KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) made history by achieving the highest collection of direct taxes of RM137.035 billion in 2018, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said.
He said the direct tax collection rose 11.13 per cent in 2018 from that of 2017, as well as broke the best-performing direct tax collection record of RM133.70 billion in 2014.
“The increase was contributed by higher collection from the taxpayer components such as companies, individuals, petroleum, cooperatives, stamp duty and others.
“Besides reflecting the effectiveness of clean leadership and efficient administration, and accountability and transparency, the revenue increase also shows that the economic growth was still encouraging in 2018,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
He said revenue from income taxes (other than petroleum) contributed about 85.35 per cent of the total tax collection in 2018.
The company component was the largest contributor at 51.11 per cent, followed by individual component (26.32 per cent), petroleum tax revenue (14.66 per cent), stamp duty collection (4.33 per cent), share tax collection (2.27 per cent), Real Property Gains Tax (1.07 per cent ), co-op tax collection (0.12 per cent), and Labuan IOFC and other taxes (0.12 per cent).
“The government is committed to reducing revenue leakages and increasing tax compliance rates with the launch of the Special Voluntary Declaration Programme from Nov 3, 2018 and until June 30, 2019 by offering a very low penalty rates of 10 per cent and 15 per cent (on the amount of tax payable).
“Hence, the government calls on taxpayers who have tax compliance issues to immediately take advantage of this programme to avoid paying a higher penalty of 80 per cent to 300 per cent when the programme ends,” he said. – Bernama
