KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Bernama) — The Malaysian Royal Customs Department has received a thumbs-up from a tax expert for its efforts ahead of the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).[br]
New Zealand-based tax barrister in private practice and Ernst & Young, director (tax), Dave Ananth, said compared to other countries’ tax collection departments, Malaysia’s Customs Department “has done the job very well”.[br]
He applauded the Customs Department’s efforts in providing guidelines, which would help businesses and organisations to get information about how to do transactions with this tax regime, how to fill in the GST forms, how to avoid incurring penalties, as well as, how and when the GST was refunded back, among others.[br]
“Overseas, they (tax collectors) do not prepare the guidelines at all.[br]
“I’m a proponent of GST. I think what the Customs Department is doing for GST is more than what I’ve seen in other countries,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the two-day Malaysian Real Estate Convention 2015 (MAREC’15).[br]
The two-day event, which started on Friday, was organised by the Malaysia Institute of Estate Agents Malaysia.[br]
Ananth, who has over 20 years of experience in legal, investigation, taxation and commercial sectors in Malaysia and New Zealand, was a speaker at the third session titled ‘GST Impact on Real Estate Agents: Practical Issues’.[br]
On what the government should look into to ensure the successful implementation of the GST, he said the engagement between the Customs Department and the industry players needed to be strengthened to avoid miscommunication.[br]
He suggested that the task of collecting income tax and other taxes, which at present was under the Inland Revenue Board Malaysia’s (IRB) jurisdiction, and the coming GST, should be handle by only one entity.[br]
“In New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the UK, this task is only done by one department. In Malaysia it has two.
“I had been told that the Customs Department and the IRB would be merged and if it happens, I think it would be easier for both,” the former prosecutor and magistrate said.[br]
— BERNAMA
