Abstract:
The Malaysian government is continuously improving the economic status of its people, including the bumiputras. In accordance to the economic strategy, a professional entrepreneurship programme is proposed. Its objective is to enable the fresh accounting graduates to obtain licenses as tax agents. There are several reasons that lead to the notion of this programme. Firstly, universities which provide technical knowledge and skills are not legislated to issue such licenses. Without these licenses, the accounting graduates are prohibited to act as tax agents (S153(3) of the Income Tax Act 1967). Secondly, there would be an increased demand of tax agents in the future due to Malaysians' better economic status and increased influx of foreign companies into Malaysia. Thirdly, there has been an increasing trend on tax compliance due to extensive efforts of the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) in educating the public in relation to tax matters. However, as the public's level of tax knowledge varies, they may need tax agents' services in their tax management and planning. Lastly, the program aims to integrate academic qualification and entrepreneurship in order to encourage the graduates to use their academic qualifications in entrepreneurship. In order to materialize the programme, three proposals are made. Firstly, the current curriculum is revised to better prepare graduates to be entrepreneurs. Secondly, a networking is formed among universities, tax authority and a tax agent association for mentoring system. Finally, it is also proposed that an IT system is set up to enable online communication between the tax agents and their clients for a better competitive edge.
