Once is enough

I remember when I was in university, I argued a lot with girls who carry the it-has-never-happened-before mentality. I am referring to those who like to go out at night and come back alone or like to walk in dark alleys alone and think they are invincible. Are you one of such person?

There are some who are really paranoid and will want a chauffeur driven service for a 100 metres journey, which I think is ridiculous. Of course, most such souls are not really concern about their safety but rather over-pampered.

But there are also a few brave souls who will naively take the same old dark alleys everyday just because nothing has happened to them before. Worse, some have taken such routes for months; or years and hence, they think it’s virtually impossible to land themselves in a bad scenario.

Have you ever thought before that a bad scenario only needs to happen once… and your life will be scarred forever?
A story was told of this modern slave who worked late almost every night and she stayed alone in a condo. Some of her colleagues offered to accompany her to her unit but she will always refuse saying that it is very safe and yes… she has been living there for a few years now and she will give the “I have always walked up to my house alone and nothing has happened to me before”.

One night, just as she unlocked her gate, a person appeared from nowhere and like they say… the rest is history. All those years of safe journey to her house alone, one bad incident is enough to change her life forever.

I am not asking all of you to suddenly turn paranoia and ask for companion to go everywhere, though the current state of the country kind of suggest so. But the most important thing is to exercise discernment. I am sure you know which situation needs some extra security and which doesn’t.

Always remember… it doesn’t needs to happen a few times, once is enough to change your life. Be wise… today.

When ARK seems impossible

First, ARK check… how many still remember what am I talking about here? I sincerely hope the Act of Random Kindness continues; and I will begin the week believing that my entry did create some chain of kindness in the last few days… can?

Anyway, I understand that there are times when it is just very difficult, or sometimes, impossible for us to bring out the kind heart in us. These are the times when our patience is stretched to the fullest and we are on the verge of ‘bursting’, metaphorically speaking. How then can we do an ARK in such situation?

Try this… next time you land yourself in such situation… the best ARK you can do is to be kind… to yourself. Sometimes, we react to things rather easily. Instead, we should respond to the situation. Try not to let the dark side get the best of you. Refusing to let your blood pressure right and burst… is the best act of kindness you can do yourself. At least that’s what I think. No doubt, may not be applicable all the time.

Last but not least… “whack” check… Many of you commented saying that you enjoyed the game. How many of you actually manage to get all 17 whacking tools? Some of my colleagues are stuck at 14 the last I heard. For those who has yet to reach 17… keep trying, but don’t let your boss catch you doing it…

Whack it over the weekend

Terlebih dahulu, saya ingin mengucapkan Selama Berpuasa kepada semua pembaca AZAIG yang beragama Islam. Selamat menunaikan ibadat puasa dalam bulan Ramadhan ini. Salam…

Next, ARK check… today I held the lift for someone. I could have easily frantically pressed ‘close’ just to have the lift for myself. I think that’s kind enough right? What about you? Did any ARK today?
Oh, I felt tremors at my workplace today at 11.35am. Would have blogged about it instantly like the one I had earlier but I couldn’t access blog from office so… have to give it a miss. As soon as it happened, the building management asked us to remain seated. It’s just so stupid, typical Malaysian attitude. Anyway, let’s not spoil our Friday.

As another act of kindness… may I present you with this online game… it’s called… “Whack the boss”. Ahhh… I can see a lot of you like it already.

The objective of the game is to successfully locate the 17 items in the screen to kill the boss. Yeah, it’s a bit violent but it’s all online, so it’s cool. Besides, I am sure many of you want to do that on a daily basis.

Referring to the screenshots below, move your mouse across the screen to locate the tools you need. It will appear in colour when you manage to locate it. You win when you manage to locate 17 different tools. Oh... best if enjoyed with sound...


And once you win… this is what you’ll see… a good night sleep…



Wait no more… whack away here…

See, I am so kind... Happy weekend!

P/S: The author will not be responsible for any violent behaviour arising from this blog and… good luck to all the bosses.

A thought from an over-loaded brain

Firstly, for those who are unaware, the states of Perlis, Kedah, Perak and Penang are on tsunami alert after an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale struck Sumatra. Let us all pray that effect of this catastrophic event will not too overwhelming.

Anyway, I was in church a while ago as there was a discussion about a very interesting topic… “end times”. For those who are not Christians, it means ‘the end of the world’, or more famously known as ‘Armageddon’.

It has been a long time since I attended such discussion gathering and I must admit, it was very refreshing indeed. I am not going to go into the discussion in details as it will most probably bore you if you’re not a Christian; and as for Christians, you would have heard them many times already.
Anyway, the discussion covered a number of things which flowed on to a number of other sub-discussions and suddenly, my brain was (and still is) filled with many thoughts. It made me look at many things from a very different perspective and to actually see 2 sides of the coin in many situations.

I was paired up with a guy named Eric and we were talking about the difference between hopeful and optimism and suddenly……amidst the multitude of thoughts, my mind was brought to the recent DVD I watched… “Evan Almighty”. Many of us have watched it and would have probably laughed our ass off most of the time. But my mind brought me to the very message behind the film…

The A.R.K…

…… An “Act of Random Kindness”… one which “God” said would change the world. We were talking about how we can make a difference if we choose to and this ARK thing came to mind. I know a lot of us are very frustrated with a lot of things which are happening around us today but… if we were to practise an ARK, perhaps we will make a difference? Who knows?

AZAIG has an average of about 400 unique visitors daily and assuming that half of you will actually choose to do an Act of Random Kindness tomorrow, there will be 200 ARKs. If half of that half choose to continue to do an ARK on Friday (because the other half has forgotten about it), then there will be another 100 ARKs. Let’s say the amount of people continues to drop by half all the way till Sunday… we will have 375 Acts of Random Kindness by the end of the week… which I think is quite cool.

I know I am being very naïve and perhaps… stupid… but I think I am going to do an ARK tomorrow. Assuming that all of us would have forgotten about this entry by Monday, at least 375 Acts of Random Kindness happened this week… I hope.

Anyone care to join the statistics?

A trip of co-incidences

A friend called and asked me about how much I spent when I travelled to Cambodia 3 years ago. My memory failed me, or maybe I didn’t bother to really keep track of how much I was spending then. After digging deep into my memory, I think I spent about USD400 excluding flight for the entire trip.

Though it has been already 2 years, I will never forget that trip for I will remember that trip as one which is filled with countless co-incidences. How many if you may ask…

Well, it all started when my German friend suggested that I join him for a trip to some Indo-China countries, we decided on Cambodia and Vietnam. Being 2 typical guys, the only preparation we made was to get our flight tickets. We had no itinerary, we didn’t even know where we were going to stay.

2 weeks before the trip, I met a new friend while clubbing in what used to be my second home. Let’s call this new friend “NF”. I was on a long break then and when NF asked me what my plan was, I said that I will be making a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. Co-incident number 1… NF was also heading for a trip of similar nature. No... NF is not Jules.

In the course of the next 2 weeks, we not only found out that we were heading to the same destination… we were actually leaving on the same date and… yup, you’re right… we were actually on the same flight! Co-incident number 2!

During the flight, me and my German friend found out that NF and friends have got the whole trip all researched and planned out. Yup, we asked maybe we can tag along NF’s group to which they agreed, if we can fit into their plans. There was supposed to be a van picking up NF’s group and upon checking with the driver, we found out that there were 2 more space in that van… just right for me and my friend. Co-incident number 3. They were actually very happy cos with me and my friend sharing that van, we all paid a lower fare.
The van brought us to a very nice bungalow type guest house and we were told all the rooms have been booked out. However, a last minute cancellation led to one room being available, one that has 2 single beds, just right for me and my friend. Looks like me and my friend didn’t really need to hunt for place to stay. Would you consider that a 4th co-incident?
We spent the next 4 or 5 days together visiting temples and the magnificent Angkor Wat. One thing I must say, if you like historical sights, Angkor Wat is something not to be missed. Anyway, we parted ways because me and my friend left for Vietnam a day earlier than them. Yes, they were also heading to Vietnam.

You know what is the 5th co-incident? Me and my friend just simply decide on a guest house upon arriving in Vietnam and a day after that… NF and friends arrived… they were also staying in the same guest house. Trust me, it was not planned.

Do you believe in co-incidences?

Oh, the trip is also very special in my heart cos the trip was the conversational topic that got me hooked up with Jules…

Time to sleep now as I need to wake up at 7 a.m. tomorrow. Damn!

“Tax free” dividends?

If you hold shares in the stock market, or your father or mother or grandfather or grandmother hold shares in the stock market, the newly proposed single-tier tax system which results in tax exempt dividends in the hands of shareholders sure sounds like a good deal right?

I am sorry to burst your bubble but you might need to think again. In fact, I think it is detrimental for most of us. And before some of my friends in the industry think that I copy the analysis from anyone, it hit me 2 hours after the budget was announced. I have also made a comment here on Saturday morning.

Why the exempt dividend arising from the single-tier tax system may not be a good move… hopefully I can explain it without using too many technical terms…

Currently, the full imputation tax system is in force where tax paid on profits at the company level will be distributed to the shareholders as dividends with a credit attached to it. This is why you will see the following breakdownin the dividend warrants based on the prevailing tax rate of 27%:

Gross dividend ------------------>100
Tax deducted at source ------->(27)
Net dividend ----------------------->73

As you may know by now, the actual cash received by you is only 73 because it is a taxable dividend. But you don’t need to pay additional tax because taxes have already been paid at the company level, thus “deducted at source”… deducted from the gross dividend. Hope I am making sense here.

So you will then report this dividend as your income in your annual headache a.k.a. tax return during tax filing season. Then you will need to pay tax based on your chargeable income as per the table shown below. Please note that having a chargeable income of RM12,000 does not mean your monthly salary is RM1,000. A lot of relieves are deducted from your annual salary before arriving in chargeable income, e.g. the newly proposed RM300 deduction for purchase of sports equipment.
As you can see, your will only be taxed at 27% for your chargeable income exceeding RM100,000, all the way till RM250,000 where anything beyond that will be taxed at 28%.

So, assuming that you are a slightly above average income earner of about RM7,500 a month (how many here?), you will then have an annual salary of RM90,000. After deducting all the insurance payments, EPF, medical expenses, fees, children allowances, sports equipment, books, etc… you then arrive at your chargeable income of say… RM68,000 (just an estimate). Based on the table, your highest tax rate is only 19%.

What exactly happens here? This simply means that the dividends which you received are to be taxed at 19%. But since tax has already been paid at 27% (as above), you will actually get a refund of 8% and this refund is being incorporated into your tax via the Section 110 set-off. Okay… it’s getting a bit technical here but let’s just say you will have a tax benefit. The lower your chargeable income, the higher the tax benefit.

Now, if you are a person who earns only RM2,500 a month; you will not be in a tax-payable position. If you; or your parents or grandparents are pensioners, you will then be totally exempted from paying tax. This simply means that when such persons receive dividend income, the “tax deducted at source” will be FULLY refunded. With reference to the calculation above, the company will pay you 73 and 27 will be refunded by the government.

Now… what happens now when the dividends under the single-tier tax system are exempt from tax? Referring to the calculation above again… you will receive a net dividend of 73 and it’s exempted from tax. And because it is tax free dividend, you don’t need to report it in your tax form and because you don’t need to report it, you will not get the refund in respect of taxes paid on the profits at company level.

It basically means that the government will tax companies at the prevailing corporate tax rate (27% for 2007) and if you happen to be a shareholder of that company, and so happened your tax bracket is lower than 27%... too bad, you’re screwed. If you’re a pensioner and hold a lot of shares, you’re wonderfully screwed.

Now, how many here are going to say hallelujah to tax free dividends?

Disclaimer: This is purely a personal opinion and does not constitute tax advice. Please consult your own tax advisor for a clearer picture.

Budget for you, spending for them

Warning: Rather long and boring entry ahead.

Some call it an exciting budget… some call it a ‘poor’ budget… some even call it the people’s budget… most call it an election budget. No matter how we call it, what does the budget means to you and me? How exactly does it impact a regular Malaysian?

I do not claim to be an expert but I think these are a few budget proposals which a regular Malaysian like you and me should know about…

For those who have purchased property before, you will know that there is a tax in the form of ‘stamp duty’ which needs to be paid. Yes, it’s a tax which the buyer needs to pay. For a property worth RM250,000, you will probably needs to pay stamp duty of about RM4,000 (this is an estimate only). The budget proposed that a 50% reduction of stamp duty for property worth not more than RM250,000 so our pocket can save about RM2,000 we purchase a property worth not more than RM250,000. Not a bad move.

Better if you are transferring properties between husband and wife. Stamp duty will be fully exempted from such transactions. Whether there will be any restrictions on the value of property transferred, yet to be known.
Next, the widely discussed abolishment of school fees and free text books for all. It seems that many claimed that the savings from this proposal is too minimal to be felt and is widely regarded as an election proposal. Indeed, this proposal will not benefit urban folks much but it does means a lot to the non-urban population. Vote winning formula? Perhaps… but then again, shouldn’t schools be totally free to begin with?

The proposal which was supposed to make us all feel very good is that EPF contributors will be allowed to withdraw balances from Account 2 to pay monthly housing instalments. Sounds like a good idea. But if you were to think properly… the government is basically allowing us… to use our own money… to pay for our own house. And we are supposed to feel thankful about it? You tell me…

For those of us who have children, there may be good news for you. Scholarships offered by the government via JPA will be increased from 5,000 to 10,000 with significant increase in allowances given to overseas students. There are a couple of JPA sponsored students who read AZAIG, but there were also a lot of AZAIG readers who failed to get a JPA scholarship recently (you know who you are). Will this really benefits your children and mine? I shall leave that to you.

I read in a blog saying that one does not need to worry about fees anymore because one of the budget proposal was a tax relief for education fees to all post-graduate studies of up to RM3,000. To put things into a better perspective… you will probably only be able to actually get a tax benefit if you earn a monthly income of perhaps… RM5,000. Even that… your savings from this relief is probably about… RM400. Again, this is an estimate. So… do you really don’t need to worry about your fees? Okay… better than nothing right?

On top of that, there is also a tax relief for purchases of sports equipment of up to RM300. The tax savings for that, assuming you are earning RM3,000 a month, will probably be about RM24. If you earn lower… then the savings will be lower lor…

One very peculiar proposals stood up amongst the rest… beginning 2008, public listed companies will be required to disclose their employment composition race and gender, as well as programmes undertaken to develop domestic and Bumiputera vendors. I wonder why.

Those were the few things which I think you should know. There was a single-tier tax system being proposed but it will be too technical to discuss here. Also, I said that there will be reduction of individual tax rate but it didn’t happen. Instead, there was a reduction of corporate tax rate which I am sure it will not affect anyone of us here. If the reduction of corporate tax benefits you, I am sure you don’t be reading blogs. As expected, GST was not announced.

The other parts of the budget are mostly about how the government is going to spend our their money.

On a related note, the mainstream newspaper gave a very brief picture about how the government ministries spend their money. Apparently, our government is a generous one, always paying premium… extra premium for stuff. To be really honest with you, I am really surprise the mainstream actually reported this.

Pictures courtesy of TheStar.

Among some of them which deserves to be highlighted was RM5,741 for a car jack worth RM50. I think I want to sell car jacks to the government. Maybe I should sell books too cause the government also purchased technical book sets worth RM417 for a whooping RM10,700. And not just 1 set… 10 sets bought! Makes us wonder how much the government will spend to buy those text books for students, don’t you think?