.: How I Got My Money Back :.

I have been faithfully submitting my Income Tax Returns ever since I started working in 2006 [although it sounds like it, I am not THAT old *in self denial mode*].

And for the past 3 years of assessment, i.e. 2007, 2008 & the recent 2009, I am suppose to get an income tax refund of quite a substantial amount. May not be substantial to some, but to me, every single penny counts! So one day I decided, enough is enough, and that I need to claim back from the government what is rightfully mine. And so I started to draft an official letter to the IRB (short for Inland Revenue Board). And since it was an official letter - it had to be in Bahasa Melayu. I must say that tho I am not that fluent in the language, but I believe that my command in this language is slightly better that the average Chinese *cough* (I know, self praise is no praise), so my initial thought was - how hard can it be to draft a few sentence right? It wasn't as if I was about to write a love letter with all the pantun and prosa and peribahasa and all that jazz.

But was I way, way, way wrong! I manage to tupe my details including my name, address, telephone contact number, email (which is emel in Bahasa - I didn't realise that till at the very last moment when I was visiting the IRB's website), income tax number and date. Ah, I was even at one point in time proud that I manage to spell Julai (July in English) correctly! :)

And this is when to torture begins. The opening words. I type "Dengan dukacitanya…." (which means "with regrets") coz I remember my BM teacher used to teach me that the opening words for a formal letter should be either sukacita or dukacita, and in this case I think dukacita is the most appropriate - I haven't receive my money for 3 years! Of coz it's WITH REGRETS!

And then I started to compose the letter, the sentences came out was in English, and then in my head I tried to literally translate word by word. And then I realise that the structure doesn't sound right. And was tweeking here and there - and you know the Malay proverb 'tikus membaiki labu'? Well, I was the mouse in this case, and the pumpkin was this supposedly short and simple letter. It was a MESS!



I gave up, nearly wanted to go back and dig out my Mr Goey notes (infamous BM tuition teacher at that time, not so sure bout now) - but in the end, I manage to compose something legible. Or so I hope. But since the newspaper didn't report that there's someone for the IRB that choked on a goreng pisang after reading an email from some taxpayer, I guess it's not THAT bad! :)

So then, surprisingly I got a reply the very next day. It's not that I am being prejudice , fine, I was being a lil bit prejudice over the efficiency of our government service department, so I was kinda skeptical of the letter replied, which said that my case has been checked and forwarded to the relevant department to process my payment.

And after not getting any emails subsequent to that, I thought "yeah, typical government departments".

Little did I know that they have sent me a snail mail, informing me that my cheque is being processed, and about 3 days letter - I receive the cheque itself!

And yes, tho I know that this was cheque was due to me aeons ago (as JC has clearly pointed out to me), I really would like to thank Cik Haszriani and Encik Mohd Fadhil Ibrahim for their time and consideration on this matter!

I guess sometimes we just have to stop complaining about the inefficiencies and look at the efficiencies and give compliments where it is rightfully due!