098 Tax relief for 2015

Tax relief for 2015	2015年税务减免税项
It's tax season of the year again. We will be returning our tax filing. When we do it for 2015, we should be able to know our tax for 2016. Let's look at tax relief for 2015.	又到了报税的季节了。我们又要呈报我们的税务。当我们呈报2015年的同时，我们也估计得到2016年该还的税务。让我们来看看2015年的减免税务吧。
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Besides the special relief in item 18, all the other relieves are applicable to 2016 as well. Of them all, the most under utilized relief could be Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) and Annuity Scheme listed under item 16.	除了第18项的税务减免之外，其他都属2016年也适用的减免。这其中可能还较少人索取的是第16项的私人退休基金与年金计划。
PRS and Annuity relief are applicable in between year 2012-2021, ie a total of 10 years. There are 8 providers of PRS products, while Annuity is launched by insurance company.	私人退休基金与年金计划的减免适用于2012年至2021年，即为期10年。目前被批准的私人退休基金公司共有8间，而年金计划一般由保险公司推出。
Pls remember when you are increasing your income while trying very hard to decrease your expenses, saving taxes the correct way is a wise way to retain your income. As resources is limited, it make sense to maximise your resources.	谨记在您增加收入又尽量减少开支的同时，如何正确节省税务也是留住收入的方法。因为您拥有的资源是有限的，如何让您的资源最大化是明智的。
If you have not claim this relief, or you are wondering how much it can save you, pls email sateo7689@yahoo.com for a free review.	若是您在这之前仍然未索取这项减免，抑或好奇这项减免能为您省下多少税务，欢迎您电邮sateo7689@yahoo.com安排免费咨询。

095 Inland Revenue Dept CP500

Inland Revenue Dept CP500	内陆税收局 CP500
When I was taking my CFP module Tax Planning, lectures told us Inland Revenue Dept will randomly picked some taxpayers for audit. Since it is randomly picked, it doesn't mean fault for the "lucky" one. Anyway, it doesn't feel good to get picked.	在我还在修读CFP课程税务规划这个单元时，讲师说内陆税收局会每年抽样检查纳税人的税务呈报单。因是抽样被选，“幸运”被抽中的人并不代表犯错了。但收到内陆税收局的信的心情还是很不安的。
It was 3 weeks before Chinese New Year, somewhere middle of January, I got a letter from Inland Revenue. Did I overpay last year? It's my refund? I opened it with unease.	就在今年新年前的两三个星期，即约一月中旬，我就收到税收局的信。我想难道去年的税还多了，现在有退税？于是带着忐忑的心情打开。
Oh, Inland Revenue wants me to submit the original copy of tax declaration form together with all the supporting receipts. No problem to me since I have all of them. So, I reorganize them, prepared a cover letter listing all the documents, then passed to Inland Revenue. They told me I can call them on the progress. Call them? Forget it.	噢，税收局要我呈上2015年的报税表格以及所有单据，全部都要正本。这倒没什么难得，我全都有，而且我也呈报有单据的减免。于是，我稍微整理了一下，再拟了一封信列明资料清单就交到税收局。税收局说任何后续会有信件通知，若是等得急了可以去电询问。去电？我想还是免了罢。
Chinese New Year came and passed. No news from IRD. I am innocent I think. Well well, there it comes in near month end of February. A long long letter in A4 paper. Looked like assessment form, but since I do e-filing, it couldn't be. What is it?	新年来了又过了。税收局无消无息。我想应该是无罪了吧。哈哈，就在二月下旬，来了。长长的像A4纸的信。让人以为是税务呈报表格，只是我是网上报税，所以不应收到税务呈报表了的。是什么呢？
Let me see, it's the so called form CP500, that is a schedular tax payment estimated by IRD. It's similar to employees Monthly Tax Deduction (PCB). It seems like IRD has reviewed my formsforms, and come out with a 6 bi-monthly payment scheme.	打开一看，原来是所谓的CP500表格，既是按期缴交当局预测的税务。就有如雇员的每月税务扣账(PCB/MTD)。看来税收局应该是看过了我的表格，于是拟定六期，即每两个月一期的分期税。
First payment is on 1st of March, the last is 1st January next year. Each payment date has 30 days grace period. Additional fine if late.	第一期是三月一号，最后一期是明年的一月一号。每期的税务需在以上日期算起的30天内缴付。逾期另外罚款。
I asked my fellow planners. They have paid that for many many years. The thing is we belongs to commission based taxpayers, so IRB user this method to collect our tax. To think of it, it's quite good a system too. A whole year tax is being split into 6 smaller payments, saving us the pain of paying 1 big sum when due.	我问了问身边的其他理财员，原来有些已经如此缴交了很多年呢。最主要的是，我们属佣金制纳税人，所以当局是以这种方式让我们分期付税。其实也挺好的呢，因为一年的税务均分六期，可免一年一度报税期单笔付税的“心痛”。
So all I have to do is pay on time. Just that need to wait until commission paid. That's it. Then something crop up the day before. My laptop was stolen. The CP500 is inside. Looked like I have to pay IRD a visit.	看来还钱就对了。只是要等拿到佣金过后。事就如此定了。就在前天发生了一段插曲。我的手提电脑被偷了。那个CP500表格偏就在电脑袋里面。看来得跑一趟内陆税收局了。
Today when I open my mailbox, their is a reminder email from IRD informing they have sent out CP500 to me. And in the email, dates and amount payable are stated. Looked like IRD is getting more and more efficient.	今天星期天打开邮箱。内里有一封税收局提醒当局已经寄出CP500的表格，也一并列明我的付税日期及款额。哈，如此我就无需特地去税收局了。看来税收局的效率越来越好了。
As taxpayers, we must declare our tax diligently. Let's only claim what's entitled. Wrong declaration will be punished severely.	身为纳税人，我们需精明的报税。我们应该只索取符合资格的税务回扣。刻意误报税务的惩罚会得不偿失。
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053 Income Tax YA2015 and PRS tax relief

It's May 4 today. Another 11 days for taxpayers to file their BE income tax return, for YA2014, by May 15. For those still filing using BE forms, you should have submitted your forms with the payment done.

Have you used up your tax reliefs, especially the RM3,000 granted under Private Retirement Scheme (PRS)? This tax relief is valid from YA2012 to YA2021. Hopefully, the Government will extend the period.

If you have not contribute in PRS to claim the tax relief, you should seriously consider so. Besides the tax relief, PRS also allows all individuals to save more for retirement years. Money put in PRS, especially in sub-account A, cannot be taken out before reaching age 55. This feature will help contributors to save because one just cannot simply take out.

For YA2015, it makes more sense to contribute to PRS because the tax rate will be lower making you save more. For the tax rate, you may refer to LHDN website (http://www.hasil.gov.my/goindex.php?kump=5&skum=1&posi=2&unit=5000&sequ=11) to view it.

Append below is the comparison for YA2014 and YA2015. The last column shows the savings for each categories. As the chargeable income gets higher, the more the taxpayers saved.

When this lower tax rate coupled with PRS relief, taxpayers will save more. If you can't imagine how much, let's use a hypothetical example. We use an example with RM100,000 gross income; relief claimed restricted Personal Relief and KWSP relief for simplicity sake.

A taxpayer with RM100,000 gross income will have Chargeable Income of RM85,000 or RM82,000, and thus a tax payable of RM10,250 and RM9,530 for with and without PRS relief respectively. With PRS relief, taxpayer saves RM720.

For YA2015, the table will be as below. Tax payable has further reduced to RM8,750 and RM8,120 for scenarios with and without PRS relief.

If we compare the tables, the difference is quite big. The extreme case will the saving between YA2014_w/o_PRS and YA2015_w/_PRS relief. That means RM10,250 - RM8,120 = RM2,130. That's a lot of saving.

PRS is essentially an investment scheme. You may go to PPA website (www.ppa.my) to learn more about the providers, features, etc.

If you are interested to know the performance, please go to link provided in PPA website (http://gllt.morningstar.com/e6qvxuu98r/fundquickrank/default.aspx?LanguageId=en-GB&tab=ShortTerm).

Sample page below is sorted by "Core (Growth)" and ranked by "1 Yr Ansld %". By this you will see the performance for the passed One year for Core Growth funds provided by different fund house. Do not simply choose based on performance alone. You need to know your risk tolerance first.

For me, PRS is, besides KWSP and SSPN, the best tax relief because we get tax saving and we see the money grow right from now till we reach age 55. How wonderful!

Oh yes, mentioned of SSPN, just remind that SSPN tax relief of RM6,000 will carry on till YA2017. If original tax relief was RM3,000. So, if it is not extended, I think it will revert to RM3,000.

For those taxpayers between the age of 20 to 30, please remember to contribute to PRS because Government, through PPA, will top up a one off RM500 once you contribute RM1,000 into a single provider.