Tax relief receipts: a year-end checklist for Malaysia

Relief for this year counts what you paid this year. Once 31 December passes, what you have not paid waits for next year, and a receipt you cannot find is a claim you may struggle to prove. Here is a checklist for the weeks that are left.

1. Read the official list first

   LHDN publishes the reliefs and their limits for each year of assessment, and they can change with each Budget. Check them on hasil.gov.my before you buy anything for a claim. A blog, a friend or an app is not the rule book, and that includes this one.

2. Gather receipts from everywhere they hide

   • The drawer, your wallet and the car
   • Photos already on your phone
   • Emailed receipts and e-invoices, in every inbox you use
   • Order histories in online shops
   • Card and eWallet statements: good for finding what you bought, so you can look for the receipt that goes with it

3. Take a picture of every paper receipt

   Receipts printed on thermal paper fade. A clear photo taken now can still be read years from now, when the paper is blank.

4. Decide each one: claim it, part of it, or not

   For every receipt, decide which relief it goes under, whether only part of it qualifies (an insurance premium, or a bill you shared with someone), or whether it does not qualify at all. Note why while you still remember.

5. Add up each relief against its limit

   Then you know what is left before 31 December, and where you have already reached the limit. Do not spend only to use up a relief: a relief lowers the income you are taxed on, it does not give the money back.

6. Pay before 31 December

   Something paid on 2 January counts toward next year, not this one.

7. Keep it for seven years

   LHDN can ask to see your records for up to seven years. Keep the receipts together with the list behind your figures, in one place you will find again.

Doing it on your phone with Daybook

Daybook is our expense tracker. With Daybook Pro, Tax claims covers this whole list in one place. Snap a receipt and it is read on your phone. Mark it against relief buckets you name yourself, with the limits you set. See what is still to look at. Then seal the year into one file: a summary PDF, a list of every claim, and the receipt photos behind it.

Daybook counts what you mark. It does not tell you what you may claim or how much, and it does not file anything with LHDN.

Step by step: track tax relief in Daybook

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

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