KUALA LUMPUR (March 20): The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has approved a total of 72,534 cases of voluntary tax declarations with assessments worth RM652.5 million reported, of which RM284 million had been successfully collected as of Feb 29, 2024.

Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying said the PKPS 2.0 voluntary disclosure programme is one of the initiatives introduced by the government to expand the number of taxpayers and encourage tax compliance to increase the country's revenue.

"The PKPS 2.0 is implemented by the IRB with a zero per cent penalty offer for voluntary disclosures made between June 6, 2023 and May 31, 2024. If the taxpayer fails to clear the tax balance at the end of the PKPS 2.0 period, legal action can be taken and the taxpayer can be audited or investigated in the future," she told the Dewan Negara on Wednesday.

She added that the IRB conducts continuous audit and investigation activities to recover taxes and revenues that failed to be collected by focusing on taxpayers considered high risk.

"Overall, the amount of additional taxes and penalties from the results of auditing throughout 2022 and 2023 were RM8.2 billion and RM6.2 billion, respectively," she said, adding that the IRB has also taken civil legal action to reclaim tax revenue that failed to be collected.

According to Lim, the amount of tax successfully collected, including compounds and fines for 2022 and 2023, were RM709.7 million and RM465 million, respectively.