National Mourning Ceremony In China

21st April 2010 is a special day for China. China held national mourning ceremony for more than 2 000 people died in last week’s earthquake.

Thousands of soldiers, civilians and officials in Xining and the provincial capital of Qinghai attended this ceremony.

Chinese national flags in Beijing, Qinghai and other areas were flown at hall-staff and the China government ordered cancellation of all the public entertainment on 21st April 2010.

All the media in China were concerned this mourning ceremony. Newspapers and websites reversed their front pages to white text on a black background as a traditional mark of mourning.

This is a serious earthquake happened in China after Sichuan earthquake. Now, China and its civilians are facing a challenge again. The only thing that I can do is pray for them include those are still alive and hope that they able to confront the challenges in the future. This is because we have to believe that tomorrow is always better than today, so that they have the courage to face those challenges.

This is a new from this website:

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1549703.php/China-mourns-victims-of-Yushu-earthquake

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Types Of Personal Relief

Today, the tutorial class learnt about how to compute chargeable income. This is the formulation for Chargeable Income:

Chargeable Income = Total Income – Personal Relief

Types of Personal Relief are:

1. Further self relief = a further relief of RM 6 000 if the taxpayer is a disable person

2. Wife or Husband = a further relief of RM 3 500 if the wife or husband is a disable person

3. Medical expenses for parents can up to maximum RM 5 000

4. Medical expenses for taxpayer, spouse or children on serious diseases can up to maximum RM 5 000

5. Expenses on supporting unmarried children:

i. Below 18 years old = a further relief of RM 1 000 per child

ii. Disable child = a further relief of RM 5 000 per child

iii. Over 18 years old (pursuing tertiary education at university or college) = RM 4 000 per child

For further types of personal relief query, we can refer to

http://www.hasil.gov.my/lhdnv3/individuIndex.jsp?process=21000&menu=34&expandable=1&pg_title=Potongan%20Cukai

Prepared by,

Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Nature Disasters

Today, I heard some news about the nature disaster which China Earthquake and Iceland Volcano. Since these few days I do not read any newspapers, I do not actually what happened in those countries.

When I look at the online newspapers, most of the flights to Europe are cancelled because of the Volcano in Iceland. I do not know how serious of the disasters in Iceland and I also unable to imaging it. But, I believe that this disaster seriously had destroyed the Europe economic. There are almost 6000 flights were cancelled to Iceland. This is also the title of most of the newspapers.

After read through the news, there is only 1 conclusion that I can make which is "Luckily I Stay In Malaysia".

Malaysia does not affected by this nature disaster. Therefore, I still can enjoy my life for this moment. I can enjoy a movie in cinema, enjoy my delicious dinner with my family and enjoy anything that I have now. This is a dream that for those are suffer in the nature disasters, yet I have this happiness easily.

We unable to avoid the nature disasters but what we can do is we have to protect the environment. I do not know that what we do will avoid the nature disasters. But, most important responsibility for us is we have to try our best to protect the environment and rescue our Earth.

This is some links about the Iceland:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/14/iceland-volcano-evacuation.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_iceland_volcano

This is some links about the Earthquake in China:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/15/nation/6061194&sec=nation

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Income Tax

All Malaysian are liable to pay tax on income accrued in, derived from or remitted to Malaysia. Sources of income can be taxed includes gains and profits from trade, profession and business, salaries, remunerations, gains and profits from an employment, dividends, interests or discounts, rents, royalties or premiums, pensions, annuities or other periodic payments and other gains or profits of an income nature not mentioned above.

Taxable income is arrived at after adjusting for expenses incurred wholly and exclusively in the production of the income.

The rate of tax depends on the resident status of the individual which is determined by the duration of his stay in the country (as stipulated under Section 7 in the Income Tax Act 1967). A resident individual is taxed on his chargeable income at graduated rates from 2% to 30% after the deduction of tax relief.

However, an individual with chargeable income of less than RM2,500 is not taxed. The chargeable income of an individual resident is arrived at by deducting from his or her total income the personal relief. Tax liability of a resident individual is reduced by rebates. Income tax matters in Malaysia are under the jurisdiction of Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia.

Income tax is supposed to be those poor who earn less will get taxed less. The rich who earn more will get higher taxed. Luckily, the law has states that the individual with chargeable income of less than RM 2,500 is not taxed. Therefore, income tax does not be a burden for those individuals.

In my life, I never paid any taxes. Therefore, I unable to experience how the income tax affect my life and how the feeling when I have to pay a tax. Due to those reasons, I do not have much knowledge about the income tax and only can know it during the business law class. This is an opportunity for me to explore extra information about the income tax to enhance my understanding about the income law. 1 thing that i know about income tax is most of the people dislike to pay the income tax because the procedures to report the income tax is messy.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Can Plaintiff Get Back The Premium?

Today, the business law class was talk about the insurance law.

The insurance contract is a contract that whereby one person, called the insurer, agrees to indemnify another person, called the insured, against a loss which may arise upon the occurrence of the particular event.

Premium is the consideration paid by the insured either in the form of a lump sum or periodical amount.

Doctrine of utmost good faith is 1 of the important component that covered in the insurance law. Doctrine of utmost good faith represents that each party to a proposed contract is under a duty to disclose to the other all information which would influence his decision to enter into the contract , whether such information is requested or not. Failure to disclose material information gives the other party the right to avoid the contract.

One of the cases I learnt in the class is Goh Chooi Leng v. Public Life Co. Ltd (1964). This case happened when a life insurance contract was made with the defendant company. The plaintiff made a false statement in the insurance policy. In the previous occasion the plaintiff was treated for pulmonary tuberculosis. But he did not disclose this information in the policy. So, the insurance company denied paying the insurance money. Finally, the court judged that the contract is voidable for non-disclosure of material information.

I have a doubt for this case. Since the court judged the contract is voidable and the defendant does not need to compensate the plaintiff then how about the premium?

The plaintiff was paid the premium to get compensation for loss but now he cannot get any compensation from the defendant. I will think that the plaintiff should also get back the premium because it is unfair to plaintiff due to he paid the premium but he cannot get anything finally. Although plaintiff has the responsible to disclose the information but maybe he does not realize those information are important and he must reported to the defendant. I believe that there are not all people that realize what information are important or vice versa.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

MD gets rotan and 6 years

Today, I read a new from Star Online with a title “MD gets rotan and 6 years”.

Following is the news: "MD gets rotan and six years"

KUALA LUMPUR: A logging company managing director was sentenced to six years’ jail and ordered to be given three strokes of the rotan after he was convicted of cheating and money laundering.

Ibrahim Salleh of Jalinkom Sdn Bhd was charged with using some of the ill-gotten money to finance a trip to Sabah, as downpayment for a BMW, to buy insurance, pay telephone bills and also house rent.

He used fake documents, including a commercial invoice to cheat Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd through Maybank Bhd, for delivery of timber and gained US$1.2mil (RM3.8mil) from the fraud.

The offence was committed on April 25, 2005 at about 10.30am at Menara Maybank here.

Ibrahim was sentenced to three years’ jail and three strokes of the rotan for defrauding the bank.

He was also sentenced to three years’ jail on each of 50 counts of money laundering, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Ibrahim was charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code with 50 other charges of laundering amounting to RM3.6mil under Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

Judge Rozana Ali Yusoff said Ibrahim had failed to raise a reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case where 37 witnesses were called to testify.

She ordered the sentences for cheating and money laundering to run consecutively.

In mitigation, defence counsel Hermes Media Putra Ibrahim said his 46-year-old client was the sole breadwinner and currently undergoing treatment for a heart ailment.

The judge granted a stay of execution to allow the defence to file an appeal to the High Court.

Based on this case, the defence finally got the punishment on his guilty. Although we do not know the reasons that the defence to make a crime but the law does not consider the reason or status of the defence to make a suitable judgement to the case. It is a good performance of the law to guarantee us and maintain the balance between the law and the society. At the same time, a reliable law able to enhance our confident to the law.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Caveat Emptor

Today lecture class for business law was discussed about Sale of Goods. 1 of the vocabulary I learnt in the class is Caveat Emptor.

Caveat Emptor is a Latin word which can translate to English with the meaning of “Let the buyer beware”. Basically, Caveat Emptor can be defined as a property law of doctrine that controls the sale of real property after that date of closing.

The buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for the ordinary purposes under the doctrine of Caveat Emptor. The exception of Caveat Emptor is when the seller actively hided latent defects or others made material misrepresentations amounting to fraud.

The law requires the goods must be of “merchantable quality”. Unfortunately, this implied warranty can be difficult to implement and may not apply to all products. Therefore, buyers are still advised to be cautions when purchase a good.

Caveat Emptor also applies on the return policy. There is no legal requirement for the seller provides a refund or exchange. For some cases, the seller will provide a credit instead of refund.

Case of Laidlaw v. Organ is a decision written in 1817 by Chief Justice John Marshall. It is believed by scholars to have been the first U.S. Supreme Court case which under the rule of Caveat Emptor in U.S law.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)