GST : Focus On Tax Evaders First

I was amused with the comments above from readers of both Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini for this article

Comments

written by maha, December 16, 2009
the implemintation of GST by the B.N govt clearly shows to what extend the govt of the day is interested in the welfare of in particular the middle and lower income group. So I beg rational voters to bring in pakatan in 13 GE &. we will see what pakatan CAN DO. Pakatan have proven in Kedah, penang,selangor,kelantan and to certain extend in perak.KEEP IT UP PAKATAN!

written by siong, December 16, 2009
GLCs making lost. BN now worried all the economics corridors they promised will bring development, hitting big rock and sink. So, go and collect money from poor rakyat to bail out GLCs linked with BN politicians. 1Malaysia rakyat diutamakan, I mean first to get robbed.

written by i_love_malaysia, December 16, 2009
When come to collecting money, the BN govt is super efficient!!! The govt should stop all the leakages and not just want to collect more and more and more!!! No wonder the Thais and Singaporeans drivers and smugglers are laughing all the way to the banks for our generousity out of govt stupidity!!!

written by lowxinpui, December 16, 2009
Bloody well make sure all the PR MPs are present when the votes are taken.

written by Ahmad Ismail, December 16, 2009
BN is short of money?

then how come can pay so high dividend to Amanah Saham Bumiputera?

GST will be a waterloo for BN inthe next election.

written by Apa Khabar, December 16, 2009
What GST to Najib may just turn out to be like Badawi's petrol price hike, with its repercussion on the next General Election.

No worries, mate!
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From Similar Article in Malaysiakini

by kgan - 30 minutes ago
Some proponents of GST have touted the 4% rate as lower than the 10% Sales Tax which it will replace. But sales tax is levied at source on manufacturers and importers on nett prices so the GST rate must be multiplied by the markup from source to consumer. Furthermore, GST will affect a far wider range of goods and services than sales tax. Don't forget 4% is only the starting rate, it is set to go up as oil revenue decreases and BN needs ever more money to fund its corruption.

by Habib RAK - 41 minutes ago
Tony Pua from DAP had already articulated this matter very well. He has clearly pointed out that it is not timely to introduce GST as this juncture. What needs to be done first is to get rid of the all the wastages, overpricing, plundering, stealing from the national coffers. The savings from these areas will generate more revenue than from GST.

by M'sian - an hour ago
From next year onwards we can expect more opposition politician to change camps. Government will have more money to buy these people, while tax paid is wasted for white elephant like PKFZ, double rail project and this will be additional income for thief & team (PM & Team).

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If this is the quality of their cyber troopers, don't expect much when Pakatan takes over the country, as these stupid cyber troopers will hardly object any wrong doing by Pakatan in future as these cyber troopers appears to be dumb enough to be taken in by anything that Pakatan does. There's hardly any intellectual debate on the GST issue in the comments section except for one Habib RAK. These rest are just some emotional outburst from hardcore Pakatan Rakyat supporters. Just look at the comment by Ahmad Ismail and you would realise how stupid can Pakatan Cyber troopers be.

i_live_Malaysia is also completely wrong, Malaysian government is pathetic is collecting taxes, hence the introduction of GST. While we do not know much of the impact of GST, we should hear more on what the experts have to say rather than what politicians like Tony Pua has to say .

I agree completely with Tony of saving money elsewhere but there's never a wrong timing of GST implementation. Even if the economy has recovered, nobody likes taxes, hence it will be still opposed by those who like to oppose. Will Pakatan Rakyat implement GST when the economy recovers. They are likely to do so, when pressured by economist and foreign experts. See some expert views here, , here , and here

I suspect after the second reading of the bill in March, and if ever Najib decides to implement the policy, Pakatan Rakyat and NGO's aligned to them will take to the streets (as they did against PPSMI policy) The politicians who are strongly against certain government policies could well do something wiser that will be well accepted by Rakyat.

They moan about increased prices all around resulting in higher cost of living. They could well go to the streets when traders increase prices. Why not take consumer's concern to the streets. They could well mobilise consumer association and their hardcore supporters to boycott certain unscrupulous traders, companies and monopolies. Why can't they do that? Why only take the streets only if they do not agree with BN. This is where Pakatan loses its credibility and aptly supported by idiotic comments by their hardcore supporters and cyber troopers, clogging comments section of all online news sites.

What we need to tackle seriously in the immediate terms is to ensure those who are actually taxable pay taxes and this will immediately increase the nation's coffers. And to appease those who swore to live by rule of law, we should charge those who deliberately evade tax.

It was estimated that only 7% Malaysians actually pay tax. That's rather pathetic as I believe many who are in the taxable range are not paying tax at all. Efforts must be made to ensure those who are supposed to pay tax do so. It is so unfair that only salaried people are tracked and forced to pay tax. There are many more out there, such as hawkers, retailers, self-employed individuals (including professional such as lawyers, Doctors, Accountants, Engineers who run their business under Enterprise license) who do not pay tax at all. They evade tax by simply cooking up their accounts, aided by chartered accountants every year. They do pay nominal amount which is usually not reflective of their income.

I am also disgusted that while I pay maximum tax, and many people, who speak loudly about abuse of power, corruption and human rights do not actually pay tax. This includes many of the so-called proponents of rule of law, those who question police's credibility, those who cry about PKFZ and other scandals without any sense of guilt that they are also cheating the authorities. I have, in the past, have been asked to submit documents for audit purposes by LHDN after filing via E-Filling. I asked around those who always under declare taxes, none of them have been asked to do the same. This is why I mentioned that LHDN is pathetic on collecting taxes.

Many people I know that participated in the Bersih and Hindraf rallies do not pay tax at all. Some of them live luxurious life with fast cars and have the cheek to proudly claim that they do not pay much tax. I always feel cheated when I see my pay slip with huge amount of deduction especially when knowing well that people who earn more under-declare their income and some do not pay tax at all.

LHDN will have to improve their monitoring system and ensure that those who are taxable declare their income accurately and pay the required taxes. LHDN should be as tough as their counterparts in the west. In US for example, Inland Revenue are more feared by the public than any other government agency. They work their way to ensure taxes are paid.

They do go to the ground and investigate, unlike LHDN who sits in the office and assess tax submissions just based on documents presented, never mind those duplicate / imitation documents such as DOs. Invoices, Bank Statements, salary slip, EPF statement, EA Forms are easily available for a fee. Have we ever heard someone being charged for tax evasion in Malaysia? LHDN appears no to realise the well known fact that Malaysian fraudsters are one of those in the World's best category.

If taxes are effectively collected, apart from improving the nation's coffers, it would reduce our dependence of oil money and corporate taxes.

As for GST, again how sure are we that traders and businessman don't cheat by increasing their prices. This is something that was raised by opponents of the policy. I think more pertinently, we have ask how sure are we that these traders do not cook up their sales figures and swindle whatever GST meant to be remitted to the authorities. If we do not have an efficient system to track all these possible abuses and without proper monitoring system, we ought not to have the GST in place.