Malaysia's Indirect Tax - What's new

The following bills have been passed in Parliament: 

• Tourism Tax (Amendment) Bill
• Service Tax (Amendment) Bill
• Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill
• Customs (Amendment) Bill
• Free Zones (Amendment) Bill
• Excise (Amendment) Bill

The Tourism Tax (Amendment) Bill  seeks to make the following changes:

• Tourism tax will be levied on accommodation premises made available through online booking.
• The tourism tax shall be collected from a tourist by the digital platform service provider who made the accommodation premises available through online booking, and pay this tax to the Director-General.

The Service Tax (Amendment) Bill seeks to clarify:

• That any registered person who ceases to carry on the business of providing any taxable service should notify the Director-General in writing within 30 days from the date of cessation. 
• The Director-General will refund any balance in the amount of the refund after a registered person has made a deduction.

The Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill seeks to: 

• Empower the Director-General to direct any registered manufacturer to deduct the amount of refund from the amount of sales tax to be paid from the return. 
• Empower the Director-General to withhold any amount of refund to be credited to any following or subsequent taxable period.
• Empower a proper officer of sales tax to seal goods that cannot be removed due to their nature, size or quantity.
• Provides creditability of an agent provocateur's evidence. 

These bills: Customs (Amendment) Bill, Free Zones (Amendment) Bill and Excise (Amendment) Bill

• Empowers a senior officer of  customs in relation to enforcement, investigation and inspection.
• States that the evidence of an agent provocateur is admissible.
• States that under the Customs and Excise (Amendment) Bill, the Director-General may authorise nine-tenths of the paid duties to be repaid as a tax return if the goods are re-exported after the duty has been paid.

(Note: For further information about our Sales and Service Tax (SST) subscription, contact us at my-sales@wolterskluwer.com (Malaysia).

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