Malaysian Income Tax Reliefs for YA 2025

Tax reliefs are the single biggest lever an ordinary Malaysian has over their income tax bill. Every ringgit of relief you claim comes straight off your chargeable income, so knowing the full list is worth real money. Here are the main personal reliefs for Year of Assessment 2025 (the return you file in 2026).

The reliefs almost everyone can claim

• Individual relief - RM9,000. Granted automatically to every resident taxpayer. You do not need to do anything or keep receipts.
• EPF contributions - up to RM4,000. Your mandatory 11% EPF deductions count, capped at RM4,000.
• Life insurance & voluntary EPF - up to RM3,000. A separate bucket from the mandatory EPF relief above.
• Lifestyle relief - up to RM2,500. Books, a personal computer, smartphone or tablet, internet subscription. One shared cap covers all of them.
• Sports - an additional RM1,000 on top of lifestyle relief, covering sports equipment, facility rental, competition fees and gym membership.

Family reliefs

• Spouse relief - RM4,000 if your spouse has no income or you support an ex-spouse with alimony.
• Child relief - RM2,000 per unmarried child under 18. For a child aged 18+ in full-time higher education it rises to RM8,000.
• Childcare fees - up to RM3,000 for a registered childcare centre or kindergarten, for a child aged six and below.
• Disabled child - RM8,000 (with further amounts on top for a disabled child in higher education).

Health and care reliefs

• Medical for serious illness (self, spouse, child) - up to RM10,000, which also covers fertility treatment, vaccination and a capped amount for full medical check-ups and mental health treatment.
• Parents medical & care - up to RM8,000 for medical treatment, special needs and carer expenses for your parents.
• Supporting equipment - up to RM6,000 for a disabled self, spouse, child or parent.
• Disabled individual - RM6,000; disabled spouse - an additional RM5,000.

Savings, education and housing reliefs

• Education & medical insurance - up to RM3,000.
• Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) - up to RM3,000.
• SSPN (education savings) net deposit - up to RM8,000 for your child's education.
• Education fees (self) - up to RM7,000 for approved courses, including a capped amount for upskilling courses.
• Housing loan interest (first home) - up to RM7,000 a year for a first home priced up to RM500,000, or up to RM5,000 for RM500,001-RM750,000, for sale agreements signed between 2025 and 2027, claimable for three consecutive years.
• EV charging equipment - up to RM2,500 for the cost of installing, renting or subscribing to home EV charging facilities.

Reliefs are not rebates - know both

A relief reduces your chargeable income; a rebate cuts the final tax bill ringgit-for-ringgit, which makes rebates far more powerful. Two matter to individuals: if your chargeable income after all reliefs is RM35,000 or less, you get a RM400 rebate (and your spouse gets RM400 too under joint assessment); and any zakat or fitrah paid offsets your tax bill in full, up to the amount of the bill.

A worked example

Take a salary of RM60,000 a year (RM5,000 a month). With just the near-automatic reliefs - RM9,000 individual and RM4,000 EPF - chargeable income is RM47,000 and the tax comes to about RM1,320. Now add RM2,500 of lifestyle spending you were doing anyway and a RM3,000 life insurance premium: chargeable income falls to RM41,500 and the tax to about RM990. Fifteen minutes of claiming cut the bill by RM330 - and the payoff grows with your income, because each relief ringgit is saved at your top marginal rate.

How to actually use this

Add up every relief you genuinely qualify for and subtract the total from your annual income to get your chargeable income - that is the figure tax is calculated on. Two habits make a real difference:

• Keep your receipts for seven years. LHDN can ask you to prove any relief you claimed.
• Declare reliefs to your employer through Form TP1 so your monthly PCB is reduced during the year, rather than waiting for a refund.

Plug your numbers into our income tax calculator to see how much your reliefs save you. Relief amounts and caps can change with each Budget, so confirm the current figures on our Sources page or directly with LHDN before filing.