IRB won't send out tax forms from next year

Monday May 1, 2006
IRB won't send out tax forms from next year
BY M.KRISHNAMOORTHY
KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) will no longer mail out income tax return forms to taxpayers from next year.
IRB chief executive officer Tan Sri Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid said the board had decided to go paperless from 2007, following the overwhelming response towards e-Filing – the online filing of tax returns which was introduced this year.
“The IRB wants to play a proactive role by encouraging taxpayers to adopt e-Filing, which is easier and faster. This is in line with the Government’s Information Technology policy.
“Response from taxpayers has been very good although this is the first year e-Filing has been introduced. As at 6.30pm today, about 100,000 taxpayers have filed their returns electronically,” he told The Star yesterday.
“Our target for e-Filing this year was only 50,000 submissions but we have already doubled this number.”
Zainol however, said those who still wished to submit their returns via BE forms could download the necessary documents from the IRB website.
“Taxpayers can then mail the completed form to IRB. They will, however, have to pay the postage cost unlike now, where we provide pre-stamped envelopes.”
Zainol said not owning a personal computer was not an excuse not to submit returns electronically as all IRB branches nationwide had PCs for the convenience of taxpayers.
“We have PCs at all branches and our customer service officers will help with the process of e-Filing and also in downloading BE forms.
“This year, our strategy is to get taxpayers to switch to e-Filing and the good response speaks volumes about Malaysians being IT savvy,” he added.
Zainol Abidin said that during his rounds to IRB customer service counters, he noticed many people waiting to submit their returns online.
He added that the IRB would begin a nationwide campaign at the end of this year to encourage people to file their tax returns electronically.
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