The traffic at Tuas checkpoint last morning was horrendous. So was this morning. The traffic at Malaysian checkpoint was smooth, but it took us an hour to clear Singapore side. I wonder if it was because the Causeway was too congested that some traffic was diverted to the 2nd Link.
April is the time for filing income tax return. As a Malaysian / Singapore PR working in Singapore, i have to file for income tax return in both countries. I'm not complaining about it, really. I earn Singapore dollars and i'm a PR, so it's only right that i pay taxes in Singapore. At the same time, i'm a Malaysian and it's my duty as a citizen to file for income tax in Malaysia as well. I don't have any complaints on this. None at all.
However, i'm kinda confused now. The problem is that i don't understand how this income tax thing works at all when it comes to double taxation. Well, i thought i understand, until this year when i wanna file for year 2005 assessment.
Filing for tax return in Singapore was never a problem for me. They have a hassle-free system, almost perfect by Malaysian standard. I'm not bashing my own country again; i'm merely speaking from personal experience.
Before the implementation of SingPass, i received the B1 Form together with tax filing IRAS PIN every year via post, without fail. I think it's irrefutable that SingPost is way more reliable than POS Malaysia that often has postal mails lost in transit. Anyway, so i did e-filing for my income tax with the IRAS PIN.
Then came SingPass, a move towards e-government where the residents can get lots of tasks done via the Internet, including tax filing and CPF transactions. It's really convenient. In fact, it's so easy that i filed for year 2005 tax return via SingPass in March, way before the deadline in April.
As for income tax filing in Malaysia, i had done it via post for all previous years. The drill was to fill in the BE Form with an attached list of my
Carol and her hubby told me that for year 2005 assessment, people who don't have any income generated in Malaysia can just put in all zeros in the BE form. I called up the Inland Revenue Board and was told the same as well by a customer service lady. I was, however, puzzled when the lady told me that people whose income was drawn solely from overseas should just fill in all zeros because we've already paid for the taxes of other countries. She said this was the way all the while and not just for year 2005. Then i told her that i had in fact paid for some amount of taxes in one of the previous years. She advised me to make an appeal to have the taxes i paid refunded to me.
Ok, so what gives? Had i been doing it wrong all the while, or that customer service lady gave me the wrong information? If i had been doing it wrong, i.e. i didn't have to report any income in the form, then why did i receive notice of assessment and paid for the taxes? If i was right and this only applies to year 2005, then didn't that lady give me the wrong advice?
Anyway, whatever it is, i'm going to send in the form with all zeros (and yes, i know the deadline is this month-end and i only have a few more days to send the form in). I figured that any of my income tax contribution would end up in the pocket of Gerbang Perdana anyway, either as compensation or for the new contract, so i would rather keep the money in my pocket instead. Hey, at least i earned it.
