This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 18, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Almost RM60 million in additional tax declarations and penalties have been recorded since the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) launched its Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme on Nov 3.

The additional declarations were made by almost 2,000 taxpayers from various categories, the IRB said in a statement yesterday.

Since its launch, the programme has also raked in 35,000 new registered taxpayers, it added.

Some 3,000 instruments have also been stamped with duty and penalties totalling almost RM2 million during the period.

IRB chief executive officer Datuk Seri Sabin Samitah revealed the statistics during an official visit to IRB’s Seremban branch yesterday, the statement said.

The voluntary disclosure programme was announced in Budget 2019 by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Under the programme, a penalty of 10% of the tax payable is imposed for disclosures of unreported income made from Nov 3 to March 31, 2019, and 15% for disclosures made from April 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019.

The rates will jump after the programme ends, from 80% to a maximum of 300% of the tax payable, from July 1, 2019.

Voluntary disclosures can be done at any IRB offices locally.

For more information, visit www.hasil.gov.my, call 1-800-88-5436 or 03-7713 6666 (overseas), or email [email protected].