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Wednesday October 18, 2006

Tax records at fingertips

KUALA LUMPUR: It will be extremely simple to keep track of one's income tax records – if you are connected to the Internet, that is.

All you need to do is key in your personal identification number (PIN) and your previous income tax records will be available from the comfort of home.

Zainol Abidin: ‘The IRB wants to make e-Filing a breeze’
Inland Revenue Board CEO Tan Sri Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid said this was among the new services his IT officials were working on for incorporation into the e-Filing system next year.

“Information on the income tax paid last year, and where and how it was paid, will be available online,” he added.

Another improved feature will be that the online tax return “form” will have the taxpayer’s personal particulars like identity card number, address and the names of the spouse and children.

“The IRB wants to make e-Filing a breeze so that when you log in all the basic information will be readily available on screen,” said Zainol Abidin, who will be retiring soon after serving as IRB head for six years.

“This means that a taxpayer need no longer type in his or her particulars like it is being done now. It will be a hassle-free tax filing system.

“The IRB is also working on making it easy for taxpayers, who want to do e-Filing, to get their PIN and security code without having to go to an IRB office.

“A taxpayer will be able to get the PIN and security code online via the IRB website (www.hasil.gov.my) from next year.”

As e-Filing has been available for only a year, he said, adding that the department experienced a lot of problems.

“We know the problems the taxpayers experienced and why they arose,” he said.

“When we tested it before implementation we did it in-house and our staff members were not able to anticipate the numerous problems the public faced.

“Our staff members are now addressing these problems.

“Some people had Internet access, but lacked the proper software, and the system did not work,” he said.

There was also congestion when many taxpayers filed in their tax forms at the same time.

“The IRB only used one telecommunications company,” he said.

“From now on we will use another company as back-up in the event the company we are using is overloaded.

“If there is an overload, the system will not crash, but will switch over to the other telco provider,” he added.

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