Malaysia income tax calculator

Ten bands, and four of them below RM50,000

Malaysia cuts its scale finer at the bottom than any other country covered here. There are ten bands in total, and four of them are used up before chargeable income reaches RM50,000: nothing to RM5,000, then 1.0%, then 3.0%, then 6.0%.

That 1.0% entry rate is the lowest first rate on this site. New Zealand starts at 10.5%, South Africa at 18.0%, the Philippines jumps straight from zero to 20.0%. Malaysia instead eases in, which means a large number of taxpayers sit in bands where the tax is a few hundred ringgit rather than a few thousand.

The big step is in the middle, not at the top. Moving from the RM70,000–RM100,000 band to the one above it takes the rate from 19.0% to 25.0% — six points in one move, the largest jump in the whole scale. Above that the increments are small: 26.0%, 28.0%, 30.0%.

On RM80,000 of gross employment income the individual relief of RM9,000 leaves RM71,000 chargeable, the scale charges RM3,890, and there is no rebate at that level — an effective rate of 4.9% against a marginal band of 19.0%.

The top rate of 30.0% does not begin until RM2,000,000. Very few salaries reach it, and its practical function is closer to a signal than to a revenue line.

The relief that everyone gets, and the ones this page does not apply

Malaysian income tax is built around reliefs rather than around a large exempt band. The scale's own zero band is only RM5,000, which is small — but almost nobody is taxed from RM5,000, because reliefs come off first.

The individual relief of RM9,000 for self and dependent relatives is unconditional. Every resident individual gets it, no claim, no receipt, no circumstance. That is why this calculator applies it: it is the one relief that does not depend on anything the calculator cannot know.

Everything else does depend on something. EPF contributions and life insurance premiums share a combined cap of RM7,000. SOCSO contributions relieve up to RM350. The lifestyle relief covers books, a computer or smartphone, internet and self-development courses up to RM2,500, with a further RM1,000 for sports equipment and facilities. Medical expenses for serious illness reach RM10,000. Childcare for a child six or under is RM3,000. Each child under 18 is RM2,000, and a child in higher education is RM8,000.

Stacked, those routinely take another RM15,000 to RM25,000 off chargeable income for an ordinary employed household. That is why the figure on this page is an upper bound rather than an estimate: it applies the floor of the relief system and none of the rest.

The practical consequence is that Malaysian tax planning is receipt-keeping. Unlike Germany or New Zealand, where the scale does most of the work, in Malaysia the difference between two identical salaries is largely a difference in what was claimed.

The RM400 rebate is a cliff, and it is worth knowing where it is

Below RM35,000 of chargeable income, a resident individual gets a rebate of RM400 straight off the tax. Above it, nothing.

That is a cliff, not a taper. There is no phase-out, no reduced rebate for someone slightly over. Crossing RM35,000 of chargeable income by a single ringgit costs the whole RM400.

It is worth being exact about what that means, because the rebate is often described as creating a tax-free threshold and it does not. At RM35,000 of chargeable income the scale has already charged RM600. The rebate is RM400. Tax payable at the ceiling is therefore RM200 — reduced, not cancelled.

The planning point follows directly. For someone whose chargeable income lands a little above RM35,000, a relief that pulls it back under the line is worth its own tax saving plus the entire RM400. Within roughly RM6,600 above the ceiling, that combination can exceed the value of the relief itself several times over.

A spouse assessed separately gets their own RM400 on the same terms, and where one spouse has no total income the rebate is still available on the other's assessment. Zakat and fitrah are a separate rebate again, capped only by the tax charged.

Where the Malaysian scale actually lives

LHDN rebuilt its portal, and the URLs that everyone had bookmarked for the individual rate table stopped resolving. Searching for the Malaysian tax scale now returns a large number of third-party pages carrying figures nobody re-checked after the move.

The current table is at hasil.gov.my under Individual → Tax Rate, at a path that mixes English and Malay: the section is /en/individu/kadar-cukai/. Reliefs are at /en/individu/pelepasan-cukai/ and rebates at /en/individu/rebat/. Those three pages are the sources for everything on this page, read on 2026-09-02.

The rate table is published as a cumulative amount plus a rate on the excess, which is the format that makes verification possible: each row states exactly how much tax there is at the floor of the band. This site's tests reproduce all nine of those published amounts, from RM150 at RM20,000 up to RM528,400 at RM2,000,000.

The table's own heading reads "Year of Assessment 2023, 2024 & 2025". That is the latest scale LHDN publishes; it has not been superseded, and the earlier years are kept below it in collapsed sections. Reliefs, by contrast, are published year by year and do change — which is the right way round, since the reliefs are where Malaysian policy actually moves.

If a figure on this page ever disagrees with LHDN, LHDN is right. The point of naming the exact pages and the exact date is that anyone can check in about a minute.

The scale at four incomes

Each figure below is gross employment income, less the RM9,000 individual relief, run through the ten bands. No other relief is applied, so each is the most tax a person on that salary could pay.

On RM40,000: chargeable income RM31,000, tax RM480 less a RM400 rebate — RM80 payable, an effective rate of 0.2% against a marginal band of 3.0%.

On RM60,000: chargeable income RM51,000, tax RM1,610 — RM1,610 payable, an effective rate of 2.7% against a marginal band of 11.0%.

On RM80,000: chargeable income RM71,000, tax RM3,890 — RM3,890 payable, an effective rate of 4.9% against a marginal band of 19.0%.

On RM150,000: chargeable income RM141,000, tax RM19,650 — RM19,650 payable, an effective rate of 13.1% against a marginal band of 25.0%.

The distance between the two rates widens as income rises, which is the ordinary behaviour of a progressive scale. What is less ordinary is how slowly it starts: the fine bands at the bottom keep the effective rate in low single figures for a long stretch.

How Malaysia compares with the rest of this site

Against Singapore, the closest neighbour, the shapes rhyme and the levels do not. Both use many narrow bands rather than a few wide ones — Singapore has twelve steps, Malaysia ten. Singapore's top rate is 24.0% and Malaysia's is 30.0%, and Malaysia reaches 25.0% at RM100,000 where Singapore is still well below it.

Against the Philippines, the contrast is at the bottom. The Philippines exempts ₱250,000 outright and then jumps to 20.0%; Malaysia exempts almost nothing on the scale and eases in at 1.0%, relying on reliefs to lift people out. Two ways of reaching a similar place.

Against India, both deliver relief through claimed items rather than through the scale, and both have a threshold effect created by something other than an exempt band — India's §87A rebate, Malaysia's RM400. India's is far larger and cancels the tax entirely; Malaysia's only reduces it.

Against the UK, the difference is what happens to relief as income rises. The UK withdraws its Personal Allowance and creates a 60% band; Malaysia's reliefs do not taper, so the marginal rate never exceeds the band you are in.

Against the US, the missing pieces are the state and local layers and the payroll tax reaching the employee. Malaysia has one national scale and EPF, and EPF is a retirement account rather than a tax.

EPF, SOCSO and what else leaves a Malaysian payslip

The Employees Provident Fund takes a statutory percentage of monthly wages from the employee, with a larger contribution from the employer on top, and it is by a wide margin the biggest non-tax deduction on a Malaysian payslip.

It is a retirement savings account in the employee's own name, not a tax and not a pooled contribution: the money remains the worker's, earns a declared annual dividend, and can be withdrawn under defined conditions. That makes it structurally closer to Singapore's CPF than to National Insurance in the UK or PRSI in Ireland.

Because it is savings, it also relieves tax — within the RM7,000 combined cap shared with life insurance. So EPF reduces take-home and reduces chargeable income at the same time, which is a combination none of the pure social insurance systems on this site offers.

SOCSO covers employment injury and invalidity, at much smaller amounts, and relieves up to RM350. The Employment Insurance System adds a small further contribution.

None of these is deducted from the figure above, which is income tax. Anyone reconciling this against an actual payslip should expect the payslip to be lower by EPF first and by the smaller schemes after.

Four ways a Malaysian estimate goes wrong

Applying the scale to gross salary. The bands run on chargeable income, after reliefs. Entering gross overstates the bill for everyone and badly for anyone with children or a full set of claims.

Treating the RM400 rebate as a threshold. It reduces tax, it does not cancel it, and at the ceiling RM200 is still payable.

Using a pre-rebuild rate page. Third-party pages carrying LHDN figures from before the portal moved are common and are not being corrected.

Assuming resident rates apply. A non-resident is charged a flat rate on Malaysian employment income with no reliefs and no rebate. Residence turns on days present, not on nationality or on holding a work pass.

Filing, and the difference between MTD and the return

Employers deduct Monthly Tax Deduction from wages under a schedule published by LHDN, which estimates the year's liability from the month's pay and a declared set of reliefs.

MTD can be treated as final, which is why a large number of Malaysian employees never file. That is a choice with a cost: MTD only knows about the reliefs declared to the employer, so anything claimed later — medical bills, a laptop, childcare, SSPN deposits — is simply never applied.

Filing is done through e-Filing on the MyTax portal. The form for employment income is the BE, and the deadline for it falls at the end of April following the year of assessment, with an extension for the electronic version.

Where MTD has over-deducted, the refund arrives after assessment rather than through the pay cycle. Where it has under-deducted — most commonly after a bonus, or where a declared relief did not materialise — a balance is payable.

The record worth checking is the EA form the employer issues, which states the year's remuneration and the tax deducted. Everything on a return starts from it, and an error there propagates silently into the assessment.

Residence is a day count, and it changes everything

Malaysia decides residence by physical presence, not by nationality, visa or employment contract. The primary test is 182 days or more in the basis year, with linking rules that can join short periods across years.

The consequence for tax is not marginal. A resident individual gets the whole scale, every relief and the rebate. A non-resident gets none of it: employment income is charged at a flat rate with no relief, no rebate and no access to the lower bands.

That produces a large step for anyone arriving part-way through a year. Someone who lands in Malaysia in September may be non-resident for that basis year and resident for the next, on the same job and the same salary, with a materially different tax bill in each.

The linking provisions exist precisely to soften that, and they are technical enough that anyone in a partial year should check them rather than assume the simple 182-day test decides the matter.

This calculator applies resident rates. For a non-resident it is not an approximation, it is the wrong scale.

What Malaysia does not tax

There is no general capital gains tax on shares. Gains from disposing of listed securities are outside the income tax charge for an ordinary investor, which puts Malaysia alongside Singapore and New Zealand rather than alongside the UK or Australia.

Real property is different. Real Property Gains Tax is a separate charge on gains from disposing of land and buildings in Malaysia, and on shares in property-holding companies, at rates that step down with the holding period. It is not income tax and it is not on this page.

Dividends from Malaysian companies were long free of tax in the shareholder's hands under the single-tier system, the company's tax being final. A dividend tax on high dividend income has since been introduced, which narrows that but does not restore the old imputation system.

Foreign-source income received in Malaysia has moved from a broad exemption toward a charge with conditions and exemptions attached, and it is one of the areas that has changed most in recent years.

As with New Zealand and Singapore, the point for comparison is that a rate table alone understates the difference between two systems when what they tax is not the same.

Joint or separate assessment, and which one wins

A married couple in Malaysia may be assessed separately or elect for joint assessment in one spouse's name. Separate assessment is the default and is usually the better answer.

The arithmetic is straightforward. Under separate assessment each spouse uses their own RM9,000 individual relief, their own set of bands from the bottom, and their own RM400 rebate if they qualify. Joint assessment stacks both incomes onto one scale, which pushes the combined figure into higher bands.

Joint assessment earns its place where one spouse has little or no income. The assessed spouse then claims a further RM4,000 relief for the husband or wife, and a rebate is still available for the spouse without total income.

Reliefs that attach to children can be claimed in full by one parent or split between them, which is a separate decision from the assessment election and is worth making deliberately rather than by default.

This calculator models a single individual assessment, which is the common case and the conservative one.

Questions

How much income tax do I pay on RM80,000 in Malaysia?

RM3,890 at most — the RM9,000 individual relief leaves RM71,000 chargeable, an effective rate of 4.9% with a marginal band of 19.0%. EPF, lifestyle, medical and other reliefs would reduce it further and are not applied here.

What are the Malaysian income tax rates?

Ten bands on chargeable income: nothing to RM5,000, then 1.0%, 3.0%, 6.0%, 11.0%, 19.0%, 25.0% from RM100,000, 26.0% from RM400,000, 28.0% from RM600,000 and 30.0% above RM2,000,000. Published by LHDN for YA 2023, 2024 and 2025.

What is the RM400 tax rebate?

A rebate of RM400 against the tax for a resident individual whose chargeable income does not exceed RM35,000. It is a cliff: one ringgit over the ceiling and the whole rebate goes. At the ceiling the scale has charged RM600, so RM200 is still payable — the rebate reduces the tax, it does not create a tax-free threshold.

Is EPF deducted from this figure?

No. EPF is a compulsory retirement contribution taken from wages and it is not income tax. It does relieve tax, within a RM7,000 cap shared with life insurance, but that relief is not applied here — so this figure is an upper bound.

How much can I claim in tax relief in Malaysia?

The individual relief is RM9,000 and is automatic. Beyond it: EPF and life insurance RM7,000 combined, medical for serious illness RM10,000, lifestyle RM2,500 plus RM1,000 for sports, childcare RM3,000, RM2,000 per child under 18 and RM8,000 per child in higher education, SOCSO RM350, and more. All are claimed, not granted.

Where does LHDN publish the current rates?

At hasil.gov.my under Individual → Tax Rate, path /en/individu/kadar-cukai/. The portal was rebuilt and the older URLs return 404, which is why many third-party pages now carry figures nobody has re-checked. Reliefs and rebates are on their own pages under the same section.

Do non-residents pay the same rates?

No. A non-resident individual is taxed at a flat rate on Malaysian employment income and gets no reliefs and no rebate. Residence is decided by days present in Malaysia, not by nationality or by the kind of pass held.