KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) expects half of the three million individual taxpayers to file their income taxes online this year.

This is because the e-Filing system had been made more user-friendly. It now takes only four steps for users to activate their digital certificate compared with 10 last year.

IRB chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah said 874,814 taxpayers used the e-Filing system last year, an increase of 369.5% compared with 2006.

“I hope to get 80% of the taxpayers to use this facility in the near future. Last year, it was about 28%, and I think we can hit 50% this year,” she said.

“That would be about 1.5 million individual taxpayers. We have about 4.5 million individual and corporate taxpayers in total.”

Hasmah added that IRB and e-Filing service provider Digicert had improved the system after receiving feedback from users last year.

“Taxpayers using e-Filing faced difficulties downloading the digital certificate onto their computers. So we have simplified the system using Roaming Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which is an online centralised digital signature to identify the identity of taxpayers.

“With this new method, taxpayers no longer need to download digital certificates,” she said.

She added that the board had also introduced an e-Filing system for tax agents so that they can file forms on behalf of their clients.

Hasmah was speaking to reporters after handing over copies of an e-Filing video guide to media representatives here.

She said the video would be available at IRB counters and government agencies as well as on the IRB website at www.hasil. org.my.

She also encouraged the private sector to obtain copies of the video to guide their employees on filing their taxes online.