Goh (3rd right) presenting a memento to Abu Tariq, while Hajam (left), Chan (2nd right) and Ng (right) look on at the seminar on SVDP 2.0.
KOTA KINABALU: The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) has hoped that the Government through the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN) could be more considerate and lenient when dealing with the taxpayers, especially those who are genuinely ignorant of the tax regime.
“The Government should adopt a more lenient approach to first understand the actual reasons behind the taxpayers’ failure to file for income tax returns, and to better educate them on our tax regime, instead of straight away taking harsh action against them without any consideration,” said its President Tan Sri T C Goh.
Goh, who is also President of the Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) was speaking at a seminar on ‘Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) 2.0’ jointly organised by FCAS and LHDN at the Putera Theatre Auditorium in Bukit Padang, here, today.
Also in attendance were Datuk Abu Tariq Jamaluddin, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of LHDN Malaysia, its Sabah Branch Director Datuk Hajam Lajah Alam, and FCAS Vice Presidents David Chan and Johnny Ng, among others.
Goh said the seminar meant to better educate the public on taxation, and the lenient approach of not penalising taxpayers who meet certain criteria, is commendable and well in line with the “Malaysia Madani” concept.
He noted the LHDN had earlier assured that taxpayers who voluntarily come forward to report their undeclared or under-declared taxes during the duration of the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme (SVDP) 2.0, from June 6 till May 31, 2024, will not be compounded; and the period declared under the programme will not be audited unless there is an element of fraud.
“Hence, it’s important for taxpayers to fully grasp the detailed guidelines under the said programme,” he said.
He said the SVDP was first introduced on Nov 3, 2018 for the duration of 11 months; it comes with an offer of 10% to 15% remission on penalties (maximum remission allowed under the Income Tax Act 1967 is 300%).
He then highlighted there was an incident back in 2021 where the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Malaysia had received a complaint from its members, complaining that despite having participated in the SVPD programme, the taxpayers were audited for undeclared tax. This had caused the Government being accused of using the SVPD as a tool to go after those who failed to declare or under-declare their tax. Even the then Finance Minister had described the Government’s ‘u-turn’ on its own policy, as being unfair to the participants of the programme.
He thus hopes, regardless of who’s in power, the Government should through the LHDN sincerely implement the SVPD 2.0 and to honour its assurance of not auditing those taxpayers who meet the criteria of the programme.
Goh acknowledged that the SVPD programme is a worthy approach to help boost the Government’s revenue collection, citing that a vast majority of taxpayers and businesses are law-abiding citizens, except that some of them, especially the new comers, lacked the experience when comes to filing income tax returns, hence the oversights.
“We fully support the Government’s initiative of allowing the taxpayers to better understand our tax regime through the
SVDP. At the same time, we also hope the Government would be more lenient and considerate when dealing with individual or corporate taxpayers who come forward to declare their income voluntarily, during the duration of this programme.
“We also hope individual and corporate taxpayers could seize the opportunity under this programme,” he said.
