THERE are no plans to introduce an inheritance tax in next year’s budget, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“The government understands an inheritance tax is a drastic move, hence we have rejected it last year.

“There are no plans to introduce it in Budget 2020 either,” he said during the question-and-answer session in Dewan Rakyat this morning.

Lim was replying to a supplementary question from Ahmad Hamzah (Jasin-BN) who asked about the impact of the government’s real property gain tax (RPGT) on property investments in Malaysia.

Ahmad also asked if the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) took into consideration properties bought in 1990 but were valued at prices in 2000 when deciding on the RPGT the vendors had to pay.

Lim said property owners only had to pay a 5% RPGT on properties valued at prices in 2000.

Meanwhile, Lim said the government has collected RM91.87 million in RPGT from 4,524 property disposals since it was reintroduced this year.

“The government collected RM60 million in RPGT from 553 disposals by companies, RM29 million from 3,760 disposals by Malaysians and permanent residents, and RM2 million from sales by foreigners.”

The RPGT rate for companies and foreigners was raised from 5% to 10% while Malaysians have to pay 5% for profits from property disposals above five years.

Lim was replying to Wong Kah Woh’s (Ipoh Timur-PH) question on how much RPGT had been collected this year. – July 17, 2019.