(Two letters referred by this article are appended below)
There was a case recently in which IRAS requested payment and penalty for income tax owned by a dead man. What’s intriguing is that the man was already dead for 18 years. Fortunately, the family members had documentary proof stored in their storeroom that the tax was already paid just one year after the man died (think: the family actually stored this document for 17 years!). IRAS apologised for the mistake in Straits Times forum page. So what’s going on and how to learn from this?
When a person dies, the Personal Representative must pay off all debts before distributing the estate. The estate is the collective assets left behind by the dead person. If there was no Will, the Administrator is responsible that all debts are paid before distribution. To ensure the Administrator does its job, two sureties (guarantors) each having net assets equal or more than the estate are required for estate above $250,000 or if there are beneficiaries who are still minors. If there was any negligent on the part of the Administrator, the sureties are responsible for the financial lost. If there was a Will, the appointed Executor is responsible to use the estate and pay off all debts. No sureties are required. However, if all Executors are not able to act (due to being disabled, dead, missing or simply resign), the procedure will be exactly like as if there was no Will and hence it is called application for Letter of Administrations with Will Annexed. The procedure is the same as if there was no Will except the distribution will follow the Will.
The burden to ensure all debts are paid lies on the Trustee of the estate, which is either the Executor or the Administrator. It is very possible to have creditors come knocking at the door even after 18 years! Like for this recent case, it was the tax man that came knocking at the door after 18 years to ask for tax owned. If the Trustee is unable to proof that the debt was already paid, the Trustee becomes financially liable to pay off this debt. Of course, the Trustee can clawback from the beneficiaries but this is going to be extremely tedious especially if there is more than 1 beneficiary.
Most people do not realise what this means to their family. Most people have not written their Will. As a result, they assume someone in the family will be the Administrator. For married couple, it is always assumed that the surviving spouse will be the one (although this is not guaranteed). As a result, they will place an undue burden on their spouse to manage the estate such as paying off all debts. But as it can be seen by this IRAS example that this burden can last for nearly two decades! I am not sure whether is it wise to leave behind a yoke to be carried by your wife or husband for this long! Not to mention the necessity to store documents in the storeroom for two decades.
For those who have written their Wills, I have seen Wills being written to the detriment of their Executors. They would often appoint a financially and legally challenged Executor. Usually this will also be their own spouse and family members. Again, these Executors will need to carry the burden probably for the rest of their lives such as constantly worry whether all debts have been paid and the need to store documentary proof for 18 years in the storeroom. Very often, Wills written by young couples create implicit trust without them even been advised what this really means to the Executor. An implicit trust is created such as when a beneficiary is still a minor. In this case, the Executor becomes the Trustee of this asset until the beneficiary reaches legal age. The duly of the Trustee is significant because he or she has the fiduciary to ensure the assets are managed to the interest of beneficiaries otherwise the Trustee is financially liable for losses. There are solutions to this but it is not within the scope of this article.
Since the burden is so great on the Administrator and the Executor, estate planning is something which people cannot ignore. Ignoring the need of estate planning is equivalent of saying that you are happy with your wife or children to carry the yoke of being constantly worried for debts of the estate. I am not sure how it feels like to be invoiced by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore after 18 years. I think the compounding effect of the penalty imposed will probably give anyone an immediate heart attack!
As for this case, IRAS mentioned that a mistake probably occurred when the cashier order meant to settle the tax arrears of the estate was instead credited to the trustee’s own income tax account. I am not sure what’s going on here but it reminds me of one thing. It is extremely important for a trustee to keep a solid record of accounts to ensure that the assets of the estate do not mixed with the trustee’s own estate. Since it cannot be guaranteed that other third parties will not mix it up, the onus is on the trustee to perform a perfect record keeping.
In Singapore’s context, my empirical estimate is that 99% of the Singapore residents have not done estate planning. For those who have written their Wills, they wrote nonsensical Wills that are not worth the papers printed on. These Wills may be valid but practically nonsense Also, it is a common misconception that estate planning is all about writing a Will. Writing a Will is just one of the tools and yet 99% of who used this tool wrote nonsense. Actually, the best people who can do estate planning are financial planners because estate planning is one of the pillars in financial planning. Unfortunately, estate planning does not involve selling a product and hence there is no commission for doing a thorough estate planning. To the disgrace of the industry, it is a well known fact that estate planning has been abused and used as a tool to sell expensive and unsuitable insurance products.
If you want to do estate planning, make sure the estate planner isn’t going to sell you another useless product. What you need is an estate plan, not product.
You may also wish to read a related article: “Describe the process of a person who dies testate / intestate” http://bit.ly/9A7GRq
Tax letter arrives years after death
MY FAMILY received a letter from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) in November last year, regarding the estate of my grandfather who died in 1992. The letter was addressed to the trustees of his estate and requested payment of an outstanding tax and penalty for assessment year 1992.
The letter was brief and did not provide any details as to how the amount was reached. Only after calling the officer who wrote the letter, and because of our persistence, did we get another letter this month with a brief statement of account.
Fortunately, my parents had kept the records of payment in the storeroom and we found documentary proof of payment in 1993. But it is puzzling that it took the taxman nearly two decades to alert us.
Carol Ong (Ms)
Feb 13, 2010
Published in Straits Times Forum
Sorry, Iras has explained tax error
I REFER to the letter by Ms Carol Ong, 'Tax letter arrives years after death' (Feb 13).
Ms Ong's family received a letter from us in November last year with regard to the income tax payable by the estate of Ms Ong's grandfather. The case was identified in a recent review of arrears of old cases. Prior to her letter, our staff had been in discussion with Ms Ong and her mother to clear up the matter.
We have since clarified with Ms Ong's family and confirmed that payment had already been made in 1993 by one of the trustees of the estate. However, the payment, in the form of a cashier's order, was credited to the income tax account of the trustee, instead of being used to settle the tax arrears of the estate.
We have explained to Ms Ong how the error may have arisen and would like to apologise to her and her family for the inconvenience.
Deanna Choo (Ms)
Director (Corporate Communications)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
Feb 23, 2010
Published in Straits Times Forum
Original post:
http://www.cpf.gov.sg/imsavvy/blog_post.asp?postid=705870790-66-6957622765
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Dead man was asked to pay up income tax 18 years later
Friday, January 22, 2010
30 Most Commonly Used Tricks by MLM & Investment Scams
It is normal nowadays to have a "long time no see" or "long time never show up" friend or relative call and ask are you free or not. Then the next thing happen is he/she sitting at hawker centre/coffee shop/*buck/your house and he/she start to share 1001 success stories of the people that they work with (They are not there yet la...... so still working on it......). All of these are supposedly bring you more income/money lo...... but where got free lunch in this world one.
Some nice people at Low Yat forum put up a list of trick used by MLM and Investment scam. Refer to the original posting at Low Yat forum. Please forward this post to everyone so that less people kena con.
http://ahsiangboringdiary.blogspot.com/2010/01/30-most-commonly-used-tricks-by-mlm.html
Here is the list:
1) "Denial" trick - They will claim "we are not mlm". Knowing that many people don't support a mlm or direct sales products. Some companies will keep denying they are MLM and used other terms like "franchisee" business, eg. Lampe Berger, STG, IRC; or "investment schemes" eg. Sunshine Empire, GRI, etc;
2) "Get-A-Job" trick - Example Easypha-max.
3) "Future Plan" trick - This has been most common in the past. They will tell you a lot of rosy future plans like setting up factory in Malaysia; or going public listed soon and you will be given free shares or priority to buy cheaper chares; or whatever you purchase now be worth much more in the future.
4) "Secret Formula" trick - on both plan and product. When they cannot explain how the product or their marketing plan works(obviously not if it is a scam) they will tell you "this is Company secret, tell all will means allowing competitors to follow us". Fixed return on investments(ROI) scams that take monies from the new victims to pay the old ones always use this statement.
5) "Other Industry" trick" - This trick started by Sunshine Empire is most commonly used by those investment scams that promised fixed return. This is the most common trick now. After the failure of investment scams like Sunshine, Mobilwallet, STG, etc many people already know that it's impossible for products selling or food business to gain such profits margin for unlimited members. So they use other industries like a certain plant or tree cultivation, seaweed, fish, fuel, IT-related development and the latest is "turning waste oil into crude oil" with office at Mont Kiara. Others out soon(being planned now) are church-related, shipping industry, space industry, etc
6) "Long History" trick - You probably heard many times on this. Those MLM Companies that have longer history will use this trick to "bully" the newer companies but what has that got to do with their products or whether it is a good business ? They will tell you their Company is stable because of a longer history (don't they have their beginning too ?) or used products supplier's history which do not belong to them.
7) "Testimonials" tricks on both products(esp healthcare products) and on the business opportunity. Nearly every healthcare products MLM used it. Sunrider, Morinda, SNE, BioYoung and many others, where have they all gone now if their products are so good ? Most of the time, the effects are placebo(see no. 13 below) or exaggerated. Testimonials are commonly used for the income opportunity too. They will always tell you so and so in their company earned a lot but NEVER caution you that over 99% of those who joined earlier have left or lost some money.
8) "Moneyback gurantee" trick - Is this a trick too ? Certainly ! This trick works well because people fill safe in paying for it BUT when you try to claim your money back; here are the common senario: your introducer or seller is hard to locate now, there is a 10% "certain fee" not brought to your attention earlier, certain offer items are not returnable; or your upline will beg you not to return because commissions they and you earned need to be refunded.
9) "International" trick - They will tell you their organisation has reached many countries, so what ? What has that got to do with you and your money which you are going to pay ? In some cases, foreign based MLM Companies are actually Malaysian-created with a virtual office addressed overseas. Some US claimed companies don't even do much business in US. Past examples are Enrich, Xango, etc
10) "Professionals" trick - most commonly used are doctors and lawyers. Doctors and Lawyers who speak for any business have poor code of ethics and comnpanies who used such tricks are worse.
11) "Doctors Endorsement" trick - Can we trust doctors who breach their own code of ethics ?
12) "Legal Agreement" trick - This one is most common now in investment scams. You think legal documents will protect you? They are used to earn your confidence or take away your rights, more later. In most of their agreements, they have a clause included that the Company can change any conditions in future leaving the members no rights to take actions against them. Past examples of this trick are MobilWallet and STG. Their bosses, offices and restaurants are still around but members cannot do anything legally.
13) "Placebo-effect" trick - Used widely by Fusion Exel and those energy pendant sellers. Placebo effects are more significant and effective from "energy" products like those made from magnets, ceramic or lava soils. When the users(normally MLM members) believe and have greater faith in them, a certain inner energy can be produced that may be good enough to cure some illness or symtoms. After the enthusiasm is over, you will find the product no longer effective. This is one of the reason why MOST of those MLMs selling health products are gone. I am sure we have all experience with doctors too. If you lack confidence with a certain doctor or medicine, it may not work for you because your inner energy from your own placebo effect is working against it.
14) "Chemical Reaction" trick - Remember the footpatch that cheated so many people ?
15) "Give you downlines" trick - This is a fishing trick used most commonly in those called binary plan. Some Management can even create new accounts for you to be placed somewhere on top; or they will tell you "I will give you a very strong line from Indonesia or Thailand, all you need is just build one leg"
16) "Free Body Checkup" trick - They will use a gadget or some machines to do for you a free check and later recommend you to buy their product and claim it will work for your problem. Some of them do not even tell you their purpose when they invite you for the "free" checkup. After you entered their office and did the check-up, you are trapped !!
17) "Only-we-have-products" trick - Mostly OEM products that no one knows or trusts. This is traditional in every MLM business. Everyone will claim that ONLY their Company has the product. Of course, because they simply contract a manufacturer to manuafcture for them. In most cases, the products are much more overpriced compared to similar products of another brand available over the counter. Such products are usually not value-for-money and only in the beginning because they are bought up by the distributors or the members of the company. Past examples are Forever Living, Sunrider, Bio-young, XKL, Morinda(Noni juice), Nu-skin, For-Life, Reliv, Xango, SNE etc. They all started with a hype and great volume during the 1st one or 2 years and quiet down later when even their hig-ranking members will no longer buy them.
18) "Brainwashing" trick - wow, this is going to be long.......
19) "Training" tricks - They only tell you "not to quit" but not why and how you will fail. While training is good for one's personal development, it can be harmful if you are trained in a misleading way by any particular Company. Take Amway for example, I am sure everyone of you has a friend or 2 who swear that they will NEVER leave or quit the Company 5 or 10 yeras ago(all due to their great trainings, brainwashings and motivations) but disappeared now due to embarrassment. My advice is "since 99%(statistics don't lie) of all MLMs or pyramid schemes business members will not be successful or make it to richness, NEVER close your back door by swearing you will never quit." Another such example is QuestNEt that started with that no-value gold-plated coin that ask for over RM1000 each. Their members(mostly youngsters) are all trained to approach at least 100 prospects before they should quit. It will only lead to more victims and when they eventually quit, they will be so disillusioned that they will never want to get back into any form of business.
Remember this example if you are ever trained or brainwashed not to quit a business:
A fly inside a closed room saw a big heap of delicious rubbish outside through the closed window. The fly has the motivation, aim, goal, an action plan(everything ever needed and trained for achievement) to knock down the window and get out for the rubbish. With a "Never Quit" attitude, the fly will knock the window until it gets killed. So much on trainings and brainwashings.
20) "Tee Up" trick
21) "Good People" trick - announcing they are of a certain religion or vegetarians
22) "Chicken & Duck Talk & Physcology" trick - This is also very common now and used by nearly every MLM or scam with a good training department eg: When you question them on the business module and suspect a scam or when you have cornered them, they will give you answers like:
"In any business, you need to work for your income, there is no guaranteed income",
" I am afraid you have been misled by others or heard too much negative things from those who are not even how members, so how could they know better than us ?",
"Failures always find excuses not to work, successful people always find ways to succeed"
"Birds of the same feathers always flock together - Only failures listen to failures(we listen and learn from our successful leader in our company"
"Those who failed or left are jealous, so they condemn us"
"No one force them or point a gun on their head to make them join"
I am sure you have heard much more, maybe help to contribute ?
23) "All are Pyramids" trick
24) "Confusing" Plan trick
25) "Company Background" trick - They are big in China or U.S. - What has that got to do with the products?
26) "Treat You" trick - Let's come out for yum cha and there is a free makan !! Greedy people will get this one.
27) "Gadgets-Testing" trick
28) "High Repeat Sales" trick
29) "Impressive" trick - Normally on their office or website
30) "Figures" trick
Thursday, January 14, 2010
How rich you are?
Usually normal people like me complaint once in a while that money not enough. But since you are looking at your laptop/computer, you should be once of the richest people in this world! Check out this web!
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
p/s: if you don't find your currency, try to covert your currency to US$ or the listed currency in the globalrichlist website. http://www.xe.com/ucc
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Forex trading leh......
People beware Forex scam.
Bank Negara Malaysia issued a statement regarding Forex trading in Malaysia:
http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=8&pg=14&ac=1976
The article:
Ref No: 01/10/01
Embargo: For immediate release
Beware of Illegal Foreign Currency Trading Schemes
Bank Negara Malaysia would like to caution members of the public not to participate in any illegal investment or training programme on foreign currency trading offered by individuals or companies both domestic and foreign.
Members of the public are usually enticed to attend such investment or training programmes with promises of quick and good returns. The modus operandi of such programmes have included:
- Offering free training, seminars or workshops to lure investors, prior to inviting investors to set-up an online foreign currency trading account with a principal company (purported to have valid licence to trade foreign currency overseas);
- Providing convenient access to the principal company's website and trading facilities to facilitate online foreign currency trading by investors;
- Recruitment of fresh graduates as marketing executives and encouraging them to get their family and friends to trade foreign currency; and
- Requiring investors to deposit an amount of money into a bank account to begin trading foreign currency, and subsequently, requesting for a top up on their initial investment ("margin call") to avoid losing their capital.
Under the Exchange Control Act 1953 (ECA), it is an offence for a person in Malaysia to buy or sell foreign currency or do any act which involves, is in association with, or is preparatory to, buying or selling of foreign currency with any person, other than an authorised dealer. It is also an offence for a person to aid or abet another person to buy or sell foreign currency with any person, unless the person is an authorised dealer.
The list of authorised dealers and financial institutions permitted by the Controller of Foreign Exchange to buy or sell foreign currency can be obtained from Bank Negara Malaysia's website (http://www.bnm.gov.my).
For further enquiries, members of the public can contact Bank Negara Malaysia at:
BNMTELELINK (Customer Service Call Centre)
1-300-88-5465 or
E-mail: bnmtelelink@bnm.gov.my
Bank Negara Malaysia
4 January 2010
The list of authorised dealers in Malaysia:
http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=17&pg=697&ac=606
- Affin Bank Berhad
- Affin Investment Bank Berhad
- Affin Islamic Bank Berhad
- Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation (Malaysia) Berhad
- Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
- Alliance Investment Bank Berhad
- Alliance Islamic Bank Berhad
- AmBank (M) Berhad
- AmInvestment Bank Berhad
- AmIslamic Bank Berhad
- Asian Finance Bank Berhad
- Bangkok Bank Berhad
- Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad
- Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad
- Bank of America Malaysia Berhad
- Bank of China (Malaysia) Berhad
- Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Malaysia) Berhad
- CIMB Bank Berhad
- CIMB Investment Bank Berhad
- CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad
- Citibank Berhad
- Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad
- ECM Libra Investment Bank
- EON Bank Berhad
- EONCAP Islamic Bank Berhad
- Hong Leong Bank Berhad
- Hong Leong Investment Bank Berhad
- Hong Leong Islamic Bank Berhad
- HSBC Amanah Malaysia Berhad
- HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad
- Hwang-DBS Investment Bank Berhad
- J.P. Morgan Chase Bank Berhad
- KAF Investment Bank Berhad
- Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad
- Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Berhad
- Malayan Banking Berhad
- Maybank Investment Bank Berhad
- Maybank Islamic Berhad
- MIMB Investment Bank Berhad
- OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad
- OSK Investment Bank Berhad
- Public Bank Berhad
- Public Investment Bank Berhad
- Public Islamic Bank Berhad
- RHB Bank Berhad
- RHB Investment Bank Berhad
- RHB Islamic Bank Berhad
- Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad
- Standard Chartered Saadiq Berhad
- The Bank of Nova Scotia Berhad
- The Royal Bank of Scotland Berhad
- United Overseas Bank (Malaysia)
So the Forex you doing right now might be skim cepat kaya for the people that setting it up, beware, hehehehehehe.
I just chui sui only la.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Haha, I just like this post about facebook!
I read his blog a lot, mostly for the financial knowledge, but I just couldn't agree enough about this post! Enjoy!
http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2009/12/facebook-makes-me-mad-sometimes.html
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Lorong Selamat Ba Hu
I cannot tahan la, have to share with you all
I think the original file is just a mp3 or wma, but to trick this blogger, I have to make it as a video file so that I can upload this, hehehe.
All the American rapper is go back tidur liao la, we got this super rapper from Penang!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Forwarded email: WHAT TO DO WHEN INSECT GOES INTO EAR
Very useful tips for parents and grandparents, baby sitters, aunties and uncles:
FYI. especially those who have young children, sharing this knowledge.
A Family wrote about the incident of their child. Early this morning at about 4am, my eldest daughter was complaining and cry-saying that she felt pain in her ear.
I tried to calm her down and persuaded her to let me have a look at it but she refused and showed us her stubbornness and tormented her anger at us.
I can see why, as I saw pain in her little eyes. It was a scary incident for us as we're worried and got no clue of what is the cause of it and what to do. So I decided to call my sister-in-law whom is a doctor for advice.
She told me to pour baby oil into my daughter's ear. After a while of persuasion, I finally manage to calm her down and pour baby oil into her ear. She then manage to go back to her sleep.
Next morning, she woke up without complain and went to her usual Sunday Class. I thought everything was ok. But,when she came back from school, she complained to me that she found difficulty in hearing clearly.
I quickly took her to ENT Specialist. In my heart was asking questions on whether is it due to the oil that I poured last night and hence, it affected her drum? The thought of it scares me.
When it's our turn to see the doctor, I explained to the doctor on last night incident. The doctor then inserted a small wire, which is also known to be a tiny camera into my daughter's ear.
I was amazed when he showed me on the TV screen, the leg of an insect and told me that was the cause of the pain and hearing problem. He then inserted another kind of wire to suck the insect out. He told me that luckily I poured baby oil into my daughter's ear quick enough, otherwise the "alive insect" could go deeper and it can damage her ear.
He told us what we did was a right thing to do as baby oils or cooking oils will kill the insect. However, after doing so, we must quickly visit the nearest doctor, to take it out.
Do not wait any longer. I was relieved and thankful that nothing happens to my daughter, even though we took our time to see the doctor, after putting the baby oil in her ear.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
skim-cepat-kaya for the boss
Another prank call today. This round is to ask to buy a discount card, called 'citytrendz' or 'citytrans' something like that.
They didn't ask to buy at first, what that fella said is 'we are giving away' discount card for active mastercard/visa card members only, and it is for whole life, and you will get discount for booking hotel and free waive admin fee when booking air flight such as AirAsia and MAS (wait a minute, admin fee is waived already, how am I going to waive again?) haha, then I ask how much? the fella said only RM250. OIC, then I just bluff that I don't even have the money to buy Milo, and reject him. :P
Another skim cepat kaya"(get-rich-scheme), but not for you all or the caller, but for the boss of this scheme.
I just chui sui only, why you care? :P
Thursday, July 23, 2009
skim cepat kaya again?
today suddenly got someone become a fan at my plurk, then checking the fella, got some posting on plurk, being curious, I went to see it, looks like another skim cepat kaya? please comment:
http://changelife120.blogspot.com/