Income Tax e-filing

I am very proud of myself!

For a change, I didn’t submit my income tax return on the last day of deadline. This year, I filed my tax return online on 21 Apr 09. Hooray! This is my 2nd year using the online submission. It’s so convenient and easy to use.

I used to file my tax return online at the last minute and as the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) computer servers jam up, it was very frustrating. It is also unnecessary stress when we do things last minutes. I used to search for documents i.e. dividend warrants, insurance statements, donation receipts, mom’s medical bill, magazines/books receipts, etc.

Currently, I store all these documents required for tax submission in one folder. Once the tax return is completed, I filed the tax return and documents together in a booklet form. Now I have a booklet for each year of assessment. It’s nice to see everything is in place and easily accessible and found.

We need to make adjustment to our tax for income received in arrears. The tax difference is due to bonus income (for 2007) received in arrears (received in 2008), which was added in to YA 2007 chargeable income. I’ve confirmed with IRD officer that the tax deduction on the bonus in arrears is not to be included in the total amount of PCB deduction for the year 2008 and this will result in under-payment of tax. I intend to go to IRD office to settle my tax for the last few year of assessment.

Today, I read on The Star that “IRB servers overwhelmed”.

Due to last minute filing of tax returns and the computer servers jam up, IRB advised that the best time to access the e-Filing system is between 1am and 7am.
About 1.2 million people – almost half of the 2.5 million taxpayers in the country – used the e-Filing system last year, from 187,000 taxpayers when the system was first introduced in 2006 and the number grew by more than 350% in 2007, with 876,000 e-filers.