Broadband Tax Relief RM500 Year Assesment 2010

So if you didn't know, there is a tax relief of RM500 provided for broadband subscriptions, however it is only applicable for year assesment 2010 which means it is for the broadband subscription from this year onwards. The details as mentioned here under item 20.

That means an allocation of approximately RM41.67 per month.. hmmm i wonder what package is there that covers such a minimum subscription.

If you also didn't know, i'm a streamyx reseller. Hihihi... So if you want to subscribe to a streamyx broadband package to minimize further your income tax, just let me know. I can advice you what you need to register and what packages are offered and may be suitable for you.

Just simply email me here or click 'contact me' from my sidebar.

You still have 9 more months to take advantage of this broadband tax relief for next year income tax filing - year assesment 2010.

Be sure that the account is under your name to avoid any hassle explaining to LHDN if ever you are audited.

Malaysian Income Tax 2009 (and BE2009 Calculator)

So its just around the corner, eh? I wouldn't dwell too much on it and start the calculations. Not much we can do about it anyway, really.

As LHDN had just released their Borang BE2009 today, i also updated my Borang BE2009 spreadsheet calculator. Not much difference, just a slight change.

But nonetheless, feel free to download it here:
BORANG INCOME TAX BE2009 (Rapidshare)

Let me know if you come into any troubles using this, yeah?

20% Toll Rebate for Touch N' Go users - URGENT!

I'm not sure how many of us do not know about this, but it is such a pity if the eligible folks do not redeem their toll rebate. Check it out now!

So what is this 20% Toll Rebate?
In the 'attempt' to lessen the burden of the people, our Malaysian government had made a scheme where frequent users of the closed highways (or tolled highways) shall get 20% rebate off their toll transactions for the month.

Sadly, there are certain criterias to become eligible for this scheme:-
1. You have to use Touch N' Go (TN'G) cards to be eligible for this scheme
2. You need to make a minimum 80 transactions per month basis
3. Only for Class 1 Vehicles (normal passenger vehicles except those using corporate's Bis Xs / Fleet Xs Cards)

So basically as long as you meet the above criteria, you are eligible to get your 20% rebate.

Head on to their website for further details. This website also allows registration of your TN'G card to track the toll transactions for the month as well as rebate status. It would be most convenient to check this first before you go to the card centers to claim the rebate.

How to claim?
Just go to participating card centers and ask them to credit the rebate into your card, they will credit the 20% rebate into your TN'G card.

When to claim?
This is crucial. It cannot be too early nor can it be too late. Since the rebate is based on 80 transactions per month, you are supposed to be able to claim the rebate within the first week of the following month; however from my experience the transactions are normally not swiftly updated as it normally takes 3-4 working days for the system to update the transactions in their database, so transactions at the end of the month may not yet be reflected in the following month. I'd suggest to claim the rebate from the second week onwards of the following month.

Fret not, the rebate is still yours even if it is not claimed in the following month. This is because the rebate is cumulative, therefore your eligible rebate for this month shall be carried forward to the other months if you do not claim it in the following month.

CAUTION! The rebate amount is only valid for 6 months and must be claimed prior. Since this scheme started on 1st September 2009, and if you just knew about this, i guess you should get to the following service centers soonest possible to claim your rebate, the september 2009's rebate should be invalid by next month (March 2010)

Where to claim the rebate?

TOUCH 'n GO SALES CENTRE
• Faber Towers
• KL Sentral

HIGHWAY SALES CENTRE

PLUS
• Jitra
• Alor Setar Utara
• Pendang
• Sg Petani Selatan
• Sg Dua
• Juru
• Bukit Tambun Selatan
• Jawi
• Taiping Utara
• Kuala Kangsar
• Ipoh Selatan
• Tapah
• Bidor
• Jalan Duta
• Sg Besi
• Batu Tiga
• Sg Rasau
• Damansara
• Subang
• Kota Damansara
• Setia Alam
• Kajang
• Bandar Baru Nilai
• Senawang
• Ayer Keroh
• Yong Peng Utara
• Ayer Itam
• Skudai
• Kempas

BKE
• Kubang Semang

ELITE
• USJ
• Seafield
• KLIA

LINKEDUA
• Taman Perling

PENANG BRIDGE
• Penang Bridge

BORR
• Bagan Ajam

ECE
• Kuantan

METRAMAC
• KL East-West Link (Cheras bound)

PROLINTAS
• Dato' Keramat

BESRAYA
• Mines (South)

SILK
• Sg Balak

NPE
• Pantai Dalam
• PJS 2
• PJS 5

SHAHPADU
• Kapar

LEKAS
• Kajang Selatan

DUKE
• Batu

RECOMMENDATION
Do make sure your family and friends are aware about this, such a waste if this benefit is not claimed.

For those not using Touch N' Go, i cannot see the reason not to use it now. If you're concern over travel claims / receipts, you can register your TN'G card at TN'G E-services to track you card usage and print e-statements for the travel claims. Check with your company if this is acceptable by them for claims purposes.

If you have optional routes when travelling to work, with the same amount of toll value, go for the one with the extra toll booths. For example, i travel daily from Damansara to Bkt Raja, so instead of taking the NKVE (1 toll), i used Federal Highway (2 tolls - Bt Tiga and Sg Rasau); that way i get to make the minimum 80 toll transactions per month. And by the way, i use SmarTAG for the peace of mind and to skip the queues; Trust me, SmarTAG is worth the small investment - time wise!

Register at TN'G website to monitor your toll transactions, if you're slightly short of the 80 transactions, there's always 'cheaper' tolls that you can find just to get the quota. But be sure that the highway is in the 'participating highway' list

CIMB Credit Card Installment Plan

I decided to buy myself a smartphone, for work and for leisure; but since I don’t have any budget for this (har har..), I went searching around for installment plans.

Basically all the shops selling the phone only offered installment plans for credit cards by either maybank or hsbc. I asked if CIMB offered any installment plans, but the shops asked me to call CIMB credit card center to request for the installment plans; which i did.

As maybank and hsbc charges a one time service charge of 5% and 7% depending on either 12months or 24months installment, CIMB had a different plan - purchases above rm1,000 is charged a one time 3% for 10months installment and purchases above rm3,000 is 5% for 20months installment. Quite a good deal for me compared to the ones offered by maybank or hsbc.

There is one twist though, the installment plan is not pre-approved, it is subject to approval from the bank.

So this is how it works - you have to make the purchase first. Then after 3 workings days, give a call to CIMB credit card center; the number is at the back of your credit card. Tell the helpline staff that you wish to request for installment plan. The staff shall check your transaction (which is why you need to wait for 3 working days before you call to make sure the transaction is entered into their system) and verify the transaction which you would like to apply for the installment, upon your confirmation the staff will then submit your application into the system and that's about it for your part.

If your application is succesful, the installment plan shall be reflected in your next credit card statement. If unsuccessful, the helpline staff should call you to inform you about it. This is the not-so-good part; if unsuccessful, your transaction is considered a normal transaction and required to be paid in full before the due date stated in the credit card statement, failing which you will be charged the normal 18% per annum interest.

For this particular reason, i had prepared a simple excel calculation sheet just to calculate the amount needed to be paid if based on the normal interest rate and us paying a certain amount each month. You can get it HERE (it is made optimized for my smartphone excel's quicksheet usage).
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For the calculation, i based on buying the phone at a price of rm1,000. So according to CIMB installment plan, there is a one time charge of 3% which is rm30, thereafter monthly installment of rm100. So for the excel sheet, i just based on paying monthly rm100 to compare the differences. Have a look at the spreadsheet to see the differences.

By the way, you should call your CIMB credit card center to verify the above procedure and to check if it is still available. If i'm not mistaken it is called “CIMB i-Pay Plan”
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Updated Malaysian Income Tax Calculator BE2008

It has been a while since i updated the blog. Well i thought i'd update it every now and then when i have useful info to share, plus when i have the time to spare from my current work and family commitments.. :)

anyway, LHDN had just published their format for "Borang BE2008", you can easily have a look at it at their official website: LHDN Website : Borang.

On another note, i've just updated my spreadsheet income tax calculator to incorporate the changes to the new layout of the upcoming e-filing as well as to upate some calcs in the existing one. Have a try out and let me know of any errors you find.

Borang BE Income Tax Calculator Revision 2 (rapidshare)

Just a hint, most values are 'editable' and therefore i hope that the calculator can be used to plan and estimate your taxes in years to come. I'll update the spreadsheet when there is a change in layout (especially when government introduces new cuts and additional exemptions) but basically the calculations can still be used. Hope it is useful to most of you.

EDIT: Check out the latest calculator for 2009 HERE

Malaysian Income Tax 2008

So it's just around the corner..that thing i hate (or love) to do.. filing in the income tax..

Well basically, who loves to pay tax? The only thing i love about it is that it is the time to 'claim' back the extra deductions every month, if you do it right that is..

One should always take note of their spending and finances, and therefore should not neglect the most 'underrated' expenses of the year, the income tax. As most of us may be aware that every month our salary is deducted off a certain portion of it, known as PCB (potongan cukai berjadual), we often take for granted the income tax we need to pay as we might think that the PCB should cover the tax at the end of the year. Well did you know that you can actually minimize the income tax required?

You can search around the internet for fast options of saving on your taxes, but i'd recommend this read for a quick one : Income Tax: In This World Nothing Is Certain But Death And Taxes

So once you've realized about all this and starting to wonder how much is your actual income tax, it comes down to "SO HOW DO I CALCULATE MY TAXES??!!". Before this income tax was calculated manually, so one would wait till the last minute and start to fill in the income tax form and manually calculate their income tax. After all is done, "AHAH! this is how much my income tax is.." Ever since 2006, Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) had introduced a new system called E-Filing. It has made all the calculations easier, as well as remove the hassle to fill in the forms manually. But the e-forms are only available electronically in the internet, so you'll only be able to calculate your taxes once the LHDN allows you to start filling in your e-forms.

I thought of a simpler way to prepare myself, why not make my own calculator? Hihi this way i can at least know in advance what my income tax would be, and take advantage of the "allowable deductions" to minimize my taxes. Sorry it came a bit late (just thought about it, was ignorant before) but hope you guys can take whatever benefit this calculator might give you. By the way, it may not be perfect and may have errors here and there, so let me know if you come across any. Here's the calculator:

Borang BE Income Tax Calculator (rapidshare)

Note that you'll need microsoft excel to run this calculator. I doubt that'd be a problem to you all.

If you've never used rapidshare before, just click the link above (you'll be directed to rapidshare download page), then click "free user", after few seconds a download button will appear, click "download"..

Good luck in calculating your taxes. Let me know your experience using the calculator.