Finances

Undeniably, more and more Malaysians are flocking to the un-conventional way of hiring the taxi service via various applications such as UBER . In fact, everyone also can become a UBER driver as long as you have a car and a driving license. Then, you can start making some pocket money by providing the taxi service as and when you want to. In Malaysia, you should think again from now onward  after reading this... The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman said that since 2014 to date, they have brought 85 private vehicles for hire drivers to court. " Uber is creating a lot of problems . It is trying to replace legitimate taxis by using all kinds of private cars." ( Source: TheEdge ) Yesterday, MyTeksi also introducing their own application similar to UBER named GrabCar . Many taxi drivers were unhappy and staged a protest in Petaling Jaya. Authorities take this issue seriously. Actions will be taken against UBER drivers? According to SPAD, the use of private vehicles...

It comes to our attention that some of our readers attended an investment seminar recently about this Kra Canal project. What's that actually? Is it another investment scam? An interesting project... After a quick check, Kra Canal project was actually mooted by Thailand government long long time ago. It's an interesting idea to build a canal cutting through the narrowest neck of Thailand's southern part. With this canal, ships travelling between China Sea and Indian Ocean could save up to 72 hours sailing time or 1,200km by skipping Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore. Due to this interesting idea, on and off, many conman like to use back the same old idea as a bait to fetch their victims into believing the viability of the project. Obviously, the main beneficiary would be Thailand , which can enrich and transform the poorer southern provinces. Other than that, the two of the most populous countries and upcoming economic powerhouse China and India will definitely like...

Coming to the last weekend of personal income tax e-filing (if without any extension period), here is the updated list of various tax relief granted for your reference. Not much changes from YA2013, except on the following items: NO more special tax relief of RM2,000 (ONLY available for YA2013) Reminder: Each unmarried child 18 years old and above, with certain condition as shown in picture below, has been increased to RM6,000 since YA2013. You may also read our previous tax-related posts below: Tax Relief from Life Insurance YOU must know Tax Benefits of Unit Trust YOU must know What are the Tax Benefits from Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) ?

After EPF announcing that they would like to propose 4 new initiatives to improve the current scheme, many Malaysian voiced their concern especially on the withdrawal age. What are these initiatives actually? How is going to affect us? And, most importantly, is it a good or bad move? From 21st April till 5th May (two weeks only), EPF members are encouraged to participate in the survey being conducted by the board via their EPF i-Akaun such as below. If the full withdrawal age changes to 60, how would it be done? Let's look at the diagram below:- Questions to be ponder upon: Can we partially agree with certain initiative, such as ONLY on extending dividend payments up to age 100? Or, must it be come in a package of 4 initiatives? By increasing the FULL withdrawal age to 60, is it good for members? Or, is it actually good for EPF to hold on to the money for a longer period? It's good to have another syariah-compliant retirement fund for members to choose. As such, there will b...

Another very good initiative by the Employee Provident Fund (EPF), a new online portal was launched today to provide the necessary information for all EPF members who conduct their own research and survey on all unit trust funds that were offered under the EPF Members-Investment Scheme (EPF-MIS). Most importantly, it's FREE !!! The portal named " EPF Members Investment Scheme Information Portal " is managed by an external party and it is accessible as long as the member have an EPF i-Akaun log in. How to access? Visit the EPF website here . Then, you will be directed to the new portal where all of us waiting for... What's in it for me? Powered by novagni, the new portal is user friendly and useful for all EPF members... Fund performances of different funds sorted by different category. You can only compare the funds within the same category. You can view the fund info by such as general fund info, transaction info, and statistic of the funds including the history of...

Most of the Malaysian who study local universities will borrow from the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN). Meaning all of those undergraduates are actually indebted when they further their tertiary studies. Well, this is consider a good debt instead if you finished your study and get a good job to repay back the loan later. However, statistic shows that many of those graduates defaulted their PTPTN loan after graduating from universities. Few years back, government even reduces the loan interest from 3% to 1% p.a. but yet still no improvement. How about 20% discount if you settled off your loan in one lump sum? Still not enough... Another good news to PTPTN loan borrowers, government is introducing the new repayment term called " Income Contingent Loan ", which allows borrowers to delay their repayments until they reach a certain level of income . Currently, loan borrowers have to start their repayments 6 months after finishing their study. How much is the i...

This is another topic on GST awareness. This time we talk about share market investment, your share trading account and transaction costs. Every share investor should read this article. Let's start here... Many share investors already started their "wait and see" approach since last week because many of us don't know how GST is going to impact our share investment after 1st April 2015. Basically, each transaction consists of the following 3 types of charges: Brokerage fee Normally, the charge is 0.42% (online trading) and 0.60% (offline trading). Some of you may find it to be as low as 0.10% (intraday trading). Yes , this fee is subject to 6% GST. After 1st April, it will become 0.4452% (online trading) and 0.636% (offline trading). Clearing fee This fee is basically charged by Bursa Malaysia and it was fixed at 0.03% of the transaction amount. Yes , this fee is also subject to 6% GST and it will become 0.0318% after this. Stamp Duty This is calculated as RM1 stamp du...