Tax evasion by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the role of forensic accounting : the Malaysian perspective

The aim of this research is to identify and define the characteristic behaviour of and factors that influence taxpayers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) when they either evade tax or comply with tax law. The study also attempts to assess the extent of tax evasion by SMEs in Malaysia. In addition, another concern is also to explore both the actual and potential role of forensic accounting with the focus on improving current enforcement strategies for deterring tax evasion by SMEs. The research findings will contribute to the current limited literature on the tax compliance of SMEs and forensic accounting, especially with respect to Malaysia. Using a multi-method approach, the results of this thesis suggest that the extent of tax evasion by SMEs in Malaysia is both widespread and frequent. The findings also indicate that the offences tend to be deliberate evasion without any sophisticated tax-planning scheme. Understatement of gross profit and overstatement of expenses other than the cost of goods sold are the most frequently used methods. The fact that most taxpayers are unlikely to be detected and penalised by the tax authority is also another factor shaping tax evasion by SMEs. Most SMEs are heavily reliant on tax practitioners to guide them to comply with their income tax matters and will remain with the same tax practitioner in general; however, there is a tendency for some to switch tax practitioner for whatever reason they think fit. Forensic accounting is a field that encapsulates all other areas in the use of accounting for investigative purposes. Forensic accounting is a relatively new discipline in Malaysia; however, the awareness of forensic accounting by tax practitioners and IRB (Inland Revenue Board Malaysia) personnel is strong. The techniques used in forensic accounting are not new to the IRB; however, the IRB personnel need further exposure to and training in these techniques. The finding indicates a lack of sophisticated planning in tax evasion by SMýs in Malaysia. Despite this, forensic accounting technique could be added to the existing tools necessary to bring about the successful investigation and prosecution of those involved. The study was carried out at a time of change for the IR

In-plane tensile behavior of shape memory alloy honeycombs with positive and negative Poisson's ratio

This work illustrates the manufacturing and tensile testing of a novel concept of honeycomb structures with hexagonal and auxetic (negative Poisson's ratio) topology, made of shape memory alloy core material. The honeycombs are manufactured using Nitinol ribbons having 6.40 mm of width and 0.2 mm of thickness. The ribbons were inserted in a special dye using cyanoacrilate to bond the longitudinal strips of the unit cells. Tensile tests at room temperature (full martensite) were performed on the honeycombs. Finite element models of the honeycomb assemblies under tensile loading have been developed using nonlinear beam elements from a commercial code. Good agreement is observed between numerical nonlinear simulations and the experimental results

Application of asymptotic expansion homogenization for vascularized poroelastic brain tissue

Brain oedema formation after ischaemia-reperfusion has been previously modelled by assuming that the blood vessels distribution in the brain as homogeneous. However, the blood vessels in the brain have variety of sizes and this assumption should be reconsidered. One of the ways to improve this assumption is by taking into account the microstructure of the blood vessels and their distribution by formulating the model using asymptotic expansion homogenization (AEH) technique. In this paper, AEH of the vascularized poroelastic model is carried out to obtain a set of new homogenized macroscale governing equations and their associated microscale cell problems. An example of solving the microscale cell problems using a simple cubic geometry with embedded 6-branch cylinders representing brain tissue and capillaries is shown to obtain four important tensors L;Q;K; and G, which will be used to solve the homogenized macroscale equations on a larger brain geometry. This method will be extended in the future to include statistically accurate capillary distribution of brain tissue

الأغراض البلاغية للتشبيه في القرآن الكريم والإفادة منها في تدريس البلاغة للناطقين بغير العربية. [Eloquence and analogies and how it can be applied to teach Arabic to non-native speakers]

من المعلوم أن اللغات مهما اختلفت في رسمها، وأصواتها، ومدلولاتها، وثقافتها فإنها لا تخلو من مجازات لغوية ومجازات عقلية تستخدم في سياقات مختلفة تتسق مع المقام الذي يتم فيه الكلام. واللغة العربية تعتبر من أغنى اللغات الحية من حيث الترادف والاشتقاق، والأخيلة والتصوير، والإيحاء والتصريح. وغير ذلك من خصائص اللغة العربية التي توجت بكلام الله تعالى الذي هزّ بإعجازه وجدان - - العرب وحرك عقولهم، واستثار ما لديهم من فصاحة وبلاغة، متحدياً فصاحتهم وبلاغتهم، فوقفوا أمامه مشدوهين، عاجزين عن أن يأتوا بمثله ولو بآيةٍ واحدةٍ. مصداقاً لقوله تعالى: ]قُ ل لَئِ ن ا جتَمَعَ ت الإن سُ وَا لجِنُّ عَلَى أَن يَأتُوا بِمِث لِ هَذَا ال قُ رآنِ لاَ يَأ تُونَ بِمِث لِهِ وَلَ و كَانَ ب عضُهُ م لِبَ عضٍ ظَهِيرًا[ )الإسراء: 88 (. ومن ثَََّ اتجهت الدراسات اللغوية منذ القرن الأول الهجري لفهم لغة القرآن ببلاغتها البيانية التصويرية، فنشأ بما يعرف بعلم البلاغة، وتصنيفه إلى معاني وبيان وبديع على أيدي علماء كرَّسُوا جهدهم لمعرفة أسرار بلاغة القرآن. ومن ثََّ تتمحور المشكلة في هذه الورقة حول تدريس جانب من جوانب علم البيان لغير الناطقين باللغة العربية تتمثل في التشبيه وأغراضه البلاغية في القرآن الكريم، حيث إن تدريس البلاغة لغير الناطقين بالعربية مقتضبٌ جداً، كما أنه يدرس منقطعاً عن النص، مما يفقدها قيمتها الجمالية كما هو الحال في مناهج اللغة العربية للمرحلة الثانوية الوطنية، وكذلك الثانوية الوطنية الدينية في ماليزيا، وكأن البلاغة علم قائم بذاته. وتهدف هذه الورقة إلى عرض جزئية من أجزاء علم البيان، ألا وهي التشبيه للوقوف على أغراضه البلاغية المتميزة في تشبيه المعقول بالمحسوس في الأوجه التالية: إخراج ما لا تقع عليه الحاسة إلى ما تقع عليه. 2 ( إخراج ما لم تجر به العادة إلى ما جرت به العادة. 3 ( إخراج ما لا يعرف بالبديهة إلى ما يعرف بها. 4 ( إخراج ما لا قوّة له في الصفة إلى ما له قوة فيها. ومدى الإفادة منها في تقريب المعاني العقلية من خلال تشبيهها بالمعاني المحسوسة عند تدريس اللغة لغير الناطقين بالعربية. وسوف تتبنى هذه الورقة المنهج التحليلي لعرض بعض الآيات المتضمنة تشبيهات تمثيلية لمعرفة الأغراض التوجيهية والدروس المستفاد منها. وعلى الله قصد السبيل

Cigarettes demand and tax strategy in Malaysia

Taxation is one of the effective tools to discourage smoking. Increase of cigarette tax has a significant effect in generating additional revenue to the government due to the inelastic nature of the cigarette. In this study, the estimated price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in Malaysia is -0.28 and -0.49 in short run and long run; respectively. Hence, demand for cigarettes is inelastic or less responsive to the changes in price. Therefore, estimating the optimal cigarette tax rate is one of the strategies to ensure that the price of cigarette, after tax, is high enough to reduce consumption of cigarette. At the same time, it generates maximum tax revenue for the government. Using yearly time series data from 1980 until 2009, a Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) method is applied to estimate the demand elasticity of cigarettes and the optimal cigarettes excise tax. In this study, the estimated optimal real excise tax rate is 0.186 sen per stick which is 27.4% higher than the real excise tax in 2009. The increase in real revenue earned after imposing an optimal excise tax is 24.25% in the short run and 21.89% in the long run. Consequently, the expected reduction in consumption per capita of cigarette is 10.41% in the short run and 12.88% in the long run. Maximum revenues from the optimal cigarettes tax can be earmarked to fund a specific tobacco control policy in Malaysia

Investigation of the capillary effects toward brain tissue poroelastic properties using asymptotic expansion homogenization

Existing brain model to study brain oedema formation has an assumption of homogeneous brain capillary distribution, despite it is actually normally distributed. In this paper, the assumption is improved by applying asymptotic expansion homogenization (AEH) to a vascularized poroelastic model to obtain a new homogenized macroscale governing equations with 4 microscale cell problems. The cell problems are solved on a cube of brain tissue with capillary to obtain 4 tensors describing the mechanical and fluid transport properties of the brain. From the simulations, only the blood permeability and Biot’s parameter tensors are significantly affected by the capillary tortuosities

Effect of particle discretisation and horizon size on the displacement and damage plot using bond-based peridynamics

Peridynamics (PD) represents a new non-local theory of continuum mechanics which uses integro differential equations instead of the typical local partial differential equations in its formulation. Thus, it is suitable for modelling fracture mechanics, where a continuum domain is modelled through particles connected via physical interactions. The PD formulation allows us to model spontaneous crack initiation, and crack branching without the need for special mathematical treatment. The value of parameters such as particle discretisation and horizon size will be checked to make sure that it agreed to the result from Finite Element Method (FEM) in elastic deformation before proceed to the failure mode. In PD, failure criterion is established when its stretch value exceeds a prescribed critical stretch value. In the classical bond model or Prototype Microelastic Brittle (PMB), the bond force grows linearly with the bond stretch, and the value suddenly goes down to zero when the bond stretch exceeds its critical value. This study will focus on the effect of horizon size and particle discretisation on PD displacement of elastic analysis, and damage patterns with PMB damage model. The proposed study leads to a better understanding of how horizon size and particle disretisation affect the damage patterns in PD frameworks

A quasi-brittle damage model in the framework of bond-based peridynamics with adaptive dynamic relaxation method

Peridynamics (PD) is a new tool, based on the non-local theory for modelling fracture mechanics, where particles connected through physical interaction used to represent a domain. By using the PD theory, damage or crack in a material domain can be shown in much practical representation. This study compares between Prototype Microelastic Brittle (PMB) damage model and a new Quasi-Brittle (QBR) damage model in the framework of the Bond-based Peridynamics (BBPD) in terms of the damage plot. An in-house code using Matlab was developed for BBPD with inclusion of both damage models, and tested for a quasi-static problem with the implementation of Adaptive Dynamic Relaxation (ADR) method in the theory in order to get a faster steady state solutions. This paper is the first attempt to include ADR method in the framework of BBPD for QBR damage model. This paper analysed a numerical problem with the absence of failure and compared the displacement with literature result that used Finite Element Method (FEM). The obtained numerical results are in good agreement with the result from FEM. The same problem was used with the allowance of the failure to happen for both of the damage models; PMB and QBR, to observe the damage pattern between these two damage models. PMB damage model produced damage value of roughly twice compared to the damage value from QBR damage model. It is found that the QBR damage model with ADR under quasi-static loading significantly improves the prediction of the progressive failure process, and managed to model a more realistic damage model with respect to the PMB damage model

Cigarettes demand and tax strategy in Malaysia

Taxation is one of the effective tools to discourage smoking. Increase of cigarette tax has a significant effect in generating additional revenue to the government due to the inelastic nature of the cigarette. In this study, the estimated price elasticity of demand for cigarettes in Malaysia is -0.28 and -0.49 in short run and long run; respectively. Hence, demand for cigarettes is inelastic or less responsive to the changes in price. Therefore, estimating the optimal cigarette tax rate is one of the strategies to ensure that the price of cigarette, after tax, is high enough to reduce consumption of cigarette. At the same time, it generates maximum tax revenue for the government. Using yearly time series data from 1980 until 2009, a Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) method is applied to estimate the demand elasticity of cigarettes and the optimal cigarettes excise tax. In this study, the estimated optimal real excise tax rate is 0.186 sen per stick which is 27.4% higher than the real excise tax in 2009. The increase in real revenue earned after imposing an optimal excise tax is 24.25% in the short run and 21.89% in the long run. Consequently, the expected reduction in consumption per capita of cigarette is 10.41% in the short run and 12.88% in the long run. Maximum revenues from the optimal cigarettes tax can be earmarked to fund a specific tobacco control policy in Malaysia