Amended guidelines on deductions for secretarial fees and tax filing fees
Amended guidelines on deductions for secretarial fees and tax filing fees
The IRB has published on its website amended guidelines dated 17 August 2022 on tax deductions for secretarial and tax filing fees. The guidelines are in Bahasa Malaysia and are titled “Pindaan Garis Panduan Potongan Bagi Perbelanjaan Berhubung Dengan Yuran Kesetiausahaan Dan Yuran Pemfailan Cukai Mulai Tahun Taksiran 2022” (Guidelines). The new 11-page Guidelines replace the earlier guidelines dated 11 May 2021 (see Tax Alert No. 11/2021).
The new Guidelines were amended mainly to reflect the legislative changes which came into effect from the year of assessment (YA) 2022 as outlined below.
Effective from YA 2020
The Income Tax (Deduction for Expenses in relation to Secretarial Fee and Tax Filing Fee) Rules 2020 [P.U.(A) 162/2020] provide a deduction, capped at RM15,000 per YA, to a resident person who has incurred and paid certain secretarial and tax filing fees (as outlined in the Rules) in the basis period for that YA.
Effective from YA 2022
The Income Tax (Deduction for Expenses in relation to Secretarial Fee and Tax Filing Fee) (Amendment) Rules 2021 [P.U.(A) 471/2021] provide that a deduction, capped at RM15,000 per YA, shall be given to a resident person who has incurred the secretarial and tax filing fees in the basis period for that YA (i.e., the requirement for the fees to have also been paid has been removed). That said, the requirements per P.U.(A) 162/2020 would remain in force for YAs 2020 and 2021.
The new Guidelines also provide examples to demonstrate the methodology to ascertain the total tax deduction for secretarial and tax filing fees for a particular YA based on the application of the above-mentioned Rules.
