IRB urged to appoint part-time officers as permanent staff - Audit Report

The Third Series of the Auditor-General's Report 2014 has recommended the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to consider appointing part-time officers in its Collection Unit as permanent staff.

The report said with the move, the knowledge of the experienced part-time officers could be fully utilised, as well as save time when compared to appointing and training new officers.

"The recruitment of new officers will give additional financial cost implication for the purpose of training and could create an opportunity cost to the IRB management.

"Part-time officers with long service will have knowledge and skills in tax collection, specifically," according to the report that was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday.

Meanwhile, the report said tax collection for non-corporate taxpayers (OG files) for 2013 saw an increase of RM309.63 million (9.7 per cent) compared with 2012.

Tax collection for OG files for 2014 meanwhile increased by RM305.72 million (8.7 per cent) compared with the collection in 2013, the report said.

However, several weaknesses require the attention of the IRB management, among others, the rate of acceptance of Form B for the year of assessment 2011, 2012 and 2013, was at 51.2 per cent, 49.5 per cent and 44.2 per cent, respectively.

There were also OG files with status that could not be determined, it said.

"A total of 98,239 cases (51.2 per cent) of taxpayers did not submit Form B and it could not be determined whether action had been taken by the IRB," it said.

Other weaknesses were that there was no action taken to prevent taxpayers from leaving the country which involved 802 cases with tax arrears of RM25.5 million.

Besides that, civil suits against 1,356 taxpayers with tax arrears amounting to RM42.68 million were not taken.

Towards that end, the audit recommended that the IRB improve its monitoring mechanism to be more systematic and thorough in the acceptance of Form B and those who failed to comply would be penalised immediately.

Apart from that, the IRB management was proposed to update data of taxpayers who are eligible to be taxed especially active taxpayers, while the collection of tax arrears should be done immediately in a systematic, consistent and comprehensive manner, according to the report.