KUALA LUMPUR: A recent survey on Malaysians’ perception on taxes found that an overwhelming majority (83%) want the government to recover the tax revenue that is lost to the shadow economy or black market in order to protect jobs and facilitate economic recovery following the Covid-19 crisis.
The survey, conducted by leading market research company Green Zebras, also found that most (78%) respondents concur that black market activities are a threat to jobs and hamper business performance.
Steve Murphy, Managing Director and Co-founder of Green Zebras Sdn Bhd, said: “As Malaysians are currently filing their personal income tax in time for the 30 June deadline, job security and economic growth are their top-of-mind concerns.
“From the survey, Malaysians want the government to have enough money to fund economic recovery and safeguard their jobs. Moreover, in total 45% of the respondents said that they are not very or at all secure of their jobs in this current situation. This shows that job insecurity is at an all-time high during this unprecedented period.”
When Green Zebras asked how survey participants felt about their taxes, 11% said it was much too high, while 35% said it was a little high. Interestingly, a similar poll conducted by Green Zebras last year had found that a much larger proportion of Malaysians had felt that their taxes were too high prior to the Covid-19 crisis.
“When we make a year-on-year comparison, we can surmise that Malaysians are today more willing and eager to pay taxes compared to last year. This is likely due to the impact of the global pandemic and the understanding that taxpayers must do their part to help the country recover.”
“Nevertheless, taxpayers do not want to shoulder the revenue burden alone. They want the Government to bolster revenue at the expense of black-market activities like the illicit cigarettes trade, which cost the Government more than RM5 billion in total each year,” Murphy added.
It is worth noting that the majority of the population (70%) felt that the government was generally doing a good job to help Malaysia and Malaysians so far during this crisis.
The Green Zebras perception on tax poll was conducted online in May 2020 in both Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia and is nationally representative of the overall population by location, gender, race and age.
