Greater Understanding and Effortless Tax Filling Guidance for Influencers Thanks to Sushivid and LHDN

Greater understanding and effortless tax filling guidance for influencers thanks to sushivid and LHDN. Being an influencer and trying to perform your responsibility as a taxpayer but doesn't know where to start? Here's what you should know.

This collaboration was aimed to create industry transparency and legitimise engagement of influencer marketing. As one of the influencers there and in my own perspective, I found this to be very informative.

A few days ago, Sushivid Sdn Bhd, ASEAN's leading influencer marketing company and Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri Malaysia (LHDNM) have rolled out an educational complimentary workshop that sets to provide insightful tips and guidance to influencers to further understand their responsibilities and rights as Malaysian citizens on tax declaration and tax benefits. The event took place at Menara Hasil in Damansara Perdana and was officiated by En. Hishamuddin Mohamed, Director of Corporate Services, LHDNM and Ms. Foong Yuh Wen, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sushivid.

Influencer marketing is on the rise in recent years when more and more social media platforms and features are introduced to the market. Brands are becoming more willing to allocate a good amount of budget to engage influencers to help market their products and services via social media channels. According to Malaysian Digital Associations (MDA), influencer marketing has now become one of the key channels in the marketing mix.

According to LHDN, the current income tax indicates that an individual earning more than RM34, 000 per annum (roughly RM2, 8333.33 per month) after EPF deductions has to register a tax file. Hence, if an influencer earned more than RM3, 000 a month from sponsored content, paid reviews or any form of online businesses via social media may be subjected to income tax.

Ms. Foong Yuh Wen, Founder And Chief Executive Officer of Sushivid said, "Influencer marketing is a type of shared economy model just like Grab and Airbnb where influencers provide their professional service such as creative video productions, blogs, social media postings, and more through their platforms based on brands' requirements. Although this model is progressing well in the industry, it is still considered fairly new to the Government to fully understand our form of business."

"Hence, we are happy and honoured to work with LHDN today in providing a platform to our fellow influencers to understand their responsibilities and their civil rights when it comes to taxations. This is also a good opportunity for LHDN to understand in more details about influencer marketing, in order to plan ahead for future developments,".

During the workshop, a step-by-step guidance of tax declaration and filing process was presented by En. Hishamudin Mohamed, Director of Corporate Services LHDN at the event. He properly explained all the steps to declare source of income and tips starting from filing up the Income Tax Return Form, the deadlines to submit the form, as well as the guidelines to review and calculate the monthly tax deduction for each individual. It means that we can do it by ourselves without having to go to the LHDN. Other than tax declaration and tax deduction, influencers can also claim the expenses such as for mileage, equipment, travel and also rentals because they are qualified for tax relief up to a certain amount based on their used. This would mean that by declaring your tax you'll be able to claim all the expenses that you've had for the jobs you've done.

If you're wondering how, let me share with you some steps that I learned the other day. If you're a first time user then this is for you. Before that make sure to get your pin number by visiting the nearest LHDN Branches, UTC or Revenue Service Centre.

Here are the steps guide for first time login. I've also include a few pictures just in case you're unsure of it and hoping it'll help.

1. Click e-Filing
2. First time login
3. Key in Pin number & Mykad number
4. Create password & security phrase
5. Choose correct form
6. Fill in & complete the form
7. Verify information
8. Sign & submit
9. Print acknowledge receipt

The event has seen more than 70 attended influencers. The workshop ended with a Q&A session to address the doubt influencers have on tax declaration and tax filing. LHDN has also invited a handful of auditors to be on standby to guide the influencers on tax filing processes particularly for digital businesses and shared economy platforms right after the event. So, they can proceed to learn more about the filing processes. But fret not, not all are entitled to do so. If you're eligible then you can proceed and declare the tax but if not you don't need to. 

Summaries

So basically the objective of the workshop by Sushivid in collaboration with LHDN was to educate influencers their responsibility as a taxpayer, to create industry transparency and to legitimise the engagement of influencer marketing in Malaysia. During the workshop, influencers can also get their job and payment details from the appointed agency such as job scopes, and invoice statements. If they got hired by Sushivid, Sushivid will need to provide all the necessary details to the influencers to file their taxes. 

You can visit their website, Instagram and Facebook to learn more about Sushivid. You can also read about the event here.