IRB EYEING THOSE WITH GREAT WEALTH
Agency monitoring social media sites and bank accounts
THE Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has been monitoring social media sites and bank accounts of people with unexplained and extraordinary wealth, especially those in possession of large amounts of cash, luxury cars, jewelleries and properties.
IRB chief executive officer Datuk Seri Sabin Samitah said IRB had been having a taskforce since September to look into taxpayers who had unexplained and extraordinary wealth.
“We are looking at those who may have neglected or under-declared their income,” said Sabin after officiating at a dialogue on a special voluntary disclosure programme (SVDP) organised by KPMG Malaysia yesterday.
SVDP, which took effect on Nov 3, provided an opportunity for taxpayers to voluntarily declare unreported income, including offshore accounts.
Malaysia is a participant in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s common reporting standard, which means IRB will receive automatic exchange of non-residents’ financial information from other participating countries.
Sabin promised confidentiality and lenient penalty on taxpayers who might have misreported their tax filings or did not declare their income. “Please come clean with your income declaration. We assure confidentiality under SVDP if you pay the tax amount owing to the government.”
If the disclosure of unreported income is made from Nov 3 to March 31, the penalty would be 10 per cent of the tax payable. If the disclosure is made from April 1 to June 30, the penalty will be 15 per cent of tax payable.
After the programme expires on June 30, penalty rates would go from 80 per cent to a maximum of 300 per cent.
Last week, he reportedly said his team expected to collect RM10 billion under SVDP.
Present were Datuk Ooi Kok Seng, who is a special officer to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, and KPMG Malaysia executive director Soh Lian Seng.
In August, Lim said the previous government had not refunded RM16.05 billion in excess of income tax and real property gains tax to taxpayers, with some being owed refunds for the last six years.