out any further details of the plan, Ahmad Zahid said the suspension would be in place while the government reviewed the two-tier levy programme for foreign workers.

How many foreign workers are there? 


The number of documented foreign workers are 2.1 million. The estimated number of illegal foreign workers is about 1.7 million. They are largely employed in the manufacturing, plantation, construction and service sectors.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Corporate Tax Audits and Voluntary Disclosure Routes

An article by: Renganathan Kannan, Partner of TraTax Malaysia

(Speaker for the upcoming Wolters Kluwer workshop, Navigating through Corporate Tax Audits & Investigation – Taxpayers’ Fundamental Rights held in Kuala Lumpur and Penang)

The Prime Minister, YAB. Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak has announced plans to enhance revenue collection and reduce tax leakages as part of the recalibration exercise of the 2016 Federal Budget. In order to reduce tax leakages, the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB) plans to double tax compliance and audit efforts on tax evaders as well as give special consideration on relaxation for penalties on taxpayers who come forward and declare their past years’ income and settle their arrears before 15th December 2016 vide voluntary disclosure routes. The IRB issued an Operational Guideline (GPHDN 1/2016) on 10-02-2016 in line with the Prime Minister’s announcement on 28-01-2016.
Tax audit is an essential element of any self-assessment system. During the audit process, with is carried out with the objective of increasing the rate of voluntary compliance, the IRB applies numerous techniques and tools to examine the taxpayers’ records, financial affairs, documentations, substance of documentations and business practices.

Monday 15 February 2016

Malaysia Master Tax Guide 2016 out soon!

The latest edition of Wolters Kluwer’s Malaysia Master Tax Guide 2016 will be available on 25 February 2016!



Since 2015, we have included a chapter on the goods and services tax. All tax changes made since the publication of the Malaysia Master Tax Guide 2015 including chapters effected by the 2016 Budget announced in October 2015, the Finance Act 2015 gazetted in December 2015, the recent exemption orders, rules, IRB guidelines and public rulings issued have been incorporated into this edition. In addition, the book has been updated with the changes as announced in the revised Budget on 28 January 2016. The law is stated as at 1 February 2016.

The text in our flagship tax book is in 2-colour for easy reading. Get a copy of the Malaysia Master Tax Guide now!

To order, existing customers can contact your regular Account Manager. New customers can visit our online store.

Thursday 4 February 2016

Pre-CNY Tax Wrap-up – Singapore & Malaysia

A summary of tax events since the hangover of the New Year


Yes, I’m not married yet. No plans yet.                          
No, we don’t have plans for a third child. Two girls are just fine.
Yes, I have put on weight. Work has been really stressful lately.

Does that sound familiar? Festival seasons may be all about the laughter, food, fireworks and togetherness but it also means chit-chat with distant relatives or even worse, being hounded by nosy relatives.

So, as we peel Mandarin oranges and pack our bags in anticipation of the Chinese New Year holidays, here’s a list of potential talking points (if you run out of inconsequential topics or desperately need to change the theme to anything but the state of your personal life):

Tuesday 2 February 2016

We at Wolters Kluwer would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our customers in both Malaysia and Singapore:

A Very Happy and Prosperous Year of the Monkey!

One month extension for SST returns and payment of tax

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) has announced a one month extension (until 31 July 2021) for the submission of SST-02 forms an...