PETALING JAYA: The public will not be able to pay their income tax with credit cards for now as the Finance Ministry has rejected the proposal to allow such a move.

Inland Revenue Board public relations officer Masrun Maslim said the IRB was, however, hopeful that the proposal could be implemented in the future.

He said the reason for the rejection was that the ministry did not want people to take up a loan to pay off another debt.

“We have no problems allowing the public to pay taxes using credit cards but it is up to the Government to approve such a move.

“As an implementing agency, we want to help ease the burden of taxpayers,” he said.

“If paying with credit cards can alleviate their burden, then why not?” he said yesterday.

Masrun said one of the benefits of paying for goods and services using credit cards was that the user could collect points and redeem them for gifts.

He said the IRB received many suggestions from the public via letters, e-mail as well as feedback from seminars pushing for the Government to allow taxes to be paid using credit cards.

“Until today, we are still getting responses from the people proposing the move.

“My personal view is that we should analyse the advantages and disadvantages of allowing such a payment option,” he said.

It was reported that the IRB received 2.1 million forms via e-Filing this year compared with 1.8 million forms during the same period last year.

The IRB aims to collect RM110bil in taxes this year.

Last year, a staggering RM109.67bil in taxes was collected compared to RM86bil in 2010.

However, IRB chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Mohd Shukor Mahfar said the high collection of taxes was unlikely to be repeated this year.

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