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It's the month of April again, and it's time for us to file our personal income tax. Usually, people would wait until the last minute to do perform their once-in-a-year task (I myself is one of them). To encourage taxpayer to do e-filling earlier, Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB) said that those early birds can get their tax return money in 3 days. I don't know whether this is can be true, but I would like to give a try this year. For you, readers, Finance Malaysia will write more about topics related to Personal Income Tax this month. Welcome to the " Month of Tax ", and we hope that the info posted here could help you to file your income tax confidently, error-free, and wiser. Generally, any amount paid by the employer to the employee in relation to having or exercising an employment will be taxed. This refers to employment income such as salary, bonus, gratuity, commission, allowance, director fees and many other forms of remunerations. In contrast, the p...

After being hit by a few Black Swan events, markets rebounded in March with the KLCI ending 1Q in the black. Moving into 2Q, we still see some short term volatility but are confident of an eventual rally to close in on our year-end KLCI target of 1680 points. We advise investors BUY Big Caps on potential rebounds while focusing on the more defensive Small Caps given their superior performance over the past few months. The favorite sectors remain Banks, O&G, Property and Construction in the mid-to-short term while the longer term buys are Media and Healthcare. This strategy is reflected in our April top buys as well. Timber the BIG winner... For March, timber stocks were actually the big winners, including names such as Suber Tiasa, Jaya Tiasa, TaAnn, WTK and Lingui, on hopes for better timber demand in view of reconstruction efforts in Japan. Nonetheless, these counters are not part of the FBM100. Instead, among the FBM100 constituents, media player Media Chinese and Petronas compa...

Tomorrow's event--securitization. If you've ever wondered what it was exactly, do come check us out. And if you already know everything about securitization, still come check us out. Our speaker is Fouad Onbargi, a portfolio manager at Aladdin Capital. It's going to be great, so see you there!

Indeed, there is a insightful write-up by RHB Research today on the US housing market. People are still very curious about the US housing market, but yet to have the courage to BUY . Herd mentality? And, why US housing market is catching the attention of the world? Oh, thanks to Rich Dad Poor Dad , and the world famous property tycoon, Donald Trump . In fact, I am wondering how did Donald fares these few years? That's why Donald had teamed up with Robert Kiyosaki to publish a book last year? People stop buying property because they're buying books nowadays? A Double-Dip in the US Housing Market? ... by RHB Research (30 March 2011) US home prices, as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas, declined by 0.2% mom in January vs -0.4% in December, and dipped for the 7th straight month to the lowest since April 2009. Year-on-year, home prices in 20 major cities fell by a larger magnitude of 3.1% in January, the 4th consecutive month of decline ...

Those who see no inflation in our future usually rest their argument on slow wage growth. The argument is that if wage rates don't increase, then there is nothing to pass on in the form of higher prices. Would that it were so? The real issue is not whether wages are rising. The real issue is whether or not labor costs are rising. Wages are only one component of the cost of labor to business and wages represent a declining portion of that cost. Ask Walmart. As Walmart faces a potential multi-billion lawsuit, companies around the US brace themselves for massive copy-cat employee lawsuits. All large companies now have to factor in dramatically higher potential liability costs associated with the Walmart lawsuit. Don't believe that companies aren't watching the developments in the Walmart case -- they are. As for Walmart, you can be sure that they will make every effort, over time, to pass their litigation costs on to their labor force. But, in the short run, the cost of...

It's been awhile since the government announcing its intention to divest its shareholding in Pos Malaysia last year. Through Khazanah Holdings, the government owned 32% stake in Pos. Let's re-look at the news with updated info, and hopefully we can have a better prediction on Pos in the near term. While waiting for a new strategic partner, Pos has declared a one-off final and special dividend of 17.5sen , which provides a dividend yield of 5.7%. However, OSK is maintaining its fair value for Pos at RM4.12 with a BUY call. It closed at RM3.32 yesterday. On 29th March 2011, Business Times reported unconfirmed sources said that Khazanah had just shortlisted 3 out of 5 parties bidding for its 32% stake in Pos. Who are they? The 2 candidates that already failed are: Scomi Bhd Tricubes Bhd The 3 still-in-run candidates are: Nationwide MPC-Amanah REIT DRB-Hicom The shortlisted parties will make a final presentation today to Khazanah and McKinsey & Co, who is the adviser. Pos...

While Bernanke continues to look in the rear view mirror hoping to spot some deflation, the facts on the ground and the road ahead are clearly all about rising inflation. The February CPI numbers released today, an annual rate of five percent should give Bernanke and his QE2 activity a reason to reflect. It is true that in a world of no food and no energy the numbers look better, but who lives in that world? What are the implication of rising inflation? Trouble in bond land. This means investor losses on bonds and headwinds for stocks. Unanticipated inflation is always bad news for stocks. Inflation reduces the value of the national debt, but inflation increases the deficit, offsetting the former effect. One big plus: the housing market will benefit from increasing inflation, mostly because homeowners are big debtors and have fantastic tax advantages compared to the owners of any other asset (even better than owning oil wells!). Those who buy homes now and over the next year or ...