6 must-know facts you never knew about your income tax!

(...because you never had to pay tax!)

Filed your tax returns? Good on you!

1. Even if your salary isn't taxable, you still have to get a LHDN account and submit your income yearly. 
- Don't have one?
- Go to your nearest LHDN to register, or sign up online! (It's like Facebook. You'll get a login [your NRIC] and a password. Keep this somewhere safe)
- Once you register, you'll get an income tax number. You'll want to pass this to your employer (Yes, even if you're earning peanuts) so they can do auto debit to LHDN each month once you're taxable.

2. Your EA form is your LYFE. 
- You will normally get this from your employer around March/April. If you don't get it you may go bug them for it.

3. Books, sports equipment, medicines, personal laptops 
- Keep receipts if you purchase any of the above and scan them (because some receipts fade over time). You will be able to file this for deduction.
- Personal laptop can only be claimed once in a few years (3 or 5, can't remember) but the amount is RM3,000.
- Petrol, toll, etc cannot be claimed. Neither can car service or repair work, nevermind the fact that more Malaysians drive than they read.

4. Love your KWSP, life and medical insurance payments and PRS plan (private retirement scheme)
- All these you will also be able to claim.
- I just filed these in but I'm not getting the 100% amount, not sure why, maybe that's how this works. Please proceed to file your documents for this and input in, if you have any of these.
- Your amount for KWSP will come from your EA form under "G"

5. 30 April
- This is the deadline. Well, I'm not 100% sure, but people keep telling me to file my tax before end of April.

6. PDF after "hantar"
- The weird thing about HASIL is everything is in BM. Back is "kembali". Enter is "hantar".
- Anyway the important thing here is the thing that happens after you hantar. There is a button at the bottom of the page that says something like "Muat turun dan cetak" so you click on that, because that's your proof of submission.
- A PDF will be downloaded into your computer and you can keep and file this for your reference.


This is by no means a complete guide to filing your income tax but I just wanted to share what I know to all my friends :D And also as my guide for next year's filing.

thoughts on leaving

Quitting my job was probably the hardest thing I've had to do in a long time. It was a major life decision I made on my own, at my own time. It wasn't an overnight decision though - the thoughts were in the backburner for more than a year, but I always managed to put it out with more work. There came a time when I had to face it upfront and be honest to myself. Not quite sure when, who, or how this happened, but it did.

I spent most of my young adulthood growing years in the agency (3 going into 4 years) and spent a lot of my waking hours at work, so the people I hung out with at work basically became an extension of myself. And to tear myself away from that - man, that was tough. And made tougher because I am very sentimental by nature and had no one to talk to about how tough it was. Not many understood and some chose to isolate themselves, which I of course being sentimental took it personally lah! (Looking back, the sucky ending really helped me to look forward to what was ahead)

The scary thing is, up till the day I left, I wasn't 100% sure that it was a smart move. Over time though, I found that those thoughts will soon chip itself off me - bit by bit - being replaced by better and more sensible thoughts and experiences. It's a bit like...a lizard...losing its tail...and growing a new one...or something. LOL

All said and done, I am very grateful for the many, many things I've learnt at my past workplace and was given the opportunity to get my hands on. Among others, it has brought me to explore Singapore in a myriad of ways unthinkable to the regular traveler, got me to research into iconic brands of the century, have a sampling of what goes on behind a luxury event and consumer event, put my hands on the social realm and split myself nine ways at times - pretty fun and unexpected, and above all, lots of teachable moments and people I could draw and learn from.

If anyone from the agency is reading this, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making my years at Brandthink great ones.

"I got bills, I gotta pay - so I work, work, work, everyday!"

Great songs to start the weekend. Hope you have a productive/restful one! 

This is a song to go with a Honda City ad. Watching the music video reminds me of how angry I get when people in front of me block the whole walkway and walk slowly xD

If Lunchmoney Lewis' anthem doesn't get you pumped to go to work every day, I don't know what will. HAHA. (Actually I know...it's a little more cash.)

Waaaah this song is like super throwback to my childhood, yo.

Nature Captured

Image by Ryan Deboodt

The world's largest cave in Vietnam is so huge, it has its own climate and ecosystem. Surreal. Check out a drone-captured video of it here.

Image by GP Orbassano

Image by GP Orbassano

Aren't the photos above gorgeous? So serene, it would make for a good desktop background. 

A newly emerged island was photographed for the first time. How do islands come about? When there's an underwater friction stemming from a volcano. That's why the newly emerged island off the Pacific was still quite hot and smelt like sulfur. Haha hope I'm right with this layman's description. Read the article here. 

Songs I Shazam-ed this week

The only reason I listen to the radio is because my CD player and USB reader are both spoiled. Radio's not that bad, you guys. In terms of song choices, Red and Traxx take the cake. BFM and Fly have pretty rounded programming that I always fall back to. All the DJs on air are annoying, except for the guys on BFM's Morning Run and Fly FM's Ben and Hafiz. Hehehehe.

I Will Possess Your Heart - Death Cab for Cutie
There's an eight minute version of this song. Ain't nobody got time for that! Here's the radio edit (4 minutes).

High and Dry - Radiohead

Aaaaand I'm late on the Radiohead wave, too.

Chris Cornell - She Can't Change Me

This song is from 1999. Wow. Never heard of it till last week, and it stood out for me because of the vocals. It kinda sounds like someone from Audioslave or Staind (Okay just did a search, Chris Cornell indeed was indeed the lead vocalist of Audioslave. And he played in what would later become Pearl Jam!). Did a little bit more digging and did you know this guy did some RNB/hip hop thing with Timbaland in 2009? Weird for a rock artist, and weird on the first listen, but I think it works for the song below. This is kinda like what I was saying last week about Paul McCartney going from Beatles to working with rap artists - going beyond your comfort zone and embracing change.

 

Okayyyyy, that's enough rock history for the week!

You won't believe what went viral on the internet this week!

1. This article on finding it hard to like attending church (shared by 6 of my friends within the span of 24 hours)

2. Obama reading mean tweets about himself on the Jimmy Kimmel show

3. The new MacBook design
Nobody cares about Apple Watch and its three designs - Sport, Edition and regular (Well okay so people are talking about the price tag and saying they should just buy an Omega). But more talkability is on the mediocre update to MacBook's design - thinner, lighter, smaller and an even more compact keyboard. I bet it feels like an iPad with a keyboard.

4. Cinderella live action movie
OMG OMG OMG OMG. Can't wait to watch this. If I can find the time to. T_T
Here is the only place you will be able to see Frozen Fever, the short sequel to Frozen. Also news has emerged - Frozen 2 is in the making!

Okay this week's compilation is pretty low key but it's been a busy week at work, okay :(

4 things my friends were sharing this week on Facebook

1. Michael Keaton & Jimmy Fallon act out Birdman scripts written by kids
Okay so this is actually about a month ago, but it's pretty funny so I'm putting this first. Kids were invited to write a script based on the title Birdman (without actually knowing the story) and the talkshow host and the star of Birdman acted them out. I heard lots of great reviews about the movie from friends so this will definitely be something worth watching.

2. Delhi bus rapist blames victim in prison interview
The treatment of women in India by certain quarters of society is appalling. The perpetrator's comments are as sick as you can imagine, or even sicker. I hope mindsets will change for the better after the Daughter documentary is released on International Women's Day.

3. The Dress
This is an interesting case in the study of how and why things go viral. The Dress became so apparently because it caused a deep divisiveness between the people who viewed them.
Also: This public service announcement (PSA) cleverly using the dress to send a message about violence against women.

4. Jho Low & the corrupted everything
A LOT of my friends were sharing this one piece of news about Jho Low's involvement in 1MDB (I cannot be sure if the above is the article in question). Somebody has some explaining to do. This guy's name is starting to sound as dirty as Taib from Sarawak (google Taib Sarawak and the first suggestion is "Taib Sarawak corruption". Not I say one, Internet and people say one, ok?)
This Says article is also worth reading, having been shared widely as well.