Abstract:

Generally, the Malaysian Government implemented Digital Service Tax (DST) in January 2020. The service tax will be levied on foreign service providers (FSPs) who provide digital services to Malaysian consumers under the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Scheme. The FSPs may request a refund from the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) based on the actual amount of service tax paid. Following that, the Service Tax (Amendment) Bill 2019, which outlines the framework for Malaysian legislation, was introduced. This paper explores public awareness towards DST implementation in Malaysia and highlights the factors that influence public awareness of the DST performance in Malaysia. The 384 respondents were randomly selected from the public residing in Peninsular Malaysia. The data were collected via a self-administrated questionnaire, analysed using SPSS version 23.0 with the help of ANOVA and multiple regression method. The results of the research show that the relationship between the factors (self-attitude, economic factor, and spending pattern) was positively significant with the awareness of the implementation of DST in Malaysia. The economic factor and spending pattern were found to have a positive influenced public awareness on the implementation of DST. The study suggest that the tax authorities are encouraged to provide more information about DST to both Foreign Service Providers (FSPs) and consumers. Eventually this effort will broaden the group of knowledge of interest, both researchers and academicians, in an attempt to discover or investigate the level of public awareness regarding the implementation of DST in Malaysia.