KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Filing your taxes can be a tedious and time-consuming process, especially if you’re trying to maximise your tax returns. But if you changed jobs in the previous assessment year, is the tax-filing process any different?
The short answer: No. The long answer: No, but it’ll involve some calculation work, which we will explain in this article.
Similar process, but with extra EA forms
Essentially, filing your taxes when you’ve had more than one employer in the assessment year means combining the total income earned from both companies in a single BE form.
The most efficient way to do this is with the EA forms from the companies you were (and are) employed in. You should have gotten the form even from your previous employer(s), they are legally bound to provide you with one after all. Failure to provide current and former employees with an EA form is a punishable offence under the Income Tax Act.
The EA form provides a summary of the information you’d need to file your taxes seamlessly: Total income, contribution, Spcso contribution, as well as the total monthly tax deduction. When filling up the BE form, just add the total amount of the respective categories from the different EA forms, and you’re set. Be sure to fill in the present employer’s tax number (also known as E Number) in your BE form.
What if you didn't get your EA form from previous employer?
If, for some reason, you did not receive an EA form from your previous employer, you still can file your taxes – it’ll just be extra cumbersome on your end. It means you’ll have to find all the information yourself via your salary slips, and potentially from your and Socso statements from the year of assessment. It's tedious work, and leaves you prone to miscalculations, so do follow up with your previous employer about the EA form before deciding to calculate everything manually.
Your total income, and Socso contributions, as well as your monthly tax deduction can be found in your salary slips. You can also check your statement online to double check if your contribution is correct, while your iPerkeso account will show your Socso contribution as well.
Once you have your salary slips from the different employers you’ve worked with in the year of assessment, you’ll need to manually calculate them all. Naturally, this gets more cumbersome the more companies you worked with in the previous assessment year. Crucially, the risk of miscalculation increases, so be extra cautious here! Miscalculation is not an acceptable reason for false declaration of income.
Not as difficult as it sounds
Moving up in your career sometimes leads to you changing jobs. It’s rarely a bad thing, and most of the time it means better prospects and an opportunity for growth. Sure, it’ll mean your tax filing process for that year to be slightly different, but as we’ve shown here, it isn’t a difficult process whatsoever.
If you need a step-by-step guide on how to file your taxes, check out our income tax guide for YA 2018. You’ll also find the rest of our income tax guides and tips in our Income Tax category page.
* This article was brought to you by RinggitPlus.com.
