Filing Income Tax returns for 2010 - deadline coming soon!

Though the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) or Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) had already started sending out income tax return forms for the assessment year 2010 way back in January, my company payroll only managed to prepare our EA form much later. Which of course, meant that the typical Malaysian, like myself, would actually start the returns filing activity as close to the deadline as possible....

Now, each year, wage earners like me are given until the end of April to file in our returns for the previous year. For those who run their own businesses, the deadline is at end of June. This date includes paying up any excess amounts after deductions.

Up until many years ago, this was all done manually, with hard copy forms sent via post, which everyone in the entire country had to fill up and mail back to the centralized LHDN processing center in Pandan Indah, Kuala Lumpur.

As human nature would have it, many people wait until the eleventh hour to do something important. Ironically, the more important the task, the closer to deadline it gets started! Those days, this sudden rush would put a strain on the postal service, and somehow or rather always made the news.

Since 2006, the LHDN introduced online income tax filing to the Malaysian taxpayers (to file in their returns for 2005). Hard copy forms remain in use, till today, as adopting this requires some computer literacy and of course, access to computers with Internet access.

Of course, going electronic had little effect on *human nature*, so instead of long queues at the post office and couriers (DHL/Fedex), late e-filers encountered extremely slow access to the LHDN e-filiing site.

Unlike *some other payment activity* in Malaysia, where you can get lucky and actually get a discount for late payment (a topic for another day, perhaps), there is no advantage to filing in tax returns on the very last day, or even after the deadline. So, if you haven't done so already, do make it a point to go to the LHDN e-filing site at https://e.hasil.gov.my/ as soon as possible to file your returns online, and save yourself a lot of hassle!


[UPDATE - 20 April 2011] - Better hurry up, Malaysians! More than 1.5 million folks have yet to file in their return yet! http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/4/19/nation/8510394&sec=nation

Farewells YTD, April 2011

The rate of attrition is normal, as my bright colleague from Human Resources puts it. I'm combining several farewells into a single post here, otherwise this will looks like a blog of farewells...!

First up on my list is my old friend and colleague, Jackson Goh. I've known him for as long as I've been in this company, which is *only* around 10 years or so. Believe it or not, Jackson has been around for 35 years - so he and some of the other colleagues really go back a long, long way. As this is a small, small world, once upon a time he was even the boss of my wife.

Leaving to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, Jackson brings along with him irreplaceable knowledge and experience in his field (a loss to the company indeed). Outside work, Jackson is particularly fond of his orchard / plantation, and loves the outdoors - going into the middle of the jungle with the Puma 4x4 Club Malaysia.

We had a separate farewell dinner for him with the management team, and also a free-for-all wilder night at Seafarer (a sea food restaurant at Klebang).

To an old friend, also my swimming partner when we go for off-site management meetings - enjoy your retirement, and don't forget us come durian season!

Next up, just a week after Jackson left, is Ms Gan Szu Min, who worked under Jackson.

She's the lady on the right (without glasses). The other two are still working in the company, as of the time of this writing.... :)

Unlike Jackson, who's been around for years, Gan's only been here for months. Too brief a stint to get really acquainted. Still I hear that she leaves the semiconductor industry to do something else, so whatever it is, I wish her the best of luck - may her new endeavours bear as many fruits as Jackson's durian trees!

The next two, first up is Vijay, who work in Logistics. Quiet fellow (or so I believe), after many years of working here, decided to move on (next destination unknown to me). He's the guy in the center below. Take note of the guy on the right for a moment....

Next, sitting in the Logistics Block, but working in the Environmental, Health and Safety department as a Safety Officer (also for just a few months, like Gan), I now bid farewell to Ravee. He came to us from our *former company*, but to where he goes next, I haven't the slightest clue. In the brief time together, due to the mish-mash nature of work (formally known as inter-disciplinary teamwork), I've worked with him on several small projects, and found him to be a helpful and co-ordinated person. Well, wherever he goes next, I'm sure his future employer will be very happy!

Now the next one is not really a farewell, so to speak, as he already left the company many years ago. Since moving back to the "former company", my old friend Sean Lee has reached another milestone in working life and decided to move on to self-employment in or near KL, city of opportunity. Well, there are in fact a lot of us who have moved back to the "former company", so it was a sort of mini-reunion during our small dinner at San Francisco steak house (ground floor, sharing the same building as the new Melaka Club).

Which brings me to the final famous guy to leave the company. The guy who shares the same name with the beau of Barbie, and professes he doesn't use Facebook because he is not from Gen Y (or even Gen X). I bid a fond farewell to Ken (Ng Wai Khean) from the Process Engineering team.

L-R : Me, Loh CK, Chong SC (standing) and Ken

We had a small farewell dinner for him at JT (which is a restaurant / karaoke joint next to Holiday Inn and Century Mahkota Hotel.

Now, a small note about *inbound traffic*. Some time ago, a famous guy from Logistics left to do his own thing. Well, now he's back, and we welcome once again, Anand! He's quite a looney guy, who definitely spices up our annual dinner and external functions with his antics and costumes. Here's his photo as "Dr Bombay* during the 2007 Deepavali Musical Night celebrations:-

Remember the guy on the right in Vijay's photo above? Well, same guy as the one here, sans turban and dark glasses!

Well, to all those who have left, good luck in your "new lives" - who knows, we might see each other again some day soon - you'll never know or guess who might leave or rejoin next! The farewell dinners may be over, the food digested, but the fond memories live on!

RON97 is now RM2.70 per liter

Effective today, RON97 will cost us Malaysian motorists RM2.70 per liter. This is up by 20 sen from RM2.50 per liter (which was increased not long ago in February 2011).

So now, we have:-

• 2nd Nov 2010 - RM2.15 per liter
• 1st Dec 2010 - RM2.30 per liter
• 5th Jan 2011 - RM2.40 per liter
• 1st Feb 2011 - RM2.50 per liter
• 2nd April 2011 - RM2.70 per liter

This was reported on multiple sites, namely:

The Malaysian Insider : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ron97-petrol-up-20-sen-from-tomorrow/
The Star : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/4/1/nation/20110401211546&sec=nation
Paul Tan's Automotive Blog : http://paultan.org/2011/04/01/ron97-up-by-20-sen-tomorrow-to-rm2-70-a-litre/
The New Straits Times / Business Times : http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20110401205521/Article/

At least for now, the price of RON95 fuel remains fixed at RM1.90 per liter. For how long, is anyone's guess.

I wish this was a collaboration on an April Fool's joke, but I don't think that these highly respected sources would do such a thing (especially when the price of fuel is already a hot topic here in Malaysia). Well, we'll see if there's any news on this later today....