Customs to monitor businesses with discrepancies in GST declaration
KUCHING: The recent notices from the Royal Malaysia Customs Department (Customs) to GST registered businesses informing that they are being monitored is due to discrepancies in GST declarations, says KPMG Tax Services Sdn Bhd (KPMG Tax).
In a recent e-announcement yesterday, the tax advisory stated they had personally reached out to the Customs Department for more clarification on the subject matter and were given specific examples of what the discrepancies entailed.
“We have checked with the Customs Department and they have verbally given some examples. For instance, they are comparing the value of total turnover declared in the application for GST registration (GST-01 form) against the total value of supplies reported in the GST returns (GST-03 form) as well as the percentages of the type of supplies made which were declared in the forms respectively,” said KPMG Tax executive director Ng Sue Lynn.
For businesses that are experiencing the aforementioned discrepancies in their GST registration and returns forms, Customs has guided that they expect the businesses to amend their GST returns or update their GST registration details via the taxpayer access point accordingly.
“Businesses should also take note that there should be valid and relevant documents to support the amendments made.”
If the discrepancies persist, Ng warns that companies may likely be selected for a full-scale GST audit.
“In the view of the above, it is important for businesses, especially businesses who have received the said notice to ensure that the details in the GST returns are declared accurately and any changes to the information provided earlier during GST registration and updated accordingly.
Meanwhile, Customs will also be imposing a tourism tax on August 1, 2017 whereby operators of accommodation premises will be required to collect tourism tax from their customers upon his or her departure and pay the tourism tax collected in respect of the taxable period.
Any businesses offering lodging or sleeping accommodation to tourists of any nationality including Malaysia are classified as operators of accommodation premises and will be required to register their businesses starting July 1 with the Customs Department.
According to its website, the tax rates per night will be RM2.50 for an unrated room, RM5 for a one to three-star hotel room, RM10 for a four star hotel room and RM20 for a five star hotel room.
On the other hand, homestays registered with the ministry of Tourism and Culture, accommodations maintained by religious institutions for non- commercial purposes, and accommodation premises with less than 10 rooms may be eligible for exemption of the tourism tax.
It is understood that the profits obtained from the tourism tax will be utilised to further develop the tourism industry within the country. SHORT-TERM interbank rates cl o s e d st a bl e y e s t e r d ay on Ba n k Negara Malaysia’s ( BNM) intervention to absorb excess liquidity from the financial system.
The liquidity surplus in the conventional system fel l to RM27.50 bi l l ion from RM35.02 bi l lion in the morning, while in the Islamic system, it declined to RM7.64 billion from RM9.92 billion.
Earlier, BNM conducted six tenders, namely four conventional money market, a Qard Isl amic range maturity auction and a repo tender.
The central bank also conducted a RM27.5 billion c onv ent i on a l mone y market and a RM7.4 billion Qa r d money marke t tender, both for one- day money.
The overnight Islamic reference rate stood at 2.96 per cent, while the one-, two- and three-week rates stood at 3.02 per cent, 3.06 per cent and 3.11 per cent , respectively.