Tax Payment by Credit Card Lauded

Tax Payment by Credit Card

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3. 2015: 

The Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia has lauded the use of credit cards to pay income tax, saying it would help avoid penalties while the government benefits from direct tax collection.

President Datuk Mohd Redza Shah Abdul Wahid said the initiative by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) provides taxpayers with a convenient mode of payment.

“I think it is a good move by the IRB because the more the channels of payment that exist in the payment system here (the better) it is for people to meet their obligations.

“Of course credit will incur but those with no time to go to the IRB can go to the bank and make their tax payments via credit card. This will definitely ease the taxpayers.”

Taxpayers can plan their financing accordingly when using the credit facilities, he said in a phone interview.

Yesterday, the government announced that taxpayers can make their income tax payments via Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit cards as well as debit cards issued by banking institutions in the country.

IRB expects the new initiative to increase online income tax transactions to 25% compared to 12.13% of the 7.53 million tax payment transactions recorded last year.

IRB recorded a tax collection of RM133.694 billion in 2014, up 3.6% from the previous year.

The government and IRB are confident that the new initiative will see direct tax collection reaching RM142.646 billion this year despite external challenges such as falling oil prices and the Goods and Services and Tax implementation in April.