Checklist to Ensure You Make Maximum Claims Allowed

To make sure that you have not missed out any claims which you are entitled to, please go through the following check list before submitting your Borang BE 2008.

1. Choose Separate Assessment if your spouse has income of RM3,000 or more in a year (as a general rule of thumb)

2. Profession subscriptions
Ensure subscriptions paid to professional bodies related to your job are deducted from Employment Income before filling up item C1. (Eg. Accountants, Engineers, Lawyers, Architects, Doctors)

3. Dividends
Ensure that all dividends received are included. As dividends are taxed at source at 26%, make sure that you declare them in item C2 and claim Section 110 Set off in item E10.
Two exceptions here :-
i) If the dividend received are ‘single tier dividends’, then there’s no need to declare.
ii) If your final tax rate is 27%, then you may have lost your dividend vouchers and forgot all about them. You save the difference of 1%.

4. Interests from bank accounts (Savings, fixed deposits, etc)
These would have been either taxed at source or tax- exempt. No need to declare.

5. Donations or Gifts to the government
As these are not common, I will not discuss them here. Go through the items from C8 – C15.

6. Parent’s Medical Expenses Paid
Keep receipts – Maximum RM5,000

7. Purchase of Equipment for Disabled parents, spouse, children or self
Maximum – RM5,000

8. Disabled persons – Self
Additional RM6,000 relief

9. Own Educational Course Fees Paid
Maximum – RM5,000

10. Medical Expenses for Serious Deceases – Self, spouse or children
Maximum RM5,000

11. Fees paid for Full Medical Examination
Maximum RM500

12. Purchase of books, magazines & journals
Maximum RM1,000 (School books, cookery books, etc. It does not matter who they are for)

13. Purchase of personal computer
Maximum RM3,000 if you have not made a claim in 2007 & 2006

14. Net contribution to SSPN
Maximum RM3,000

15. Purchase of sports equipment
Maximum RM300

16. Husband/Wife Relief
If not assessed separately, RM3,000

17. Disabled Husband/Wife
Additional RM3,500

18. Children Relief
Below 18 years old – RM1,000 each
Above 18 years old and studying in tertiary level – RM4,000 each
Disabled children – Additional RM4,000 on top of the above

19. Life Insurance premium and EPF paid (Self and spouse)
Total maximum RM6,000. If separate assessment, husband and wife claim in own form.

20. Medical and Education Insurance (Self, spouse or children)
Maximum RM3,000

All the claims which are not specific to any person, eg. sports equipment, books, SSPN, children, etc. can be claimed by either husband or wife. Therefore, put those claims on the person who is in a higher tax bracket.

21. Tax Rebate
If your Chargeable Income in Item E3 is RM35,000 or less, you are entitled to RM350 tax rebate (Item E4)

14 comments:

  1. Does Master level program qualify for the item 9? Are there any requirements e.g. must be done in a local institute etc?

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes. It has to be in an istitution in Malaysia. See the details in D5 under "How to save tax when filing Borang BE - A Step-by step Guide - Section D."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,

    I heard, foreigners, those paying their Insurance premium in their home country can claim in the return BE2008. I can't find any rules related to this. Is this true? Do I need to produce the receipt of that ?

    Also, I had purchased a book from US, it was sending to here as gift, in 2008 ( because due to non-availability). I don't have any receipt of that. Can I claim it ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shibin,

    Sec 49 of the Income Tax Act only talks about insurance premiums paid. As long as you have paid premiums for life insurance in whichever country, you can claim provided you have the receipts to substantiate your claim.

    To claim for books purchases, you must have the prove of purchase. Again, it does not matter where you bought the books from or in which currency but you must be able to prove your purchase, either in the form of credit card statements, receipts, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If a single mother still under separation stage can they claim under as "single mother" under tax

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  6. Either parent can make a full claim for child relief or both parents can share equally, regardless of the marital status. However, both parents cannot claim full child relief on the same child.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can we claim the tax credit from REIT withholding tax ?

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  8. Tax withheld in distribution of REIT dividends are considered a final tax and need not be reported. Since you are not required to declare the income from REIT, you cannot claim the tax credit as well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm paying my education loan (PTPTN) on monthly basis. Can i claim this amount? If can, in which section should i do it?
    If i forgot to claim last year, could i claim it now?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am not sure what you mean by paying PTPTN loan.

    If you are paying under the SSPN savings scheme, then you can claim the net saving amount under D8B in the Borang BE, subject to maximum of RM3,000 a year.

    If you had omitted to make a claim which you are entitled to last year, the only way is to write to the IRB and attach a revised tax computation to them together with proof of claim.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hai, regarding the SSPN saving, i am supposed it is the education account opened for children ? What happen if a couple does not have any children yet ? can they opened the SSPN account as well ?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Anonymous,
    I personally am not very sure how this SSPN scheme works. I suggest you contact someone from SSPN itself to check out the requirements. Sorry can't help you on that.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Can both parents claim for contributions to SSPN? That is, if the net contribution is RM6,000 per child.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Relief for SSPN is given to an individual under Sec 46(1)(k). Therefore if both parents file their taxes separately, each of them are entitled to this relief.

    ReplyDelete