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9 articles
Year-End Bonus in Malaysia 2026: How Much Goes to Tax, EPF and SOCSO, With Worked Examples
A year-end bonus in Malaysia is taxed in the year you receive it, not the year it rewards, so a bonus paid in December 2026 falls under the 2026 tax rules and one paid in January 2027 under Budget 2027's new rates and RM12,000 personal relief. EPF takes 11% of it, SOCSO and EIS take nothing, and the monthly tax deduction in the bonus month is only an estimate. Here is how each deduction works, with two worked examples.
Selling Property in Malaysia 2026: How RPGT Is Worked Out, the 3% Buyer Retention and the 60-Day Filing
Real Property Gains Tax is charged on the profit when you sell a house, shop or land in Malaysia. A Malaysian who sells within three years of buying pays 30% of the taxable gain, falling to 0% from the sixth year. Since 2025 the seller works out the tax and files online within 60 days, while the buyer must hold back 3% of the price and pay it to LHDN. Here is the rate table, a worked example and the deadlines.
Zakat and Income Tax in Malaysia 2026: How the Rebate Works, the 31 December Cutoff, and This Year's Nisab
Zakat paid to a state zakat authority comes straight off your income tax bill, ringgit for ringgit, but only up to the tax you owe and only in the year you pay it. Here is how the rebate works, why 31 December matters, the 2026 nisab in KL, Selangor and Penang, and how salary deduction cuts your monthly PCB.
Budget 2027 Income Tax Changes: Two Lower Rates, a RM12,000 Personal Relief, and What You Actually Save
Budget 2027, tabled on 9 October 2026, cuts the resident tax rate on chargeable income between RM70,001 and RM150,000 by one point, raises the personal relief from RM9,000 to RM12,000 for the first time since 2010, and widens six existing reliefs to cover postnatal care, sports shoes, children's tuition, AI subscriptions and pet adoption. Income above RM1 million now hits 30% instead of 28%. Everything starts from the year of assessment 2027, so it applies to income earned in 2027 and the return you file in 2028. We read the figures off the Finance Ministry's own tax-measures annex and worked out what five salary levels save.
Buying Your First Home in Malaysia 2026: No Stamp Duty Up to RM500,000, and RM11,253 More at One Ringgit Over
A first home priced up to RM500,000 pays no stamp duty on the transfer or the loan, for sale and purchase agreements signed until 31 December 2027. There is no partial relief above the line. We worked through the Stamp Act rates, the exemption conditions and the 2023 legal fee scale for homes at RM300,000, RM500,000 and RM700,000.
Six New Tax Reliefs Started Counting on 1 January 2026, and You Claim Them in 2027
The relief list you use for the return you file this year is the year of assessment 2025 list, and nothing on it has changed. Six other reliefs took effect on 1 January 2026 and are being earned right now, on receipts most households are throwing away. They are claimed in the return filed in 2027. These are not proposals: they were enacted as the Finance Act 2025 (Act 874), gazetted on 31 December 2025, and we read them off the statute rather than off the Budget appendices. Childcare is the biggest change: a single permanent RM3,000, plus a new limb covering a care centre registered under the Care Centres Act 1993 for a child up to 12 - though the RM3,000 is per taxpayer, not per child. Relief for early intervention for children with learning disabilities rises from RM6,000 to RM10,000 and now fills the whole medical band. Life insurance relief extends to children, on a four-limb statutory definition. Vaccination relief widens to any vaccine registered with the NPRA. Home CCTV and food waste grinders join the RM2,500 environmental pot. And for Visit Malaysia Year 2026 only, entrance fees to tourist attractions are worth up to RM1,000 - but unlike the 2020-2022 version, hotel stays and tour packages are out. Budget 2027, tabled on 9 October, proposes one more year of the attractions relief, for 2027, and adds postnatal care to the RM10,000 medical band; the other four are untouched. Re-checked against Act 874, LHDN's relief tables and the Budget 2027 tax measures on 14 October 2026.
Tenancy Agreement Stamp Duty Malaysia 2026: The RM2,400 Free Band Is Gone, and Long Leases Now Cost 7x
Almost every rental in Malaysia is signed on the same assumption: the tenant pays the stamping, somebody sends it to a runner, and nobody reads the numbers. The numbers changed. The Finance Act 2024 removed the RM2,400 free band from Item 49 of the Stamp Act 1949 and replaced the three term bands with four, in force since 1 January 2025 — so duty now runs from the first ringgit of rent, a five-year lease costs seven times the one-year rate rather than four, and section 36CB puts a RM10 floor under every instrument. The 30-day clock is still there, the counterpart is still RM10 and the Third Schedule still says the landlord pays that one. What is new is that since 1 January 2026 tenancies are self-assessed, which moves the arithmetic from LHDN's desk to yours — with a penalty remission that runs out on 31 December 2026.
Malaysia's e-Invoice in Plain Terms: Who Must Issue One in 2026, the New RM3 Million Exemption, and the FY2022 Rule Nobody Mentions
The last phase of Malaysia's e-Invoice rollout started on 1 January 2026 for businesses with turnover up to RM5 million — and since 30 August 2026 most of them no longer have to issue at all. LHDN's e-Invoice Guideline Version 4.8 raised the exemption from less than RM1,000,000 to less than RM3,000,000, with three carve-outs for businesses tied to a larger shareholder, holding company or related company. Two other things are widely misunderstood. Your phase was fixed by your FY2022 numbers and does not move with later turnover. And the exemption only covers issuing: anyone selling to you still has to issue an e-Invoice, and any company you own is assessed on its own.
LHDN's e-Invoice Grace Period Now Runs to 31 December 2027: What Malaysian Businesses Still Need to Fix
The no-prosecution relaxation period for the final phase of Malaysia's e-Invoice rollout no longer ends on 31 December 2026. LHDN's own Specific Guideline now runs it to 31 December 2027, and since 1 September 2026 the exemption line sits at RM3 million, not RM1 million. Here is the current official position: who is still in, what the relaxation allows, the RM10,000 rule, and the voluntary disclosure window that closes on the same day.