Q & A On Personal Income Tax In Malaysia With An Expert

We recently sat down with Raymond Chan, Certified Financial Planner from VKA Wealth, to ask him about some of the things that Malaysians should know about when it comes to income tax.

The interview gave us insight and knowledge on some of the fundamentals of income tax that Malaysians (this writer included) often overlooked, or are just plain unaware of, whenever tax season comes around.

What are some of those insights? Here are some quick points if you prefer reading over watching!

Tax brackets are complicated… so use a guide

It’s no secret that figuring out your tax bracket can be harder than rocket science if you don’t understand how it works. Chan’s logical advice for this is to go to guides (such as iMoney’s Personal Income Tax Guide) to figure out how much chargeable income you have.

But the basic is that your income tax brackets are based on a tiered calculation of your chargeable income.

You should still file your taxes even if you’re unemployed

You might be in a situation where you’re currently unemployed when tax season comes around and figured, “Hey, I don’t have a salary, I guess I don’t need to pay taxes!”

Here’s the thing, regardless if you need to pay income taxes or not, you still are required to submit your income tax declarations every year to the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. You can, however, choose to close your tax file if you no longer have any source of income.

Read More: Tax Tips For Employees Who Lost Their Jobs Or Get Retrenched

The online submission deadline for income tax is 15th May

One of the biggest fears for filing taxes is if you missed the deadline (next to overpaying/underpaying taxes). While the manual submission deadline for income tax falls on 30th April, the grace period given for e-Filling submission is until 15th May.

So, if you happened to miss out on the 30th April deadline, don’t worry, you still can submit your taxes online through e-Filing until the 15th of May.

Also, if you have business income, the deadlines fall on 30th June for manual submission and 15th July for e-Filing.

Overpaid your taxes? You will get it back

Parting with your hard-earned income to pay taxes is not necessarily the best feeling in the world. However, if you happened to end up paying more than you should have on your income tax, you might get a pleasant surprise with a tax refund!

Whenever you paid more tax than what you should have, Inland Revenue Board will return the excess amount paid within a period. So keep an eye out on your bank account to see if you’ve gotten a refund.

Read More: Overpaid Taxes Can Be Refunded In The Form Of A Tax Return

Want more tax facts? Watch the full video below or check out our income tax guide if you need help filing your taxes.