There are two
aspects to consider in improving the Malaysian tax system – tax compliance and
tax incentives.
Tax compliance
Tax compliance
needs to be made a way of life. However, media advertisements can
only do so much to educate. There should be a focus on the educational role so
as to be able to disseminate tax information. The website could be used more
effectively, for example, listing all tax case law decisions, etc. as the
public needs to know it all in the self-assessment world. The need for
information also extends to officers of tax authorities, where they should be
trained via contributions from the private sector to develop staff with a
broader mind-set and enhanced business knowledge.
Tax compliance
is a multi-faceted issue, hence there are many facets to consider. Examples
include improvement of the tax consultation process, utilisation of technology
in holistic manner, improvement of the tax authorities’ technical capabilities.
Tax incentives
The roll-back
of certain tax incentives that commenced in 2012 has stalled. It is important
to carry out a review and decide which tax incentives are important and
cease pandering to vested interests. The tax incentives legislation needs to be
revamped to remove certain incentives while simplifying others.
The development
of tax incentives in Malaysia has not really gone through a focused review.
Instead, an approach of “add-ons and tinkering” was adopted rather than taking
a step back and reviewing the rationale for the need for tax incentives and
having a clear measurement tool to evaluate the effectiveness of tax
incentives.
The Tax Reform
Committee set up in September 2018 aims to address some of the issues mentioned
above. It is not undertaking a public review of the tax system which will
require a significant amount of time and resources. Rather, it acts as an
advisory committee to the MoF by engaging with various stakeholders for
suggestions on improvements, and provide recommendations to the MoF.
Dr Veerinderjeet Singh, Chairman of Axcelasia Taxand Sdn Bhd discusses
examples of tax reforms to better the Malaysian tax system.
thanks for the info
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