> Quick take: the 10% line on your Shein, Taobao or AliExpress checkout is sales tax on low value goods, and it has been charged since 1 January 2024. The RM500 threshold is measured on the price of the goods only, with shipping and insurance stripped out. If a checkout does not show the tax, the seller is probably below the RM500,000 registration threshold, and the parcel may be assessed at the border instead.
Malaysians buy a lot of small things from abroad, and for years those parcels arrived with nothing added. That ended when the Sales Tax (Amendment) Act 2022 brought low value goods into the sales tax net. The Ministry of Finance put the mechanics plainly: the charging and levying of sales tax on low value goods took effect on 1 January 2024, at a flat rate of 10%, on goods valued at RM500 or less imported into Malaysia by land, sea or air. Royal Malaysian Customs runs the scheme through its own portal at MyLVG, where its own page notes the underlying legislation came into operation on 1 January 2023, a year before collection started.
The number almost everyone measures wrongly
The most common mistake is to add up the total you paid and compare that to RM500. That is not the test.
Customs answers this directly in the MyLVG FAQ: the sales tax is charged on the sale value of the goods "not including any tax, duty, fee or other charges such as transportation, insurance or other costs". So a jacket priced at RM480 with RM40 of shipping is low value goods. You pay 10% on the RM480, which is RM48, and the RM40 of postage is irrelevant to whether you crossed the line.
The mirror image also holds. A RM520 item is not low value goods even if the seller ships it free. It falls outside the regime, and goes through the ordinary import duty and sales tax process at the border instead.
Why some checkouts charge it and some do not
The tax is collected by a registered seller at the point of sale, not by Customs when your parcel lands. Registration is not voluntary above a certain size: local and foreign online sellers whose total low value goods sales brought into Malaysia exceed RM500,000 in any 12 months must register through mylvg.customs.gov.my and are issued a low value goods registration number.
That threshold is the reason your experience differs from shop to shop. The large marketplaces are registered and will show the tax on the order summary. A small overseas boutique may never come close to RM500,000 of Malaysian sales and will not be registered, so its checkout shows nothing.
This is not a loophole in your favour. Customs states that goods declared at import without any low value goods registration number will be charged sales tax on imports instead. The charge moves to the border, where a courier may also add its own clearance or disbursement handling on top.
If you want to check before you buy, the MyLVG portal lets the public look up registration status alongside the legislation and guides.
The double-taxation guard, in Customs' own worked examples
The part that reassures people most is buried in the FAQ as two examples.
In the first, a shopper named Asma buys RM300 of low value goods from a registered seller, sent by air courier. She pays RM30 of low value goods tax at checkout. On arrival, Customs states, no additional duties or taxes are charged, because the consignment is entitled to de minimis. The de minimis facility exempts import duty and sales tax on imports for consignments with a CIF value under RM500 arriving by air courier or post.
In the second, Zaris buys two kitchenware sets at RM300 each plus a RM50 box, RM650 of goods in one parcel. Each line item is priced under RM500, so each is low value goods and carries the 10% at checkout. The consignment as a whole, however, is above the CIF RM500 de minimis line, so it is assessed at import. But because the low value goods sales tax was already collected at the point of sale, only import duties are charged on arrival, and no further sales tax on imports is added.
The principle across both: you pay the 10% once, at the point where it is due. What survives above the de minimis line is import duty, which is a separate charge with its own rates depending on what the item is.
Near the line: when shipping costs you de minimis
The FAQ has a third example that catches people who buy close to RM500. A shopper buys one kitchenware set for RM460 from a registered seller in China, pays the low value goods tax at checkout, and has it sent by air courier.
At checkout the item is comfortably low value goods, because the test is the RM460 price alone. At the border the test changes. Customs value is CIF, meaning cost plus insurance plus freight, so once shipping is added the parcel is worth more than RM500 and the de minimis facility no longer applies. Customs adds that the ringgit figure can also move with the exchange rate.
The result: import duty is charged on arrival. Sales tax on imports is not, but only if it is proven that the seller already collected the low value goods tax. Customs says the importer or customs agent must provide supporting documentation to show this. That is the practical reason to keep your order summary, and to make sure it shows the tax line rather than a single lump total.
Applied to the jacket above, RM480 plus RM40 of shipping: it is low value goods at checkout, so you pay RM48 there, but its CIF value is above RM500, so expect import duty at the border as well.
Parcels that come in by road
De minimis is an air courier and post facility. It does not cover goods trucked in overland, which matters if you buy from sellers who ship by road from Thailand or Singapore.
Customs' example here is Laura, who buys RM299 of tableware from a registered seller, delivered by road. Even at RM299, the goods must be declared on Customs Form No.1 (K1) and are subject to import duty, because de minimis does not apply to road imports. Sales tax on imports is not charged, provided the seller's low value goods registration number is entered in the K1, in the SST/LVG field.
So a small order by road can cost more at the border than the same order by air. If a seller offers both, the air option is the one de minimis protects.
What is left out
The exclusions are narrow and predictable. The Ministry of Finance lists cigarettes, tobacco products, intoxicating liquors and smoking pipes, on the grounds that all of them already attract import duty, excise duty and sales tax through normal channels. The MyLVG FAQ adds electronic cigarettes and vaping liquids or gels to that list.
Anything else you buy online from overseas at RM500 or less is in scope.
How much it has raised so far
The tax is not a symbolic line on a receipt. In a written parliamentary reply reported on 28 January 2026, the Ministry of Finance said low value goods tax brought in RM476 million in 2024, its first year of collection, and RM817 million in 2025, about RM1.29 billion in two years. The ministry framed it as closing a tax gap between local retailers, who already charge sales tax, and overseas platforms, rather than as a way to stop cheap imports coming in.
The rules themselves have not moved since then. As of 29 October 2026, the MyLVG portal still lists a flat 10% on goods sold online from abroad at RM500 or less, and this check found no announced change to the rate or the threshold.
What this means for the way you shop
Three practical consequences follow.
First, splitting an order to stay under RM500 does not avoid the 10%, because the threshold defines what low value goods are rather than granting an exemption. Staying under the line keeps you inside the low value goods regime, which is where the flat 10% lives. Going above it takes you into import duty territory, which can be more expensive or less, depending on the tariff code.
Second, the price you compare between a local seller and an overseas one should include the tax. A RM300 gadget from abroad is RM330 once the low value goods tax is added, and that is often closer to the local price than it first looked.
Third, keep the order summary. If a courier later asks you for sales tax on a consignment where the seller already charged it, the checkout receipt showing the low value goods tax line is the document that settles it.
Customs takes queries on this at 1-300-888-500 (+603-7806 7200 from overseas), 8am to 5pm, or at mylvg@customs.gov.my, and the scheme is administered by the Internal Tax Division at its Putrajaya headquarters.
This is a plain explainer of published rules and not tax advice. For a specific consignment, the Customs guides on MyLVG are the authority.
