Taxpayers in a bind over audit

BASED on personal observation, speaking and listening to friends who are tax consultants and business owners, there seems to be a trend of late where the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has been issuing letters requesting payment for things such as late submissions (often a couple of days) for tax files from eight to 13 years ago.

I am not sure if the statute of limitation ever comes into play as taxpayers are only required to keep tax filings for seven years.

Hence, how are most law abiding taxpayers to respond to this kind of letters?

The IRB officers should be upstanding in all their work conduct. In such cases, even the rationale of going after these cases needs to be seen and done with integrity.

Some taxpayers perceive it as a witch-hunt where law-abiding taxpayers are penalised in such a manner that it is almost impossible to put up a defence.

The head of IRB and Ministry of Finance need to respect the values of fair play in such cases. Do these cases pass the test of reasonableness established by courts?

This letter is written on behalf of small voices who are resigned to the fact that they cannot challenge the legality and the not so common sense of such decisions to go after late payment submissions that go well beyond the seven-year time frame.

The final hope – a reasonable, responsible, responsive action for those small voices who seem lost and are hopelessly unrepresented.

Taxpayer Kuala Lumpur