Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Did you notice?

your monthly income tax deduction for PCB is higher this year? That is if your income is below RM10k, which I believe most of us are. So my post below will apply for this income bracket.

Starting this year, LHDN are using new PCB deduction calculation and from their new formula, our monthly PCb deduction is higher now than before. For e.g. for someone with RM4k income, for last year, his PCB would be RM140. But for this year his PCB would be RM170 i.e. RM30 more.

LHDN's reason for the above change? They say to target for 'actual tax' or something like that, so at the end of the year, when we get our bonuses, they will deduct less PCB, and they won't need to repay us the excess tax. Yeah right, that is IF we get bonus this year, in current economic climate.

I know to their defence is, if they over taxed, they will return the excess to us (which to their credit, lately is done within a few months, a vast improvement since last time), but haven't they heard of the saying 'RM100 today is better than RM100 tomorrow'. That's inflation for you. For RM100 today, assuming 4% inflation rate, you really need RM104 to get the same value next year.

And also, their move contradicts EPF's move to allow lower EPF deductions so the public will have more disposable income. For e.g. for the same person above, 11% EPF is RM440, but with 8% EPF, it's RM320. So that's RM120 more disposable income for him, if we ask EPF. But bring LHDN into the picture and he need to pay RM30 more PCB so that'll leave him with just RM90 more disposable income.

I'm not saying LHDN's move is not right. By targeting for actual tax, it'll reduce their burden and also saves us from the wait of receiving the returns. But the timing is a bit questionable. I guess, it's just waiting for someone to discover this turn it into a big issue. And as usual nowadays, will probably be with some political influence as well...

No wonder

my room is so full of stuff. Take a look at this:


Take a look at the date/issue. Some dates back to year 1996! And now is 2009 already. Those are 13 year old magazines that I'm keeping. I discovered these while having a major 'spring cleaning' of my stuff recently.

But I know exactly why I held on to these. They had reviews on Kawasaki ZX7R, which was my dream superbike at the time. More or less, until today, I still have a soft spot for it. If only it's re-introduced with modern engine & suspension bits, in exactly the same styling, it'll top my wish list, no doubt.

Also found during the spring cleaning is inaugural issue of the 'Traffic' magazine. A short-lived car magazine focusing on styling. I was in the editorial team pic! I was their car audio contributor at the time. Reading back the articles, even I myelf was amazed that I wrote them hehehe memories

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Cuaca skrg ni...

fuh setelah sekian lama tak post blog, hari ni baru la rasa ada masa & ada mood nak post. mana taknya, dah 2-3 minggu meting 9:30AM - 8:00PM. nak muntah dah asyik meeting je.

pagi tadi on the way pegi keje kene hujan. sampai ofis sampai menitik air daripada seluar. isk... dah dekat nak sampai baru hujan. baju hujan pun tak bawak sbb kat rumah aku OK jek.

this month dah 2 kali hujan pagi. dan 2 kali jugak lah aku lambat sampai. hari tu mmg aku keluar lewat sbb tak nak sangkut dlm jem. so sampai pukul 10. buat selamba jek... hari ni pun, sampai kul 9:10, tapi lepak gym kering kan baju & seluar sampai kul 9:20. nak buat mcm mana. bukan sayang nak bawak kereta, tapi kalau bawak kereta, lagi la tak sampai ofis...

malam semalam panas tak hengat, pagi hujan lebat plak... susah nak predict dah cuaca skrg ni...