Improving the audit quality of the Inland Revenue Board Malaysia through action research

Audit quality is a critical element in the audit process to ensure that there is no taxpayer non-compliance with tax returns. However, the current audit quality of the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM), measured by additional tax assessment, case processing time, and achievement of each key performance indicator (KPI), still needs improvement. The purpose of this study is to improve the audit quality of IRBM audit officers through an action research process involving planning, acting, observing, and reflecting.This research executes secondary data, interviews, and observations through five major cycles: problem identification, systematic data collection, analysis and reflection, intervention, and evaluation. The process took 10 months from January to October 202. Based on the findings, five selected IRBM audit officers underwent one week of training and three months of coaching (acting), collecting participant feedback (observing), and reflecting on the feedback through further counseling and coaching. At the end of the cycle, all audit officers completed their aging cases within the specified completion period, which was three months. In practice, this study has shown that time training and continuous coaching can improve examination quality and competence in IRBM audit tasks. Therefore, it is recommended that both aspects should be introduced in all branches and made part of the IRBM policies.