THE deadline is just days away but thousands of Penangites have yet to submit their tax returns for various reasons.

Full-time tutor, Ooi Tse Seng, 33, said he had been too busy with work.

“With my students’ exams around the corner, I’ve been busy setting mock exam papers and giving them extra classes.

Ooi: I've been busy with my work.

“I have been manually filling out forms and calculating my taxes for many years and it only takes a few hours to complete. But I might go online this weekend because I hear e-Filing is quicker and user-friendly,” he said.

Production supervisor Khairil Harith, 37, is not worried about missing the deadline as he said it could be completed instantaneously via e-Filing.

“I have all my documents ready and will submit my tax returns online from home this weekend. I don’t see any need to rush because it will be immediately processed online.

Khairil: I have my documents ready and will submit returns online this weekend.

“The best time is after midnight because the Internet will not lag so much due to lesser traffic online,” he said.

Technician M. Sashikumar, 25, and his colleague, engineer James Muru, 33, submitted their returns two weeks ago to avoid the last- minute crowd at the IRB branch in Penang.

Sashikumar: We were done in 20 minutes.

“E-Filing may be the easiest and quickest way to file one’s returns but we did it earlier because we don’t want to wait long to use the computer and get assistance from the officers,” said James.

James: I submitted my returns two weeks ago.

“We went to the IRB branch in Penang at 9am on a Monday morning and were done within 20 minutes,” said Sashikumar.

Proud to have submitted his tax returns earlier than he did last year, production supervisor Hashim Mohd Tahir, 38, said:

“Last year, I submitted my tax returns via e-Filing at the Inland Revenue branch on the last day which was on April 30.

“This year, I did it online a few weeks ago from home,” he said proudly.

The deadline for non-business submissions is April 30 while that for business taxpayers is June 30.

The IRB Penang branch is currently open from 8am to 5pm on weekdays and 10am to 5pm on weekends.

Hashim: Last year, I submitted my returns on the last day.