LETTERS: I would like to focus on the timing to file real property gains tax forms (CKHT Forms) for the disposal of immovable assets arising from conditional contracts.
Under Act 169, or, the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976, parties to the disposal of immovable assets are required to inform the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) when doing so, and should submit CKHT Forms.
This must be done within 60 days from the date of disposal, as per Section 13, failing which IRB can and may seek much temporal joy in fining and incarcerating the offender (Section 29).
However, Section 16, Schedule 2, Act 169, provides the exception to Section 13.
In the event that the disposal is conditional on government approval, the timing to file CKHT Forms, in essence, is within 60 days from the approval date.
As to the meaning of "government" under Section 16, IRB restricts that to mean the federal government, state government and any other duly authorised body acting thereunder.
Oddly, IRB does not recognise the court as a branch of government, and here lies the dilemma, especially in the context of disposing of immovable assets
Section 60(4)(a) of the Probate & Administration Act 1959 states that no disposal of any immoveable asset arising from intestacy can take place unless a High Court order is obtained.
Thus, if relevant parties cannot procure the order, the disposal cannot legally take effect, but by the demands of IRB, you would still have had to file CKHT Forms within 60 days from the date the contract for same was signed.
This is a pointless exercise as there is no disposal, but then again, we are dealing with a federal entity that prides itself on vacuity and an insatiable appetite for paperwork.
Anyway, it is trite that there are three branches of government: the executive, the legislature (Parliament) and the judiciary (comprising the courts).
And that point was alluded to by the late Tun Mohamed Suffian (lord president from 1974 to 1982) in his book, "An Introduction to the Constitution of Malaysia" (page 113, 3rd ed, 2007).
In fact, those three branches of government are creations under the Federal Constitution (Article 39, Article 44, and Article 121, respectively), the principal law that Malaysia was founded on.
By contrast, IRB is a subordinate creature of Parliament, created pursuant to the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia Act 1995, not that that fact bothers it in the least.
I have had many written exchanges on this matter with IRB, as far back as 2016, including corresponding with its then director-general, but it remains adamant that the court is not a branch of government.
MEGAT SHAHARUDDIN MERICAN
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times