How to get your PRS Tax Relief statement from PPA ? (April 2013)

In conjunction with the NEW tax relief available from YA2012, many Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) contributors are wondering how can they get the tax statement for income tax filling. To address your concern, here you go... (If you don't know what are we talking about, please find out "What is Private Retirement Scheme?")

To recap, contributions into a PRS scheme can enjoy a tax relief of up to RM3,000 from YA2012 - YA2021. If you did contribute some money into a PRS scheme in 2012, congratulations, you're entitled for PRS tax relief for YA2012. If you haven't, no worry, you still got time to start contributing before end of this year.

Back to the topic, please follow these few easy steps to get it:

Please surf www.ppa.my and click log in. I believe you already get your PIN from PPA when you made your first contribution. If not, please contact PPA and request again.

After log in, you will arrive at the following page. Supposedly, you can download the tax relief statement by clicking "Tax Relief".

However, you will be notified by this message.

Oppsss... What if I didn't keep the receipt or letter given by providers? No worry. Alternatively, you can download the "Consolidated Statement" as a proof and for income tax filling purpose. Hope this could clear your doubts. Happy income tax filing. Thanks.

Finance Malaysia would like to thank Alex Yeoh for his input in this article. Alex is a Licensed Financial Planner with VKA Wealth Planners, whom can advise and distribute multiple PRS products. You may contact him via email alexyeoh@vka.com.my

Personal Income Tax for YA2012

Finance Malaysia hopes this article doesn't come late to give you some info on Personal Income Tax filling for year of assessment 2012. Maybe due to the general election, which had diverts our attention lately. Lol. Anyway, do remember to file your income tax before 30th April oh!!!

Well, here is the list of Personal Tax Relief for YA2012. And, I would like to highlight to you, in RED color words, some changes/differences from previous year.

Personal Tax Relief for YA2012

• Item No.11:
  This would replace Item 10 from YA2012-YA2017 with higher amount of RM6,000
• Item No.23:
  Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) is the NEW item which can help you reduce tax further with additional RM3,000 tax relief from YA2012-YA2021. As such, Item No.22 would be replaced until after YA2021.

All other items remained the same. Do reduce your tax payable by maximizing the tax relief amount. Remember to keep a record and file it properly. Happy tax filling. Thanks.

Blue color: Tax relief that we can adjust easily in our daily life

Green color: Tax relief for property not rented out with S&P signed between 10/03/09-31/12/10

Light red color: Tax relief related to child

Yellow color: Tax relief related to life insurance premium

What are the TAX benefits from Private Retirement Scheme (PRS)?

According to Securities Commission of Malaysia, tax incentives are provided to both employers and individuals for the first 10 years from assessment year 2012; in addition to the tax deduction permitted for EPF contributions:

Amount of Tax Savings by individuals for PRS contributions

For Individual:

Tax relief of up to RM3,000 per year will be given for contributions made within that year. This is on top of existing tax relief already enjoyed by taxpayers. How much can you save from tax? Let's look at the table above which illustrates the amount of tax saving an individual get after personal tax relief and RM6,000 EPF + Life Insurance tax relief. Assuming maximum RM3,000 PRS relief, the amount of tax saving depends on your level of income. For high tax bracket individual, you can save up to RM780 annually!!!

For Employer:

Tax deduction on contributions to PRS made on behalf of their employees above the statutory rate of up to 19% of employees' remuneration was granted. Example, if an employer already making 12% EPF contributions to his employees, the employer may choose to reward their employees by contributing into employees PRS account for up to another 7%.

Vesting Schedule to Retain Employees?

Yes, employer can use PRS as a tool to retain employees by adding a "vesting schedule" clause. Currently, there are a few available vesting methods: by length of service, job rank, or by age. Unlike EPF, if an employee leaves before vesting, the employer can access to the un-vested portion of contribution already made. Likewise, for EPF, employee take the full amount when they left. With PRS vesting schedule, employee may think twice before switching jobs.

In conclusion, there are tax incentives for every tax payer, employee or employer. Ultimately, enough retirement funds was the key objective of PRS. On top of that, a tax exemption is also provided on income received by the funds under the PRS.

This is a guest post by Alex Yeoh in the series of Private Retirement Scheme. For more PRS info, you may contact Alex Yeoh (alexyeoh@vka.com.my), a licensed financial planner, whom can distributes products from multiple PRS providers. Thank you.

How Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) works actually?

Many people are still in the dark on how actually Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) works. In order to clear everyone's mind, we hope this post was timely for those who may want to entitle for extra tax relief of up to RM 3,000 given by PRS before 31st December 2012. To further explain the whole scheme, Finance Malaysia Blog was glad that Alex Yeoh, a licensed financial planner is able to share with us on this matter.

By Alex Yeoh,

First we must know that PRS is a voluntary scheme for the purpose of retirement saving. For ease of understanding, let us look at the picture above which explain the process into two parts. Initially, contributions were made by us into the PRS fund that we select. It was as flexible as  normal unit trust investments (shown in upper part). Contribute anytime any amount as you like, without any specific intervals. As simple as that.

When can I withdraw the money?

Each time, your contributions were split and maintained in sub-accounts A and B similar to EPF way (shown in lower part). 70% of contributions will go to Account A, which can be withdrawn upon reaching retirement age, which is currently at 55.

Meanwhile, the balance 30% into Account B, which can be withdrawn after one year, subject to 8% tax penalty. Take note that you can withdrawn from Account B for whatever reason. Although lump sum withdrawal are permitted, contributors are encouraged to retain their savings for continuous investment under the respective schemes.

Why 8% tax penalty?

The said 8% tax penalty was to discourage contributors to withdrawn their money prior to retirement age. We must understand that PRS is meant for retirement savings. Moreover, the 8% tax penalty was deducted from withdrawal amount to pay back Inland Revenue Board (IRB). Why? Because IRB is the one who gave you tax relief on contributions made initially. Otherwise, loop-hole was existed with everyone just want to take advantage of the tax relief and  withdrawn their money after that. Agree?

For more PRS info, you may contact Alex Yeoh (email: alexyeoh@vka.com.my), a licensed financial planner, whom can distributes products from multiple PRS providers. Thank you.