International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

search-icon

Public Awareness on the Implementation of Digital Service Tax (DST) in Malaysia

Open access
Generally, the Malaysian government implemented the Digital Service Tax (DST) in January 2020. The service tax is 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 DST performance in Malaysia. The 384 respondents were randomly selected from the public residing in Peninsular Malaysia. The data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0 with the help of ANOVA and multiple regression methods. 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 influence on public awareness of the implementation of DST. The study suggests that the tax authorities be encouraged to provide more information about DST to both FSPs and consumers. Eventually, this effort will broaden the knowledge of interest among both researchers and academicians to discover or investigate the level of public awareness regarding the implementation of DST in Malaysia.
Allen, M. J. (1984). Book Review Essentials of Psychological Testing. Applied Psychological Measurement, 8(3), 369–371. https://doi.org/10.2307/1419921
AsiaPac - Digital Marketing Agency Asia. (2020). Malaysia Digital Marketing 2020. Retrieved from AsiaPac - Digital Marketing Agency Asia website:
https://www.asiapacdigital.com/digital-marketing-insight/malaysia-digital-marketing-2020
Bakar, E. A., Chang, L. L., & Saidin, A. Z. (2013). Knowledge, attitude and practices of consumers in e-commerce transactions. 2013 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for the Muslim World, ICT4M 2013, (June 2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICT4M.2013.6518903
Chiu, Y. Bin, Lin, C. P., & Tang, L. L. (2005). Gender differs: Assessing a model of online purchase intentions in e-tail service. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 16(5), 416–435. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564230510625741
Csontos, L., Kornai, J., & Toth, I. G. (1998). Tax awareness and reform of the welfare state: Hungarian survey results. Economics of Transition, 6(2), 287–312.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0351.1998.tb00050.x
Deloitte. (2020). How digital transformation and a challenging environment are building agility and resilience. Retrieved from Deloitte Insights website: https://www2.deloitte.com/mt/en/pages/about-deloitte/topics/deloitte-insights.html
Helhel, Y., & & Ahmed, Y. (2014). Factors Affecting Tax Attitudes and Tax Compliance?: A Survey Study in Yemen. European Journal of Business and Management Online ), 6(22), 2222–2839.
Ilzetzki, E. (2018). Tax reform and the political economy of the tax base. Journal of Public Economics, 164, 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.06.005
Kamil, N. I. (2015). The Effect of Taxpayer Awareness , Knowledge , Tax Penalties and Tax Authorities Services on the Tax Complience?: (Survey on the Individual Taxpayer at Jabodetabek & Bandung). Research Journal of Finance and AccountingOnline), 6(2), 104–112.
Kirchler, E. (2007). The economic psychology of tax behaviour. The Economic Psychology of Tax Behaviour, 1–243. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511628238
Krejcie, R. V., & Morgan, D. (1970). Determining Sample Size for Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30, 607–610.
Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri. (2018). Annual Report 2018.
Loh, A., Finnerty, C., Parsch, K., Yap, B.-K., & Singh, A. (2019). Malaysia Imposes Tax on Digital Services. Journal of International Taxation, (October 2019). Retrieved from https://www.pressreader.com/malaysia/the-star-malaysia-starbiz/20170923/281479276598730
MCMC Malaysia. (2018). Internet Users Survey 2018. In Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission MCMC.
Ministry of Economy. (2023). Department of Statistic Malaysia. Retrieved from Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Website website: https://www.dosm.gov.my/portal-main/landingv2
Fadzillah, M. N. S., & Husin, Z. (2016). The Acceptance Level on GST Implementation in Malaysia. Gading Journal for the Social Sciences, 1(2), 1–6.
Park, C. G., & Hyun, J. K. (2003). Examining the determinants of tax compliance by experimental data: A case of Korea. Journal of Policy Modeling, 25(8), 673–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0161-8938(03)00075-9
Rahayu, Y. N., Setiawan, M., Troena, E. A., & Sudjatno. (2017). The role of taxpayer awareness, tax regulation and understanding in taxpayer compliance. Journal of Accounting and Taxation, 9(10), 139–146. https://doi.org/10.5897/jat2017.0267
Rahman, M. T. (2016). Customers’ Attitude towards Online Shopping: The Case of Bangladesh. World Journal of Social Sciences, 6(2), 82–91. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335828277
Rodriguez, M., Robaina, M., & Teotonio, C. (2019). Sectoral effects of a Green Tax Reform in Portugal. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 104, 408–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2019.01.016
Schifter, D. E., & Ajzen, I. (1985). Intention, Perceived Control, and Weight Loss. An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 843–851. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.49.3.843
Schlosser, A. N. N. E. (2004). Experiencing Products in the Virtual World?: The Role of Goal and Imagery in Influencing Attitudes versus Purchase Intentions. 30(September 2003), 184–198.
Sebastianelli, R., Tamimi, N., & Rajan, M. (2008). Perceived quality of online shopping: Does gender make a difference? Journal of Internet Commerce, 7(4), 445–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332860802507164
Shah, S. A., & Zainuddin, A. (2017). Malaysia ’ s GDP in 3Q17 projected to reach up to 6 %. The Malaysian Reserve, 1–5. Retrieved from
https://themalaysianreserve.com/2017/11/17/malaysias-gdp-3q17-projected-reach-6/
Sultan, M. U., & MD Nasir Uddin. (2011). Consumers’ attitude towards online shopping. Journal of Management and Science, 6(3), 219–255.
https://doi.org/10.26524/jms.2016.19
Switzer, J. S., & Switzer, R. V. (2014). Taxation of Virtual World Economies: A Review of the Current Status. Journal For Virtual Worlds Research, 7(1), 1–15.
https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v7i1.6292
Jaafar, S., & Lim, J. (2019). Experts say 6% digital tax will be borne by consumers from Jan 1, 2020. The Edge Market, 1–11. Retrieved from
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/experts-say-6-digital-tax-will-be-borne-consumers-jan-1-2020
World Bank Group. (2020). Taxes & Government Revenue. The World Bank Group, 1–6. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/taxes-and-government-revenue