Unexpected Busy Week

This was an unexpected busy week for me as my clients who didn’t file their tax return for last year, started to receive advance assessment and composition fine.

According to my friend who works at IRAS Enforcement Division, they are doing this by invoking a new law to raise advance assessment so as to clear the backlog of back years’ tax returns that are not finalised yet. Personally, I feel that IRAS is doing it right but the timing seems to be wrong as the economy is still in recovery mode.

For the first time in my years in writing appeal letters to assist my clients to get waiver for their penalties, I ran out of reasons to write for them. This is especially so after I attended the Corporate Tax Seminar in September last year which states that an objection letter cannot be too generalised, like it is estimated and excessive.

I just hope that my clients can be more proactive to submit their accounts for us to audit or compile on time, and not to wait till the last moments, as there is always something unexpected occuring when you leave things to the last minute. The audit department must also play a part to ensure that they have enough competent people to handle all the cases.