Reliefs & tax saving · YA 2025 & 2026 · For everyone
Every Malaysian income tax relief, in one checklist
Reliefs are money off the income you get taxed on. Claim the ones you are entitled to and your tax drops; miss them and you quietly overpay. This is the full list for YA 2025 and YA 2026, with the exact ringgit caps, the reliefs people most often forget, and the ones you cannot claim (getting that wrong is how a penalty starts). Save it, then tick your way down before you file.
How do tax reliefs actually work?
A relief lowers your chargeable income — the number LHDN applies the tax rate to — not your tax bill directly. So a RM2,500 lifestyle relief does not save you RM2,500; it saves you RM2,500 times your tax rate (for most people, a few hundred ringgit per relief). Stack enough of them and the total is real money. Three rules catch everyone: reliefs never carry forward (unused this year is gone), the claim belongs to the year you paid (not when the service happened), and every claim needs a receipt kept for 7 years.
Why the checklist is worth an evening
Of RM 70,000 gross, RM 25,000 is relieved and RM 45,000 is chargeable, giving RM 1,200 tax.
Everyone gets these
The starting three apply to almost every filer. The first is automatic; the other two come straight off your EA form or EPF statement, so there is no excuse to miss them.
Automatic & statutory
Family & children
These are where the biggest amounts hide. Spouse relief needs a spouse with no income — even a part-time salary kills it. Child relief has three tiers by age and study stage, and the in-between pre-university tier (A-Levels, matrikulasi, asasi) is the one people forget.
Spouse, children & parents
Health, insurance & retirement
The medical relief is the single most misread line on the form. It looks like three separate items, but LHDN and the live MyTax portal treat it as one shared RM10,000 ceiling for you, your spouse and your children — covering listed serious diseases and fertility treatment, with RM1,000 sub-limits for vaccination, dental, and a full check-up or mental-health consultation. Your parents' medical (RM8,000 above) sits outside this, so it is not affected.
Health, insurance & retirement
Lifestyle & learning
The general lifestyle relief is the everyday one: books, a phone, computer or tablet, your internet bill, and gym membership. Sports gets a separate extra RM1,000 on top, but the same receipt can only go in one of them. And if you paid a professional body subscription for your job — this is the "professional fees" a lot of salaried people ask about — it is claimable in full, with no cap.
Lifestyle, self-development & profession
Home, EV & travel (the newer ones)
Two reliefs worth knowing because they are recent and easy to miss. First-home loan interest is new from YA 2025 and can be large. Domestic tourism is a YA 2026-only relief for Visit Malaysia Year — it did not exist for YA 2025, so do not try to claim it on a 2025 return.
The recent additions
If you are OKU (registered disabled)
These stack on top of everything above and need a JKM OKU card. Budget 2025 raised most of them, so old blog posts understate the amounts.
Disability (OKU) reliefs
Rebates — even better than reliefs
A rebate comes off the tax itself, ringgit-for-ringgit, so it beats a relief of the same size. These are applied after your tax is worked out.
- Zakat / fitrah: reduces your tax ringgit-for-ringgit, up to the total tax charged (no refund of any excess), for the same year you paid it. Not a relief — a rebate.
- RM400 rebate if your chargeable income (after all reliefs) is RM35,000 or below, plus another RM400 if you claim the spouse relief. This is why income below roughly RM37,000 after reliefs usually pays zero.
- Donations to LHDN-approved institutions are deductible up to 10% of your aggregate income — keep the official approved receipt.
6 traps people get wrong
Reliefs cut both ways: underclaiming quietly costs you money, while overclaiming can get you fined if LHDN checks. The aim is to claim everything you are owed and nothing you are not. These are the six mix-ups that catch the most people:
- Medical is ONE RM10,000 ceiling, not three separate RM10,000 items. And ordinary GP visits for flu, cough or fever are not claimable at all.
- The RM1,500-per-parent relief is gone (removed YA 2023). Only the RM8,000 parent medical and care relief remains — blogs still list the old one.
- Spouse relief needs a spouse with no income. Even a part-time salary removes the RM4,000. Alimony shares the same RM4,000 — it does not stack on top.
- SSPN is the NET amount — deposits minus any withdrawals in the same year. Put in RM10,000 and take out RM8,000, and only RM2,000 is claimable.
- One receipt, one lane. A laptop claimed under lifestyle relief cannot also be a business asset. And LHDN excludes sports attire like shoes from "sports equipment" — claim those under general lifestyle instead.
- "Serious disease" is a specific LHDN list (cancer, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and so on). Common conditions like hyperthyroid are not on it, so their treatment is not claimable under medical relief.
When do I file?
For income earned in a year, you file the following year: Form BE (salary, no business) by 30 April, e-Filing grace to 15 May; Form B (any business or freelance income) by 30 June, e-Filing grace to 15 July. Reliefs you are paying for now belong to this calendar year's assessment — so the smart move is to track them as you go, not dig through a shoebox next April. If you are not sure which form is yours, the Form B vs Form BE guide settles it in 30 seconds.
Frequently asked questions
What is the one relief most people forget to claim?
Usually the Private Retirement Scheme (RM3,000), education and medical insurance (RM4,000), and the full RM2,500 lifestyle relief. Parents also forget parent medical and care (RM8,000). None of these are automatic, so if you do not enter them, you simply do not get them.
Can I claim my normal clinic or GP receipts?
No. Everyday visits for flu, cough or fever, and ordinary medicine, are not claimable. Medical relief only covers a defined list of serious diseases, fertility treatment, vaccination, dental, a full check-up and mental-health consultations, all inside one RM10,000 ceiling with RM1,000 sub-limits. Keep lifestyle and medical receipts separate.
If I do not use a relief this year, does it carry forward?
No. Reliefs are use-it-or-lose-it each year of assessment, and there is no banking an unused amount for next year. Timing follows the payment date too: a relief belongs to the year you paid, not the year the service happened.
What is the difference between a relief and a rebate?
A relief lowers your chargeable income before tax is worked out. A rebate comes off the tax itself, ringgit-for-ringgit, so it is stronger. Zakat and the RM400 low-income rebate are rebates; almost everything else on this page is a relief.
How long do I keep the receipts?
Seven years from the end of that year of assessment. LHDN can ask you to prove any claim in a filed return for up to seven years, so snap a photo of every receipt the day you get it. A faded receipt is a lost deduction.
