Let's File

As they say, there were only a couple of things certain in life; death and tax. Tomorrow would be the deadline for the tax return for 2013. Filed and almost delivered - Puan Anita would be doing that for me tomorrow morning.

Could've done it earlier but I found that the forms were pretty straight forward and I waited until the weekend when I had some time to fill in the numbers and crunch them. Work had not been kind to me in the last couple of weeks.

So, I'll be looking forward to some free time on Thursday - Labour Day here. I'd probably spent most of the time either in bed or at the hospital I was sure. Let's see what the boys wanted to do on the day .....

Tax deadline

My colleague, Edmund always joked; there were only two things certain in life, death and taxes. And he was not wrong.

Just in case you guys were unaware, the deadline for last year's tax return filing would be the evening o the 31st of April 30th of April. Yes, you were quite welcomed to wait until then, but I prefer to get gongs over and done with. Since I was relatively well and free earlier today, I filed mine and submitted to my local Tax Office just opposite Jaya Jusco in Wangsa Maju.

There were hardly anybody there today, but I can imagine the place turning rowdy by the end of the month, judging from past experience. The office used to open till midnight on the final few nights, although now, a lot more people used the online e-filing service. Why didn't I do the same? Well I prefer to be old-fashioned when it comes to taxes. So, as they say, the rush was on .....

Update on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 9:08PM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Thanks Ervan for spotting the messed up date!

Tax Return Due in 10 Days Boys and Girls

Well it is the time of the year again. Time to brush up on your clicking skills doing e-filing or to find out where your nearest Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri branch to your place. Deadline being next Thursday week, we have about 10 more days to do so. At least the deadline has a built in Hari Buruh holiday bundled together the next day. Just in case you need to burn the midnight oil, or to cool down after a quarrel with the spouse .... it can be a tense affair. As for me, I have filed mine in last week, and I did it 'old school', submitting them my local branch in Wangsa Maju.

The American had their deadline last week, on the 15th to be precise. Even my friend Barack and Michele filed theirs in - I'm sure with their accountants lining up to offer their service. And the details are available on the Net. Maybe our politicians will follow suit and make their returns accessible as well. But I'll leave that for other bloggers to comment. The numbers show that the Obamas pay nearly a million in total tax, with their income topping 2.5 mil. And this is before he became President. Mind you, he is also an author, and that's where the main bulk of the income come from.

Closer to home, I found this piece from a fellow blogger which I thought is well worth a read. He highlighted 13 tips for us to cut on our returns. It's too late for me but some of the pointers I have already followed. Amongst them, to file separately rather than join - the Obamas filed in a joint return, buy property below 250K etc - thanks Champdog.