Monday, 14 April 2014

# Tax alert - GST Bill 2014 passed by Dewan Rakyat

The GST 2014 Bill was passed by the Dewan Rakyat, Lower House of the Parliament on 7 April 2014 and will now move to the Dewan Negara, Upper House of the Parliament in its passage to become law for the introduction of GST. Some of the key changes in the 2014 Bill compared to to the GST 2009 Bill as follows:

Requirement for taxable person to quote GST-inclusive prices in all price displays

GST will be charged on the value of imported leased goods and not on the leased payments

Change in penalty regime for late payment of tax due to late registration

Requirement to issue tax invoice within 21 days from the basic tax point deleted

Criteria for self-billing arrangements have been legislated

Late payment penalty of 25% on tax outstanding deleted

Power granted to Minister of Finance to determine the fixed rate of recovery for input tax claims

Non-residents making taxable supplies exceeding the registration threshold is required to appoint an agent to account for GST

Joint venture provisions are restricted only to petroleum based activities

Free Commercial Zones are recognised as places outside Malaysia

Amendment of transition rules for settlement of service tax

Relief from GST for supplies spanning effective dates where sales tax and service tax has been received or invoiced

Goods and services redeemed under vouchers after the effective date will also qualify for transitional relief

Supply of goods and services under an Islamic Financial Arrangement is to be treated as neither a supply of goods nor services

Introduction of rules for the taxation of gaming supplies

Please note that the above is just preliminary views which may be subject to change upon clarification from the tax consultant and further analysis.

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Interesting Facts in Astronomy

ASTRONOMY FACTS

THE 5 CLOSEST STARS TO THE EARTH

Traveling at a speed of 25K miles per hour (which is faster than any human has ever traveled), it would take you a little over 110,000 years to reach the Earth's Closest star, excluding the Sun, The 5 closest stars are:

Proxima Centauri - 25 million miles
Alpha Centauri - 25.5 million miles
Bernard's Star - 35 million miles
Wolf 359 - 45.5 million miles
Lalande 21185 - 48 million miles

LARGEST METEORITES FOUND IN THE UNITED STATES

Throughout the history of the Earth, it has been literally pounded by meteorites. In the U.s alone about 1,200 meteorites have been recorded to reach the surface. The 10 largest meteorites have been found in the following states: