Topic
#personal finance
7 articles
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 Cash Aid: What STR and SARA Pay Each Household in 2027
Budget 2027 raises STR and SARA to RM16 billion, but for most STR households the yearly total does not change. Cash shifts into SARA grocery credit, the poorest childless households gain RM100, and about 13 million adults outside STR get RM100 of SARA MADANI twice. We compared the 2026 and 2027 tables line by line.
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.
Checking Your Own Credit Report in 2026: The CCRIS That Costs Nothing, the RM27.90 That Repackages It, and Why Nobody Can Blacklist You
Bank Negara Malaysia gives every registered Malaysian their own CCRIS report free through eCCRIS, and since 2022 the registration itself is done online with a RM1 transfer that is refunded within two working days. CTOS sells a Full Credit Report at RM27.90 whose headline feature is the same CCRIS data, plus a score BNM does not produce. Its free Basic Report, two a year, carries the litigation, bankruptcy and SSM layer that CCRIS does not hold. And the regulator's own FAQ says plainly that a credit reporting agency has no power to blacklist anyone, that a settled loan is cleared with a settlement letter, and that a discharged bankruptcy may not be disclosed after two years.
Buy Now Pay Later in Malaysia 2026: Why 1.5% Can Mean 12%, and Why BNPL Is Now Regulated
Two of Malaysia's biggest buy now pay later services quote the same headline number, 1.5 per cent, and it means two different things. On PayLater by Grab that 1.5 per cent is charged on each instalment and calculated on the whole transaction, so an eight-instalment plan costs 12 per cent of what you bought. On SPayLater it is 1.5 per cent a month. Both charge a flat RM10 when you miss a payment. SPayLater's page still says BNPL is not regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia, and that line is now badly out of date: the Consumer Credit Act 2025 came into force on 1 March 2026 and BNPL providers must be licensed by the Suruhanjaya Kredit Pengguna. Its Conduct Standards also prohibit the flat-rate pricing that produces the 12 per cent. We read all three providers' pages and the regulator's own instruments on 8 September 2026, and re-checked them on 25 September 2026, the day after Grab rebuilt its pricing table.
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.
EPF Akaun Fleksibel 2026: The RM50 Withdrawal, and the Dividend Rule That Decides What It Costs
Akaun Fleksibel is the one EPF account you can withdraw from at any age below 55, with no documents and no reason given, from RM50 upwards. What the EPF publishes and almost nobody reads is how the dividend behind it is calculated. Contributions credited during a month only start earning on the last day of that month. Withdrawals stop earning on the day they leave. At the 6.15 per cent rate declared for 2025, taking RM1,000 out in early January and not replacing it costs roughly RM61 of dividend for the year, while the same withdrawal on 1 December costs about RM5.