GST - what does it mean for a company?

If you are GST registered, you are required to collect GST tax from your customers for the goods and services rendered by your company and then pay the collected tax to goverment .

As an example, if you charged $1,000 for your goods or services to a customer, you must invoice your customer $1,040 ($1,000 for your service plus 4% GST).

This GST amount in the invoice (appropriately must be called a Tax Invoice) collected on behalf of goverment from your customer must be sent to Malaysia tax department on a montly, quarterly or half yearly basic via GST tax filing.

Remember These Important Points on GST

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) applies to most goods and services. going to implements at 4%.

The GST is a value-added tax, because the government only receives tax on the increase in the value of the good at each stage of distribution.

Zero-rated items are goods and services that at the time of this lesson have the GST percentage set of 0%. Sellers of zero-rated goods and services will receive a rebate of any GST they paid in acquiring those goods and services from their suppliers while sellers of GST exempt goods and services will not.

A GST Payable account is kept in the general ledger. This account is a record of the tax collected on sales (credited) and paid on purchases (debited). The balance represents what must be remitted to the federal government.

GST collected on sales - GST paid on purchases = GST remitted to the Government.

A credit balance in the GST Payable account is remitted to the government on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis depending on the size of the business.

If there is a debit balance, the company will receive a refund from the government because it has paid more on purchases than it has collected on sales

Taxable Period

Taxable period is a period where a taxable person is liable to account and pay tax to the goverment his GST Liability.

The standard taxable period is on a quarterly basic but a person may apply or be allocated monthly or half yearly taxable period. Taxable period are proposed as follow

1.Category A - Monthly Submission of GST Return - Non Standard taxable period of 1 month for taxable person with annual taxable tunover exceeding RM5 million or any export based traders who may suffer cashflow problems if they file their returns on a quarterly basic subject to approval.

2.Category B - Quartely Submission , standard taxable period of 3 month for all taxable person with annual taxable turnover not exceeding RM5 million

3.Category C - Half yearly Submission , Non standard taxable period of 6 month in special cases subject to approval.

A taxable person may after being assigned a category apply in writting to the Director General to be assigned to any other category at the absolute discretion of the DG.

Introduction of GST

The Malaysian Goverment in its 2010 Budget Speech annouced the final stage preparation for the introduction of the Goods and Service Tax which is expected to take ffect from mid 2011.

This proposal will integrate the present Sales and Services Taxes into a single broad based tax on consumption to be called the Goods and Service Tax (GST)

GST is a consumption tax and it collected at every stage of production and distribution chain unlike the present tax system which is a single stage tax and it also impose when goods are imported into Malaysia.

How Does the Letter of Credit Process Work ?

How Does the Letter of Credit Process Work?


The seller (known in the Letter of Credit as the "Beneficiary") advises the buyer (known in the Letter of Credit as the "Applicant") that the purchase order is acceptable. The Beneficiary also sends the Applicant a copy of their "Letter of Credit Guidelines" to ensure that the credit is opened properly and will not require any costly amendments.

A Letter of Credit Application is completed by the Applicant and is submitted to their Bank (the Opening Bank).

The Letter of Credit is issued and sent by the Opening Bank to an Advising Bank in the country of the Beneficiary. The main role of an advising bank is to check the authenticity of the Letter of Credit before it is advised to the Beneficiary.

The Advising Bank then sends a copy of the Letter of Credit to the Beneficiary, either electronically, by fax, or by mail.

The Beneficiary must now carefully review the requirements of the Letter of Credit to ensure it has been issued per the agreed terms. The Beneficiary should make sure that they can comply with all stipulations, such as shipping terms, documentary requirements, shipping and/or expiration dates and packing and marking conditions.

If the Letter of Credit has terms that are not per the agreement, the Beneficiary should request an amendment to the Letter of Credit. This request is made directly to the Applicant, who then instructs the Opening Bank to amend the Letter of Credit.

Once the Letter of Credit is in order and the shipment is ready for export, the Beneficiary ships the goods to the freight forwarder.

The seller (or third party, such as LC Solutions) can now begin preparation of documentation required under the Letter of Credit terms.

After goods have shipped, the transport document is acquired by the Beneficiary (or LC Solutions), is checked for accuracy, matched up with other created documentation, and presented to the Negotiating Bank. (The Negotiating Bank may or may not be the same as the Advising Bank, depending on the requirements of the Letter of Credit and the wishes of the Beneficiary.)

The Negotiating Bank checks over the documentation and advises any problems they may find with the paperwork. They then either issue payment to the Beneficiary, or forward the documents to the Opening Bank for payment, depending on the terms of the Letter of Credit.