eLawyer Law Conference 2009 about Blogging & Law

Malaysian online legal community eLawyer is organizing a Law Conference 2009 themed "Blogging & Law" to bring legal awareness to fellow bloggers.

Theme: Blogging and Law
Date: 14 March 2009 (Saturday)
Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm
Admission: free of charge
Venue: Auditorium Tun Mohd Suffian, Universiti Malaya Law Faculty
R.S.V.P: send your name, phone, email, occupation and organisation details to forum@elawyer.com.my

During the conference, Mr. Foong Cheng Leong (KL Lawyer & Blogger) will talk about Blogging & Intellectual Property Law in Malaysia, while En. Nizam Bashir (Malacca Lawyer & Blogger) will talk on Blogging & Defamation Law in Malaysia.

Click here for more information about the eLawyer Law Conference 2009.

Click here to visit to Foong Cheng Leong's blog

Click here to visit to Nizam Bashir's blog

e-Filing system for 2008 income tax assessment is ready to be used

Begining 1 March 2009, the e-Filing system for income tax forms BE, B, M, P and E has been made available in the website of Inland Revenue Board (a.k.a. Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri, LHDN).

In Malaysia, the various income tax related forms are:

• BE - For residents who are employed with no business ownership, or who run business with no income source
• B - For residents who run business with source of income
• M - Return form for non-resident
• P - Partnership business statement form
• E - Return form for employer
• C - Return form for company
• R - Statement of company's revised 108 balance

Online module for tax agent firms to file the income tax report for their clients is also made available at the same time.

The deadline to file in the BE Form is on 30 April 2009, and the deadline for B Form is on 30 June 2009. You can either use the e-Filing system to submit the form, or fill up the related paper form and send to Inland Revenue Board before the deadline.

The online e-Filing system has been introduced to tax payers in Malaysia since 2006, and had been found buggy and problemistic in the recent years. Nevertheless, improvement has been seen, especially on last year. Hopefully, the system will be better this year.

Here are some related links:

• Homepage of e-Filing system (English)
• Homepage of e-Filing system (Malay)
• User guides for e-Filing (English)
• User guides for e-Filing (Malay)
• Website of Inland Revenue Board (English)
• Website of Inland Revenue Board (Malay)

Related article:
Downloadable documents, references and forms for 2008 income tax assessment

EPF stringent housing withdrawal condition for joint purchase

You might have noticed that starting from 5 November 2008, EPF (a.k.a. KWSP) has stringent the condition for housing withdrawal involving joint purchase.

Under the new terms and conditions, withdrawal will only be approved if the member purchased the house on his/her own, or jointly purchased it with his/her spouse. Joint purchase with parents or siblings might also be considered, but subjected to EPF's consideration for approval.

This new policy affects the withdrawal of EPF money for:

• Purchase of 1st house
• Purchase of 2nd house
• Reduction/Settlement of housing loan balance for 1st house
• Reduction/Settlement of housing loan balance for 2nd house
• Monthly loan instalment

Anyhow, existing withdrawals which have been approved before 5 November 2008 are not affected.