THE tax year-end of Dec 31, 2024 is around the corner. You still have about three weeks to ensure you pay the amount of tax, after taking into account all the available deductions, relief and opportunities to arbitrage the tax between yourself and the corporate vehicles in which between you have and interest.
Dividend Tax
Incase you are shareholder in a Malaysian company expecting to receive dividends next year, you could be subject to the 2% dividend tax if you receive dividends exceeding RM100,000 in 2025. Many companies are bringing forward their dividend payments before Dec 31, 2024, to avoid the 2% dividend tax. If you have shares in such companies, especially if you own private companies, it is possible to accelerate the dividends to be received by Dec 31, 2024.
If such dividends are paid by private companies, please ensure that the private companies can meet the solvency criteria under the Company Act 2016. Briefly, the company must be able to pay its debts, the assets of the company is more than it’s liabilities at the date of the dividend payment, the company will remain solvent for a period of six months after the date of declaration of the dividends, and the dividend payment will not result in the company being insolvent and its capital being impaired.
Other pointers
Review your tax position if you are a shareholder of a private company. SME’s are taxes at 15% for the first RM150,000, 17% for the next RM450,000 and thereafter at 24%. In case your personal tax bracket is above 24% after taking into account all reliefs and deductions available to you, you may wish to consider retaining the income in the company and drawing it out in the form of dividends which are tax Exempt.
In case you are a non-resident in Malaysia for 2024 under the 183-day rule, it will be advisable to be in the country on Dec31, 2024 and Jan 1, 2025, so that 2024 will be linked to 2025, and provided in 2025 you spend more than 183 days in Malaysia. This is to ensure you become a tax resident in 2024 and 2025 so that you will be eligible for tax reliefs and will be able to take advantage of the step-up rates of income tax from 0% to 30%.
You can being in your foreign sources of income such as rental income, employment income, investment income, capital gains, etc, without any taxation. In case of dividend income, it must have been subjected to tax in the country of origin.
You may want to discuss with your employee to increase the employer’s contribution to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) from the mandatory 12% to 19% , which is the maximum the employer will be allowed a tax deduction.
Reliefs and deductions
You should maximise all the reliefs available to you, and the common reliefs are personal relief, child relief, contribution to EPF, Socso, medical relief, lifestyle relief, medical treatment for parents, etc. For more details, refer to the Inland Revenue Board website. These relief will be automatically pop up when you fill your 2025 tax return in April. In order to claim the relief, you should keep the relevant receipts and supporting documents in case you are audited in the future.
You should obtain the Section 44(6) receipts for donations made to approved institutions or organisations. The maximum amount you can claim is 10% of your aggregate income from all sources (employment, rental, etc).
Rental Income
In case you are renting more than one property without providing any services, you can offset the current year loss from any property against the profit from other properties. The normal direct expenses such as quit rent, assessment, fire insurer, repairs and maintenance, etc, can be claimed against the rental income. However, you cannot claim capital allowance or losses brought forward.
This article is contributed by Thannees Tax Consulting Services Sdn Bhd managing director SM Thanneermalai (www.thannees.com).
This article was originally published on theSun.