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.
