Posts

Showing posts with the label private retirement schemes

How to get your PRS Tax Relief statement from PPA ? (April 2013)

Image
In conjunction with the NEW tax relief available from YA2012, many Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) contributors are wondering how can they get the tax statement for income tax filling. To address your concern, here you go... (If you don't know what are we talking about, please find out " What is Private Retirement Scheme? ") To recap, contributions into a PRS scheme can enjoy a tax relief of up to RM3,000 from YA2012 - YA2021. If you did contribute some money into a PRS scheme in 2012, congratulations, you're entitled for PRS tax relief for YA2012. If you haven't, no worry, you still got time to start contributing before end of this year. Back to the topic, please follow these few easy steps to get it: Please surf www.ppa.my and click log in. I believe you already get your PIN from PPA when you made your first contribution. If not, please contact PPA and request again. After log in, you will arrive at the following page. Supposedly, you can download the tax reli...

3 Different Types of PRS Distributors

Image
Finance Malaysia believes that after a series of publicity and roadshow by various parties, especially PPA and PRS providers, you should know what is Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) is all about. Since then, we received many inquiries on whom should potential contributor consult with and why? It brings us to this topic, and hopefully by understanding the different types of PRS distributors, investors could make their decision confidently. There is no right or wrong. It's down to your own preferences and of course, the trust level you have on a PRS consultant. So, who are they? PRS consultant This is the most common practice in town, whereby a PRS consultant representing one PRS provider. So, in this case, he/she can only distribute PRS from one company. Institutional PRS adviser Basically, they are bankers whom also licensed to distribute PRS schemes made available by respective banks. Bankers may distribute schemes from more than one PRS providers. Corporate PRS adviser Currently,...

Is it SAFE to Invest in Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) ?

Image
This is one of the common question asked by potential PRS contributors. First, I want to emphasis that PRS is a long-term investment for the purpose of retirement planning . In investment case, long-term means you already using the most powerful method to reap a good return. Anyway, many contributors still want to treat PRS as some kind of short-term investment. I got the answer for you. Basically, PRS is very similar to unit trust investment. The underlying structure and investment philosophy were the same actually. No wonder many people perceived PRS is another unit trust scheme. Yes, you're correct to a certain extent. Under the guidelines, each PRS providers must at least launched their core funds for investors to select, namely Growth , Moderate and Conservative . To make things simple, we only discussed these core funds because I believe most of us only invest in core funds.  From these core funds, growth fund is the most aggressive one. In other words, the most risky one, w...

What are the TAX benefits from Private Retirement Scheme (PRS)?

Image
According to Securities Commission of Malaysia, tax incentives are provided to both employers and individuals for the first 10 years from assessment year 2012 ; in addition to the tax deduction permitted for EPF contributions: Amount of Tax Savings by individuals for PRS contributions For Individual: Tax relief of up to RM3,000 per year will be given for contributions made within that year. This is on top of existing tax relief already enjoyed by taxpayers. How much can you save from tax? Let's look at the table above which illustrates the amount of tax saving an individual get after personal tax relief and RM6,000 EPF + Life Insurance tax relief. Assuming maximum RM3,000 PRS relief, the amount of tax saving depends on your level of income. For high tax bracket individual, you can save up to RM780 annually!!! For Employer: Tax deduction on contributions to PRS made on behalf of their employees above the statutory rate of up to 19% of employees' remuneration was granted. Exam...

How Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) works actually?

Image
Many people are still in the dark on how actually Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) works. In order to clear  everyone's  mind, we hope this post was timely for those who may want to entitle for extra tax relief of up to RM 3,000 given by PRS before 31st December 2012. To further explain the whole scheme, Finance Malaysia Blog was glad that Alex Yeoh, a licensed financial planner is able to share with us on this matter. By Alex Yeoh, First we must know that PRS is a voluntary scheme for the purpose of retirement saving.  For ease of understanding, let us look at the picture above which explain the process into two parts. Initially, contributions were made by us into the PRS fund that we select. It was as flexible as  normal unit trust investments (shown in upper part). Contribute anytime any amount  as you like ,  without any specific intervals. As simple as that. When can I withdraw the money? Each time, your contributions were split and maintained in sub-...

Do you understand the PRS Framework and its Lingo?

Image
Before jumping into the bandwagon of private retirement schemes (PRS), we should understand the PRS framework first. What is the structure behind the scene? Does our invested money in safe hands? Who are the regulators? These were the few typical questions we should find out. No worries, all of these will be answered here... (yeah, give us a "Like" ) Manufacturer? PRS are offered by approved PRS Providers . Each PRS will include a range of retirement funds from which individuals may choose to invest in, based on their own retirement needs, goals and risk appetite. Book-keeper? The PPA functions as a record keeping and resource centre for data on all transactions performed by contributors. It will facilitate transactions and promote efficient administration. The PPA will also act as a resource centre for data and research relating to the PRS industry in Malaysia. Safe-keeper? The assets of each PRS will be segregated from the PRS provider and held by an independent Scheme Tru...

What is Private Retirement Schemes (PRS) ?

Image
Are you ready for your retirement life? If not, what and how are you going to do before it is too late? These are a few critical questions Malaysians should ask ourselves without further procrastination.  With increasing life expectancy and rising living standards, many Malaysians find that their savings are inadequate to meet their retirement needs. Private Retirement Schemes (PRS) form an integral feature of the private pension industry with he objective of improving living standards for Malaysians at retirement through additional savings of funds.  As long-term investment vehicles, PRS are designed to help enhance adequacy and expand coverage of retirement benefits to all segments of the population. It complements Malaysia's mandatory retirement savings scheme - EPF. Voluntary? Yes. It's totally up to YOU to contribute voluntary anytime. Who can participate? Anyone, be it individuals (retail investors, self-employed and employees) or employers. Offering private pensio...