(ECNS) -- Malaysia's Finance Ministry (MoF) has confirmed that the government currently has no plans to implement a 2% wealth tax on wealthy individuals to fund national expenditure.
In a written reply tabled in the Dewan Rakyat(the lower house of Parliament) and published on the Parliament website on Wednesday, the ministry explained that similar to existing taxes, the wealth tax would yield insignificant revenue after applicable exemptions and tax reliefs.
It added that rolling out any form of wealth tax requires a thorough, multi-faceted review, considering Malaysia's relatively small and limited tax base.
The MoF highlighted notable enforcement challenges in asset verification, as a wealth tax covers diverse assets including real estate, bank savings, stocks, jewellery, and overseas holdings.
Consistent with the experience of European nations such as France, Spain, and Italy, such taxes typically bring in revenue of less than 1% of a country’s GDP with low collection efficiency.
The ministry reaffirmed the government's commitment to a just, fair, and targeted progressive taxation system to reduce socioeconomic inequality. Instead of a wealth tax, it has adopted targeted measures to broaden the tax base toward high-capacity taxpayers.
The initiatives cover a capital gains tax on the disposal of unlisted shares, a dividend tax on annual dividend income exceeding RM100,000, and a tax on profit distributions over RM100,000 for limited liability partnership partners, according to Bernama.
京公网安备 11010202009201号