The submission of personal income tax to Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) is going to be due by the end of the April, which is on 30th. It will again a lot of people will rush to LHDN branches to submit theirs at the last minute.
It has been the norm that the accounting or non-accounting educated person want to do so called "run tax" (evaded from pay more tax). But how true is it that a person can evade from paying more tax? Actually there’s no way to evade from paying tax. You know why? You may be always heard people saying can do this and that to "run tax". In fact, it just inducing people to do illegal things to evade the tax. Why you want to that?? Since people living in a country is merely renting a place to stay, so there is no such thing as free lunch in this world. So dear, please never ever use the illegal ways to evade it.
Despite of doing those nonsense things, why not just fully utilise the exemption given by the LHDN to pampered yourself nicely. You may refer to the public rulings listed in the Inland Revenue Department website. For example under the "Relief" column, for those non-married person can take up the purchase of books (max RM700), personal medical check up (max RM5,000), personal life insurance + EPF (max RM6,000) and education + medical insurance (max RM3,000). While the married person of whom the partner without income can opt for joint assessment, which may maximise their exemption by getting partner’s relief of RM3,000 and child relief of RM1,000 each whose under age of 18, those who age 18 and above (not-married) and still undergo higher education in Malaysia can claim a relief of RM4,000 each. Of course it is better to opt for seperate assessment if both the couple is having income as there is personal relief of RM8,000 each assessment. But the child relief portion is subjective and one whose income is worthwhile may claim it for reduce the taxable income or both couple having about the same income may claim half the portion.
Besides the "Relief" given, one may opt for donating money to the recognised institution by government as a mean of returning to the uncapable societies. This is indeed a way of doing good things for yourself in spite of paying the money without a good mean. Trust me, during the time doing your tax assessment, you will definitely having a great good feeling about the donation you’ve done!
As a gender reminder, whoever make the claims (purchase of books, insurance, donation, computer etc) for taxable income reduction must keep good record of the receipts etc for about 7-12 years. You might not know whether you will be selected for audited during this period, so please bear in mind to keep them nicely in accordance to the year of assessment.
Also, those who just step into the working society after graduated, never think that there is no need to registered as a tax payer even though it is under the range of being taxable. Once the income reported to be so drastically high for a new registered tax payer, IRD people may trace back the non-reported income of several years back. Then, one might be penalised for not reporting their previous income.
The above just a little say or so called minor personal tax planning for those always asking me how to evade tax. I really freak out and toneless since I got to explain for so many time.
