Malaysia imposes GST assessments

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department will start to raise Goods & Services Tax assessments on businesses which have failed to submit GST returns under the new indirect tax regime.

Malaysia replaced its Goods and Services Taxes from 1 April 2015 with GST. The new regime facilitated much easier recovery of consumption taxes incurred during the production and supply chain of goods. The aim was to reduce compound taxation, especially in the manufacturing sector, and simplify the compliance reporting burden.

The tax assessment will start this month for monthly and quarterly reporting businesses, with an assessment based on their turnover declared in accounting returns and initial GST registrations. Failure to pay the assessments within two weeks, or lodge an appeal, will result in a fine of RM 25,000.