Topic
#tax relief
2 articles
KL Museums 2026: Muzium Negara Is Still RM2, Four of Seven Charge Nothing, and Petrosains Shuts Two Mondays a Month
A Budget 2026 measure gives individual income tax relief of up to RM1,000 from the year of assessment 2026 on entrance fees to tourist attractions, and it names museums first. That is a good reason to look at what Kuala Lumpur's museums and galleries actually charge, so we read seven of them off their own websites, re-checked on 5 September 2026. The answer is that almost nothing here is expensive, and most of it is free. Muzium Negara is RM2 for a Malaysian adult, RM1 for a senior citizen or an OKU cardholder, and free for children aged 12 and below. Four of the seven charge nothing at all: Bank Negara Malaysia's Museum and Art Gallery, the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre, ILHAM and the National Art Gallery, which states on its own FAQ that entry is free and walk-in. The Islamic Arts Museum is RM20, and Petrosains is the only venue here that costs more than a cinema ticket, at RM28 for a MyKad adult on a weekday. The trap is not price, it is opening days: Petrosains closes on the first and third Monday of every month, ILHAM closes every Monday, and the two national institutions barely close at all.
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. Verified against Act 874 and LHDN's own relief tables on 4 September 2026.