A Taxing e-Experience

I am feeling both relieved and frustrated. I had just filed my first income tax via https://e.hasil.org.my/ (yes, this is my inaugural e-submission). Am relieved because after 2.5 hours of intense self-assessment interspersed with the frequent need to re-login into the system and re-clicking through all the pages to get to the latest page I was working on, I finally completed the e-form.

I have no idea why the system was so intent in force-logging me out, like, after only ~2 minutes of idling. Perhaps it had something to do with security and the need to achieve one-third of what it promises (selamat = safe):

So was it also mudah and tepat (easy and precise)? I made sure that the auto-generated calculations were tepat for I will not in anyway allow the system to overtax me. But mudah it wasn't, due to the above-mentioned hitch and that I wasn't allowed to make payment online. There was a link to apparently do so but when I accessed it, filled in the details and clicked "agree", it just said (translated) "transaction limit exceeded... your transaction is unsuccessful", and ended with a chirpy "thank you for using our service."

Whoa, it's not like I had that much to pay up. My 2007 PCB (Potongan Cukai Berjadual, or monthly Scheduled Tax Deduction) had already taken away more than half the taxes for which I eventually was due to pay.

So what did this good citizen do next? I logged out of the site (voluntarily this time) , whipped out my cheque book and despite the evening drizzle, proceeded to march to the nearest CIMB Bank self-service outlet which is just a stone's throw from my place to pay my taxes. This bank is one of the two commercial banks which also functions as a payment centre on behalf of the Internal Revenue Board.

But alas, when I got there, I couldn't dispose of my cheque. There was supposed to be a special form for me to fill for tax payment but they ran out of it. The bank was also closed by then so I couldn't do anything but to brisk walk another 300 metres to Public Bank (the other payment centre) to try my luck. Well, no luck as there was also no special form in sight. And no form meant I couldn't fill it up and slip the cheque with it into the ATM.

I will have to either go again to either bank during transaction hours to get the human teller to pass me the slip or rely on POS Malaysia to deliver my cheque to the Pengarah Hasil Dalam Negeri (Internal Revenue Director). So much for wanting to fully complete my submission by today.