Malaysia income tax calculator 2026
Reliefs, rebates, chargeable income, and effective tax rate.
Estimate your Malaysian personal income tax for Year of Assessment 2026. Enter your annual income and the reliefs you can claim — EPF, life insurance, medical, parents' medical, SSPN, PRS, SOCSO/EIS, lifestyle, sports, childcare, and child and spouse relief — plus any zakat paid, and the calculator returns your chargeable income, tax before and after rebates, total tax payable, effective rate, and an approximate monthly PCB.
How the income tax calculator works
A personal relief of RM9,000 is applied automatically, then your other reliefs are added — each capped at its own statutory limit, independently of the others — and subtracted from your annual income to give chargeable income.
Child relief is tiered rather than flat: RM2,000 for a child under 18, RM8,000 for a child aged 18 and over in tertiary education at diploma level or above, RM6,000 for a disabled child, and RM14,000 for a disabled child in higher education.
Zakat is a rebate, not a relief. That makes it far more valuable than a relief of the same size: RM1 of relief only saves you your marginal rate, while RM1 of zakat cancels RM1 of tax outright. It cannot create a refund, so it is capped at the tax still standing.
Tax is computed on chargeable income using the resident progressive bands for YA 2026. A rebate of RM400 applies when chargeable income is RM35,000 or less, with an extra RM400 if spouse relief is claimed.
The effective rate is total tax payable divided by your annual income, and the monthly PCB is the annual tax spread across 12 months.
Resident tax bands (YA 2026)
| Chargeable income (RM) | Rate on band |
|---|---|
| 0 – 5,000 | 0% |
| 5,001 – 20,000 | 1% |
| 20,001 – 35,000 | 3% |
| 35,001 – 50,000 | 6% |
| 50,001 – 70,000 | 11% |
| 70,001 – 100,000 | 19% |
| 100,001 – 400,000 | 25% |
| 400,001 – 600,000 | 26% |
| 600,001 – 2,000,000 | 28% |
| Above 2,000,000 | 30% |
Tax is progressive — each rate applies only to income within that band.
Worked examples
RM72,000 income with RM15,500 of reliefs
- Annual income: RM72,000
- Reliefs: RM9,000 personal + RM4,000 EPF + RM2,500 lifestyle
- No spouse or child relief
Result: Chargeable income RM56,500 → tax of RM2,215 for the year (≈ RM185/month), an effective rate of about 3.08%.
Frequently asked questions
- Who needs to file income tax in Malaysia?
- Generally, residents earning more than RM34,000 a year after EPF deduction must register and file with LHDN. Filing for YA 2026 is typically done in early 2027.
- Is this the same as PCB / MTD?
- PCB (Potongan Cukai Berjadual / Monthly Tax Deduction) is the monthly withholding by your employer. The monthly figure here is an annual-tax-over-12 estimate, which is close but not identical to the official PCB schedule.
- Which reliefs are capped?
- Every relief has its own independent cap, and they do not pool. EPF is capped at RM4,000 and life insurance/takaful separately at RM3,000 — these are often quoted together as "RM7,000", but unused life insurance headroom cannot absorb EPF beyond RM4,000. Lifestyle is RM2,500 with a separate RM1,000 for sports, medical RM10,000, SSPN RM8,000, PRS RM3,000, and SOCSO/EIS RM350. The calculator applies each cap for you and shows which ones you have maxed out.