Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2018 gazetted, widens applicability of breach of confidence offence
30 January 2019
On 27 December 2018, the Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2018 (“Income Tax (Amendment) Act”) was published in the Federal Gazette. The Income Tax (Amendment) Act seeks to amend the Income Tax Act 1967 (“ITA”) to introduce the following key amendments:
- Widen the applicability of the breach of confidence offence to include any person who uses, produces or discloses any classified material that is communicated or disclosed to him. This is in contrast with the existing section 117 provision in the ITA which only covers any person who communicates classified material or allows another person to have access
to classified material. - Extend the application of section 75B of the ITA to allow a company secretary who is a citizen or permanent resident of Malaysia and ordinarily resides in Malaysia to be responsible for doing all acts and things required to be done under the ITA on behalf of a limited liability partnership.
- Amend section 132 of the ITA to include the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit or any other arrangements which modify the present arrangement between the Government of Malaysia with the government of any territory outside Malaysia.
- Introduce new section 132c to provide a new avenue for any arrangement made by the Government of Malaysia with a view to giving effect to Malaysia’s international obligations in relation to tax under the ITA or any other written law.
Reference materials
The Income Tax (Amendment) Act is available on the e-Federal Gazette website www.federalgazette.agc.gov.my or by clicking here.