e-Filling BE Tax form submission Year of Assessment 2017 (YA) - LHDN Malaysia

This is a quick note on selective information on submitting YA 2017 BE, for individual without business income, specifically on e-Filling BE.  This is not a complete guide.

Scroll down this article to find where these HK-2 worksheets (Helai Kerja) are.

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Note that I'm not a tax agent so this is only a general advice from an individual who files his taxes every year since he started working.

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- Calculating your income (Pendapatan)

Add up all your income for your EA 2017 form issued by your employer.

Usually, the amount in the JUMLAH at the end of section C can be used, however, be sure that if you have an amount in item 6. Pampasan kerana kehilangan pekerjaan, you should deduct the RM10,000 for your every year of service with the company.  This amount is the loss of employment (aka retrencement) compensation.

As an example, if you receive RM60,000 as the amount in item 6., and your year of service with the company is 4 years and 10 months, you deduct RM10,000 x 4 = RM40,000 from that JUMLAH total.

Fill up the final figure into the field name "Pendapatan berkanun penggajian" in the e-filling BE form.

EA Form 2017

- Exemption on "Lifestyle"This is new in YA 2017, "Gaya hidup-Perbelanjaan untuk diri sendiri, suami/isteri, anak".  And it allows up to RM2,500 exemption on spending on books, magazines, sports equipment, computers, smart phones, tablet computers, and home broadband subscriptions.

By introducing the above, individual exemption per category (e.g. books category, computer category, etc.) in previous YA was removed.

- Baby feeding equipment for mother

Pembelian peralatan penyusuan ibu untuk kegunaan diri sendiri anak berumur 2 tahun dan ke bawah

If you have spend money in feeding equipment for your own baby under 2 years old, you can put up to RM1,000 in this field

- Fees for kindergarden or pre-school for children 6 years and younger
Finally there's this "Yuran penghantaran anak 6 tahun dan ke bawah ke taman asuhan bagi kanak-kanak / tadika yang berdaftar" which I'm not entire sure if it's new for YA 2017.  But this means you can also get tax-exemption for up to RM1,000 that you have spent for your chid(children)


Lastly I list some links of guides that you can download from LHDN

- Form download (choose BM or English)

Download LHDN Forms (http://www.hasil.gov.my/bt_goindex.php?bt_jborang=1&bt_tahunbor=2017&bt_kump=2&bt_skum=3&bt_posi=1&Submit=Cari)

In case you are looking for those HK forms (e.g. HK-2, HK-6, ..) you can download the B/BE Guidebook 2015.  All the worksheets (Helai Kerja HK-2, HK-6, HK-xx) are in there.  Strangely there are no 2017 Guidebooks.

• Buku Panduan B 2015
• B 2015 Guidebook

• Buku Panduan BE 2015
• BE 2015 Guidebook

That's it for now.   Thanks for reading.

Windows 10 Anniversary upgrade experience on my Dell XPS 8900

Recently I have a Dell machine XPS8900 upgraded to Windows 10 Anniversary edition.  But it was not all smooth without some issues, of course.

In May 2016, I cloned its original Windows 10 disk onto an SSD drive.  I had the system booted up the first time from the SSD and it worked flawlessly for a couple of months.

The SSD is on SATA 0.  The original Windows 10 HDD remains as a 2nd hard disk, connected to SATA 1.  I have another 2 disks installed in the system and together, these 3 HDDs are configured into a RAID 5 array.  No formatting of the original Windows 10 HDD as I want to preserve all its content.

Then when Windows 10 Anniversary update came along for an update, the update failed.

After some hours of troubleshooting, the root cause was that I had 2 EFI System Partitions on the system, one on the SSd, and the other was on the original Windows 10 HDD.  This confused Windows 10 update but it wouldn't tell you straight that it didn't like it.

And so, Windows update failed and gave an error stating some SAFE_BOOT stuff.  Unfortunately I didn't capture a screenshot, otherwise it will be most useful.

Now, the solution is simple: change the other partition ID.

EFI System Partition has this unique GUID as its identifier.
c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b



I ran a program called diskpart.exe from the command prompt, as an administrator.  While in the program, SELECT the disk that represents my 2nd HDD (an RAID 5 array).  LIST its PARTITION. SELECT the EFI partition by referencing its number, and issue a command "uniqueID disk" to show its current identifier.

The identifier ID shown matched the above.

The same command can also be used to change its UNIQUE ID:
uniqueID disk ID=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec930

The only difference is the last character.  I changed it to a 0.

Exit DiskPart and retried the Windows 10 Update. It worked.

Happy New Year 2016

Yes, it's another year.  It's my first day of work.  This is the year to 'git gud' at what I have learned.  Also, it's time to steer clear of the vast ocean aimlessly.

It's now a new year, I want to learn something new in computer language.

What is it going to be?  At this time, I think it will be Swift, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5.  I knew C++, a little of VB, and a lot of vbscript - which I picked up way back in 2000.  But I should have gone for JavaScript at that time.  Oh well, it was a choice for my work.

Now it is time to start again.  Refresh myself, refresh my purpose.

How to enable Instant Hotspot on an iPhone 5 or newer

Instant Hotspot is a new feature in iOS 8.1. It works by eliminating the need to manually enable Personal Hotspot on an iPhone 5.  Previously when we want to use an iPhone 5 to share its mobile Internet with other devices, we will need to enable it manually, and enter password to connect to it.  But now, that step is no longer needed for some iOS devices to connect to an iPhone 5.  For other non-iOS devices to connect to the iPhone 5 Personal Hotspot, the manual step will still need to be performed.

How to enable Instant Hotspot:

1. Log on to iCloud (in Settings -> iCloud) in your supported iOS devices with the same Apple ID as your iPhone 5's

2. If Bluetooth on the iPhone 5 has not been enabled, enable it in Settings -> Bluetooth

2. Also enable Bluetooth radio of your iOS devices

* You do NOT need to enable the setting in Settings -> Personal Hotspot on an iPhone 5

* Bluetooth radio is required for the devices to find each other in close proximity

How to connect to an Instant Hotspot:

1. On a supported iOS device, go to Settings -> Wi-Fi

2. Wait for the iPhone 5 to show up in the list under Personal Hotspots

3. Connect to it

Instant Hotspot works on a Mac too.  But you need some later models of the computer to use this feature.  Not all iOS devices are supported too.  For the full list of supported devices, visit http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5458

Keep in mind that the Mac must be running OS X Yosemite, while the iOS devices must be running iOS 8.1.

Unfortunately, my MacBook Air - a mid 2011 model - is not supported :(

Sony PlayStation TV will be launched in the US, Canada, and Europe this year.

During E3 2014 earlier, Sony said that the PlayStation TV will be launched in the US, Canada, and Europe this year.  I think he said Fall, and it will support the PlayStation Now game streaming service.  Now I'm not certain if this is the same as the PS VIta TV that was announced in Tokyo Game Show last year, and it has already been launched in many parts of Asia.

While the PS Vita TV is white in color, this PlayStation TV is in grayish, metallic color, although the dimension and shape look exactly like the PS Vita TV.  It will cost US$99 just for the unit, or a US$199 that includes a DualShock3 controller (DS4 would be better I think), an 8GB memory card, a download code for a Lego game, and an HDMI cable.

I have a PS Vita TV at home.  Honestly I find not so much use on it yet - all I can play on it is a Mahjong PSP game for now - with that 1GB internal memory.  While you can download the YouTube for PS Vita app, it refuses to run on a PS Vita TV.  The only app it runs is TuneIn Radio.

The right ASUS RT-N56U settings for AirPlay?

This article is on firmware version 3.0.0.4.360 and first published on 12/Jul/2013.

I have been having problem with Apple AirPlay feature especially with Apple TV when I have source devices connected to the 5 GHz band of the RT-N56U.

The problem is less severe on my MacBook Air than what I have experienced on an iPhone and an iPad.  What'd happened is that the source devices will not discover AirPlay destination devices on the network.  This means they cannot stream multimedia data to the AirPlay devices.

The fix I usually do is to disconnect these source devices from the 5 GHz band and connect them to the 2.4 GHz band, or reconnect to the same 5 GHz band.  The AirPlay devices then automatically show up.  The 2.4 GHz band is slightly more stable than the 5 GHz band, although both will disappear eventually (perhaps a night or 2 later).

I read somewhere that AirPlay devices are using the Multicast feature to broadcast their presence.  I'm not sure if this is causing incompatibility with the router but I'm just guessing that this ASUS 'advanced' router may be trying to save energy by disconnecting/disabling/filtering some network traffic.

Now I would like to fix it permanently.  What I have done is setting these in the Wireless - Professional page (firmware version 3.0.0.4.360):

• Enable wireless scheduler - No (default was "Yes") - I don't think this is causing the problem but just want to disable it regardless
• Enable IGMP Snooping - Enable (default was "Disable") - edit: 4/Oct/2013 - this seems to be the only setting that matters
• WMM DLS - Enable (default was "Disable") - edit 04/Oct/2013 - it seems that this setting is irrelevant

I have these set about 3 days ago.  So far it's been stable.  I hope this will last.

Update on 11-Aug-2013: I can see that my AirPlay devices are definitely staying visible more permanently.  I think perhaps in 1 occasion during past couple of weeks I upgraded the firmware on the RT-N56U, Apple TV disappeared on a 2.4 GHz band - My Apple TV is permanently on the 5 GHz band - I just apply the same settings mentioned above on the 2.4 GHz and restarted the router.  It's been working well since.

Update on 13-Nov-2018:  If you want to help me financially, even if it's just a little, I thank you!