Malaysia Income Tax Calculator
Estimate your YA2025 Malaysian resident income tax using LHDN's progressive brackets, the automatic personal relief, and the low-income rebate.
What this calculator does
Estimates your Malaysian resident income tax for YA2025, applying LHDN's progressive brackets to your chargeable income after reliefs, plus the RM400 low-income rebate if you qualify.
Who this is for
Malaysian tax residents estimating their annual tax bill, anyone comparing a job offer, or people wanting to understand the difference between gross salary and the much lower chargeable income their tax is actually based on.
How this calculator works
Uses LHDN's YA2025 resident progressive rate table (0% up to RM5,000, rising to 30% above RM2,000,000), applied to chargeable income after the automatic RM9,000 individual relief plus any additional reliefs you enter (EPF, insurance, lifestyle, etc.). A RM400 rebate then applies if chargeable income doesn't exceed RM35,000, coming directly off the calculated tax.
Worked example
RM78,000 gross income, no additional reliefs entered beyond the automatic RM9,000: chargeable income = RM78,000 − RM9,000 = RM69,000. This falls in the RM50,000–RM70,000 bracket: RM1,500 base + 11% × (69,000 − 50,000) = RM1,500 + (11% × 19,000) = RM1,500 + RM2,090 = RM3,590 total tax, an effective rate of about 4.6% on gross income — well below the 11% marginal bracket rate.
A second example at a higher income: RM159,000 gross with the automatic RM9,000 relief gives RM150,000 chargeable income, falling in the RM100,000–400,000 bracket at 26%, base RM9,400. Tax = RM9,400 + 26% × (150,000 − 100,000) = RM9,400 + RM13,000 = RM22,400, an effective rate of about 14.1% on gross income — still far below the 26% marginal rate this income sits in.
How Malaysia Compares to Singapore
Malaysia and Singapore share a land border and an unusually large daily commuter flow — roughly 300,000 people cross the Johor Bahru-Singapore causeway each day, many of them Malaysians working in Singapore for the wage differential while living at Malaysia's lower cost of living. This makes the tax comparison more than academic for a huge number of people on both sides.
The systems differ structurally more than the headline top rates suggest. Malaysia taxes residents 0-30% with the automatic RM9,000 relief reducing chargeable income upfront. Singapore's resident rates run 0-24% across 13 much narrower bands, with a S$20,000 tax-free threshold. For a like-for-like mid-career salary, Singapore's system generally works out cheaper in percentage terms — one reason the commuter flow runs so heavily toward Singapore-based employment despite the higher cost of living there.
A genuinely distinctive Malaysian feature with no Singapore equivalent: dividends and share/ETF capital gains are entirely tax-free for individuals in Malaysia, which can matter significantly for anyone building an investment portfolio alongside employment income.
Where your income goes
Run the calculator above to see the tax vs. take-home split.
YA2025 tax bracket breakdown
Run the calculator above to see your income split across brackets.
Common mistakes
- Confusing gross salary with chargeable income. Malaysia's brackets apply to chargeable income — gross income minus all reliefs — which for a typical salaried employee is RM15,000–30,000 lower than gross pay.
- Missing the RM400 rebate cliff. The rebate only applies if chargeable income is RM35,000 or below; it does not phase out, so crossing that line by even RM1 removes the full RM400.
- Forgetting dividends and share gains are tax-free. Malaysia exempts single-tier dividends and share/ETF capital gains entirely from personal income tax — don't add them to your taxable income by mistake.
- Not claiming all eligible reliefs. Beyond the automatic RM9,000 relief, EPF contributions, life insurance, lifestyle expenses, and several other categories can meaningfully lower chargeable income if properly claimed — many taxpayers under-claim simply by not tracking eligible expenses through the year.
- Assuming Malaysia and Singapore tax the same way just because they're neighbors. Malaysia's 0-30% brackets with a flat RM9,000 relief and Singapore's 0-24% finely-graduated 13-band system produce meaningfully different effective rates at the same income level — don't assume a Singapore estimate transfers directly.
- Forgetting non-residents pay a flat 30% with no reliefs. Tax residency (182+ days in Malaysia in the calendar year) is a hard requirement for accessing the progressive brackets and reliefs modeled here.
Related calculators
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my chargeable income so much lower than my gross salary?
Every resident gets an automatic RM9,000 individual relief, and additional reliefs for EPF contributions, insurance, lifestyle expenses, and more can lower it further. For a typical salaried employee, chargeable income often ends up RM15,000-30,000 below gross annual salary.
What tax year does this use?
Year of Assessment 2025 (income earned in 2025, filed via e-Filing in 2026), using the current LHDN progressive resident rate table.
What if I'm not a tax resident?
Non-residents pay a flat 30% on Malaysian-source income with no reliefs or rebates — this calculator only models resident rates, which apply if you spend 182+ days in Malaysia in the year.
Does this include EPF or other reliefs?
Only the automatic RM9,000 individual relief is applied by default, plus whatever you enter manually. Real chargeable income is usually lower after EPF, insurance, and lifestyle reliefs, so your actual tax is likely less than this estimate.
Is Malaysia or Singapore cheaper for income tax?
For most mid-career salaries, Singapore's system generally works out cheaper in percentage terms, thanks to its S$20,000 tax-free threshold and finely-graduated 0-24% bands. Malaysia's 0-30% brackets with a flat RM9,000 relief tend to produce a somewhat higher effective rate at comparable income levels.
Are dividends and share gains taxed in Malaysia?
No, single-tier dividends and share/ETF capital gains are entirely exempt from personal income tax in Malaysia — a notable difference from countries that tax investment income at the same rates as employment income.