Kar Hoe's Blog - Budget 2009

Budget 2009

Friday, 29 August 2008

Our Prime Minister has announced the Budget 2009, and so far these are the few things he announced which I think is really beneficial to us.

1) Rebate of RM400 for chargeable income less or equal to RM35000 a year (from RM350)(While it will not affect my tax subject this year, I believe the changes would be implemented in my Advanced Taxation paper next year.

2) Maximum tax rate for tax resident individual and non tax resident to be reduced 1% from 28% to 27% (Government is reducing the tax at the rate of 1% every year for the past few years. The reason given by the Prime Minister is that the reduction is to prevent brain drain and to encourage them to stay in Malaysia.

3) Double tax deduction for employer who sponsor students to study in ICT and few other fields.

4) All interest from savings for individual is tax exempt. They should have introduced this last year, then I would not have to squeeze my brain juice trying to remember the exemptions for my tax paper.

5) (Old news) Extension of Star LRT and Putra LRT to cover Puchong, Subang, USJ. (Now this is a damn good news as the jam at Subang area and Sunway area can be eased)

6) Building a new railway system from Damansara to Cheras (I really hope they do not introduce another type of train as it will not be possible to integrate into existing rail in the future)

7) A second 'KL Sentra' to be build on the existing Bandar Tasik Selatan station. A 5 storey building, capable of housing hundred of buses and taxis. I hope that they will consider the new Damasara -> Cheras link when building this terminal, probably they could run the rail parallel to the existing ERL, KTM and LRT line along Bandar Tasik Selatan so that the new terminal would be able to house these 4 systems.

8) 'Sinful' tax for cigarette to be increased for 3 cents for every cigarette stick from 15 cents to 18 cents.

9) Government staffs to be eligible for a month (or is it two) month bonus or RM1000, whichever is lower

10) Government staffs working for more than 25 years are entitled to a higher pension of RM700 a month.

11) If your telephone bill is lesser than RM20 a month, it's free !

What I stated is based on what I've heard and make sense to me, I could have heard wrongly.

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