Donations, Gifts and Section 44(6) Approved Institutions

The receipt says tax exempt under subsection 44(6). That sentence is printed by the charity, not by LHDN, and it is only true while the approval is live. Approvals lapse. LHDN’s own checker carries a status value for it — TAMAT TEMPOH KELULUSAN, approval expired — alongside KELULUSAN DITARIK BALIK, approval withdrawn. Donate in the gap and the deduction is gone, however genuine the gift.

What s.44(6) actually allows

Under s.44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967 there is deducted from aggregate income a gift of money made to:

• the Federal Government, a State Government or a local authority — no limit; or
• an institution, organisation or fund approved by the Director General on the application of that body — limited to 10% of aggregate income.

The deduction is from aggregate income, after any s.44(1) adjustment. It cannot create a loss and it cannot be carried forward. Give more than you can absorb and the excess is simply lost.

Note what does not qualify. Section 44(6) covers a gift of money only. Goods, services, volunteer time and sponsorship-in-kind are outside it, and the in-kind routes that do exist are narrow — artefacts, manuscripts and paintings to government under s.44(6A), facilities for disabled persons under s.44(9), medical equipment to an approved healthcare facility under s.44(10), and paintings to the National or a state art gallery under s.44(11).

The 10% is one pot, not four

This is where competent preparers still get it wrong. The provisos to subsections 44(11B), (11C) and (11D) each cap the deduction at the difference between 10% of aggregate income and the total already deducted under the other three. Read together with s.44(6), the effect is a single shared ceiling.

Provision	Gift	Shares the 10% ceiling
s.44(6)	Money to an approved institution, organisation or fund	Yes
s.44(11B)	Money for a sports activity approved by the Minister	Yes
s.44(11C)	Money or contribution in kind for a project of national interest approved by the Minister	Yes
s.44(11D)	Wakaf to an approved religious authority or body, or endowment to a public university	Yes
s.44(6)	Money to Government, State Government or local authority	No — uncapped
s.44(8)	Money for public library facilities	No — separate RM20,000 cap
s.44(11A)	Zakat perniagaan	No — separate one-fortieth cap

How to verify approval before you donate

This is the step nobody publishes, and it takes two minutes.

1. Open LHDN’s Semakan Kelulusan Derma checker under the Institusi/Organisasi/Tabung Bukan Berasaskan Keuntungan section of hasil.gov.my.
2. Search by Nama Institusi or, better, by the No. Rujukan Kelulusan printed on the receipt. Searching by reference number defeats near-identical charity names.
3. Set Subseksyen to SUBSEKSYEN 44(6) AKTA CUKAI PENDAPATAN 1967. The same tool also covers s.44(11D) wakaf and endowment, and the separate exemption route under the Income Tax (Exemption) Order 2020, P.U.(A) 139/2020 — three different regimes that a receipt may cite loosely.
4. Check Kategori. Approvals are granted to specific vehicles — institution or organisation, wakaf, endowment, school building fund, place-of-worship construction fund, place-of-worship management fund, welfare and education fund. A body approved for one fund is not approved for another.
5. Read Status. Only DILULUSKAN and DILULUSKAN (LANJUTAN TEMPOH) — approved, and approved with an extension of period — support a claim. TAMAT TEMPOH KELULUSAN and KELULUSAN DITARIK BALIK do not.

The existence of an extension status is the tell: approval is granted for a period, not permanently. Check on the date of the gift, not the date of the claim, and keep a dated screenshot with the receipt.

If a body has been refused, s.44(6B) gives it 30 days from being informed to appeal to the Minister — which is why a charity may honestly describe an application as pending. Pending is not approved.

Common mistakes

Claiming 10% of chargeable income. The cap is 10% of aggregate income, which sits several lines earlier in the computation.

Stacking four separate 10% claims for institution, sports, national-interest and wakaf gifts. The provisos share one ceiling.

Trusting the receipt wording. The claim to approval is the charity’s, and it is frequently stale.

Claiming a gift in kind under s.44(6). Only money qualifies.

Companies forgetting the basis-period rule. For a company, LLP, trust body or co-operative, s.44(12) reads references to the basis year as the basis period for that year of assessment.

What’s next

Before your next corporate donation, run the reference number through the checker and file the result with the payment voucher. If you plan to give more than 10% of aggregate income, split the gift across two basis periods — the excess in one year is not deferred, it is lost.