# Malaysian Tax Incentives Directory — Agency, Mechanism, Instrument, Status

> Every Malaysian tax incentive we could confirm against its own instrument or published guideline — the administering agency, the sector, the mechanism, the statutory basis, and whether it is still open to new applications.

- Category: taxation
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-20
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/taxation/tax-incentives-directory

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Most incentive lists on the Malaysian web are copies of a copy. They still offer
Pioneer Status, still describe the Principal Hub as though you can apply for it,
and never say which gazette order any of it rests on. The rule applied here is
narrower and duller: **an incentive appears below only if its own instrument or
official guideline was opened and read**, and the status column reports what that
document itself says about the application window.

That rule removed several well-known entries. It also produced a finding no
agency site states plainly — a large share of Malaysia's headline incentives are
currently promises without instruments.

## How do you read this directory?

**Mechanism** is the tax machinery, and the four are not interchangeable:

| Mechanism | What it does | Typical statutory hook |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Special tax rate** | Charges a reduced rate on chargeable income | s.6(1A) and Schedule 1 Part XVII, via rules under s.154(1)(b), with conditions under s.65B |
| **Income tax exemption** | Exempts statutory income, often by reference to capital expenditure | s.127(3)(b) |
| **Allowance** | Reduces statutory income by a percentage of qualifying capital expenditure | Schedule 3, Schedule 7A, Schedule 7B |
| **Deduction** | Reduces adjusted income before statutory income | s.33(1)(d), via rules under s.154(1)(b) |

A **special tax rate is not an exemption**, and an in-scope Pillar Two group
should read every low rate here against the 15% effective-rate floor before
modelling anything.

**Status** is the most perishable field on this page. Where a Rules instrument
caps applications at a date, that date is quoted from the instrument. Where only
a guideline exists, the guideline's own effective-date paragraph is quoted and
the absence of a gazette order is stated.

## Which incentives are still open to new applications?

| Incentive | Agency | Sector | Mechanism | Instrument or basis | Window |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **New Incentive Framework** — Special Tax Rate or ITA | MITI / MIDA | Manufacturing | Special rate 0–10%, or ITA up to 100% | Guideline names s.65B, s.6(1A), para 6(1)(m), Sch 1 Pt XVII, and s.127(3)(b) — **no order gazetted** | From 1 March 2026 |
| **Global Services Hub** | MIDA | Services | Special rate 5% (Tier 1) or 10% (Tier 2); existing companies taxed on value-added income | GS-Hub Guideline para 5.1(e): rate to be provided under s.6(1A), s.65B, s.154 — **no order gazetted** | 14 Oct 2023 – 31 Dec 2027 |
| **JS-SEZ package** | MIDA, with IMFC-J | Manufacturing, services, logistics, tourism | Special rate 5% or 10%, or ITA 60–100% | JS-SEZ Guideline V2 names s.65B and P.U.(A) 113/2006 — **no JS-SEZ order gazetted** | 1 Jan 2025 – 31 Dec 2034 |
| **DESAC** — Digital Ecosystem Acceleration | MIDA | Submarine cable, data centre and cloud | New company: ITA-equivalent exemption 100% or 60%, **or** special rate 10% or 15%. Existing company: 60% or 30%, against 70% of statutory income | DESAC Guideline, MOF ref MOF.TAX(S)700-2/1/208 | 1 Jan 2022 – 31 Dec 2027 |
| **Single Family Office Incentive Scheme** | **Securities Commission** | Family office, Pulau 1 Forest City | Special rate **0%** for ten years of assessment, then **0%** for a further ten | **P.U.(A) 350/2025** rules, and **P.U.(A) 351/2025** share-disposal exemption | 1 Sep 2024 – 31 Dec 2034 |
| **Reinvestment Allowance** | Self-assessed, LHDN | Manufacturing, selected agriculture | Allowance on qualifying capital expenditure | Schedule 7A, Income Tax Act 1967 | Statutory, per the Schedule |

The Forest City entry carries four gazetted companions, all keyed to the same
Pulau 1 boundary defined by Gazette Plan PW50276:

| Relief | Instrument | Outer date in the instrument |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Industrial building allowance for qualifying financial-services persons | **P.U.(A) 359/2025** | Capital expenditure incurred by **31 Dec 2034** |
| Deduction of business relocation cost | **P.U.(A) 360/2025** | Deemed in operation 1 Sep 2024 |
| Exemption for non-residents on s.4A and para 4(f) income, disapplying ss.109B and 109F | **P.U.(A) 357/2025** | Income received **on or before 31 Aug 2034** |
| RPGT relief for non-citizen, non-PR individuals | **P.U.(A) 358/2025** | SPA executed 1 Sep 2024 – **31 Jul 2034**, stamped before 1 Sep 2034 |

Stamp duty remissions and exemptions for the same zone sit at **P.U.(A)
352/2025** to **356/2025**.

## Which incentives are closed?

This is the half of the directory competitor pages do not carry, and it is the
half that changes a decision.

| Incentive | Agency | Mechanism | Instrument | Application window in the instrument |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Pioneer Status and ITA under the PIA 1986** | MIDA | Exemption or allowance | Promotion of Investments Act 1986 | Manufacturing applications closed **3.00 p.m., 28 February 2026** |
| **Principal Hub Incentive Scheme** | MIDA | Special rate 5% or 10%, five years of assessment | **P.U.(A) 164/2022**, rule 2 | 1 Jan 2021 – **31 Dec 2022** |
| **Global Trading Centre** | MIDA | Special rate **10%**, five years of assessment | **P.U.(A) 48/2022**, rules 2 and 5 | 1 Jan 2021 – **31 Dec 2022** |
| **Relocation of Manufacturing Business** | MIDA | Special rate **0%** — ten years for fixed assets of RM300m to RM500m, fifteen years above RM500m | **P.U.(A) 241/2023**, rules 5(1), 7 and 8 | 1 Jul 2020 – **31 Dec 2024** |
| **Relocation of Provision of Services** | MIDA | Special rate up to 10% for a new company, 10% for an existing one, up to ten years of assessment | **P.U.(A) 398/2022**, rules 2 and 5 | 7 Nov 2020 – **31 Dec 2022** |
| **State of Kelantan Special Incentive Scheme** | **ECERDC** | Special rate **0%** for fifteen years of assessment, then **17%** for five, extendable by five | **P.U.(A) 269/2025**, rules 5(1), 7, 8 and 9 | 1 Aug 2021 – **31 Dec 2024** |
| **Kelantan scheme — C-Suite executive** | ECERDC | Individual rate **15%** for five years of assessment | **P.U.(A) 270/2025**, rules 6 and 7 | Tied to the parent scheme |
| **ECER knowledge worker** | ECERDC | Individual rate **15%** under Schedule 1 Part XIV | **P.U.(A) 330/2023**, rule 3 | 1 Jan 2022 – **31 Dec 2024**, and confined to the **Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park** |
| **Green Investment Tax Allowance — asset** | MGTC verification | Exemption equal to qualifying capital expenditure | **P.U.(A) 243/2024**, para 4 | Verification applications to **31 Dec 2023**; capex 25 Oct 2013 – 31 Dec 2023 |
| **Green Income Tax Exemption — services** | MIDA | Exemption capped at **70%** of statutory income | **P.U.(A) 246/2024**, para 4 | 1 Jan 2020 – **31 Dec 2023** |

The Kelantan pair deserves its own line. **P.U.(A) 269/2025 was gazetted on
26 August 2025, eight months after rule 5(1) had already closed applications on
31 December 2024.** The instrument exists to give legal effect to approvals
already granted, not to invite new ones. Reading the gazette date as an opening
date gets this exactly backwards, and the AGC index offers no warning: the status
field reads PRINCIPAL.

## Why do so many incentives have no instrument?

Three of the four largest incentives now being marketed to inbound investors
share a sentence. The **New Incentive Framework** guideline says the Special Tax
Rate is to be provided through subsidiary legislation. The **Global Services
Hub** guideline, at para 5.1(e), says the Tax Rate is to be provided through a
subsidiary legislation. The **JS-SEZ** guideline, at Appendix A para 5, says the
incentive is to be provided through subsidiary legislation in the exercise of the
powers conferred in Section 65B.

A subsidiary-legislation sweep of the AGC database, whose index is current to
**8 July 2026**, returns no instrument for any of the three. What an approved
applicant holds is an approval-in-principle letter from MIDA — an administrative
decision — not a relief with an instrument behind it.

Contrast that with Forest City, where eleven instruments were gazetted together
on 3 October 2025, and with Kelantan, where the rules eventually arrived. The
pattern is that the orders do come; they come late, and a return cannot be filed
against an intention.

## Common mistakes

**Treating an AGC status of PRINCIPAL as proof an instrument is live.** The field
is an instrument *type*, not an in-force flag — P.U.(A) 458/2012 still returns
PRINCIPAL despite having been revoked in 2024. For an incentives directory, built
entirely out of exemption orders, this is the defect that matters most. Open the
operative text.

**Reading the gazette date as the application date.** Kelantan is the clean
counter-example. So is the Forest City package, gazetted in October 2025 but
deemed in operation from 1 September 2024.

**Assuming Pioneer Status is still on the table.** It is the single most common
error in this space right now.

**Mixing up the two Global Services Hub tracks.** The national scheme requires
seven network companies including three related companies. The JS-SEZ version at
Flagship A and B requires ten network companies, RM50 million of annual operating
expenditure and five key personnel at RM35,000 a month. Same name, different
tests.

**Modelling a 0% or 5% rate inside a group above EUR 750 million.** The Domestic
Top-Up Tax floor makes the number unreachable, and the saving is collected
somewhere else.

**Citing a Budget proposal as current law.** Budget 2026's *Langkah Cukai*
appendix contains no measure on the special economic zones, the Forest City zone
or the services hub. Nothing in this directory changed in that Budget.

## What's next

Before relying on any row above, do two things. Open the instrument named in the
row and read its application-window paragraph — those windows are the field most
likely to have moved since this page was written. Then, where the row says no
order has been gazetted, ask MIDA in writing what instrument your approval will
be issued under, and keep the answer.

For the framework that replaced Pioneer Status, see
[the New Incentive Framework](/en/taxation/new-incentive-framework). For the zone
and hub packages compared on rate, tenure and clawback, see
[special zones and hub incentives](/en/taxation/special-zones-and-hubs). For
gazetted double and further deductions, see the
[double deduction directory](/en/taxation/double-deduction-list). For who
administers what, see the
[investment agency directory](/en/business/investment-agency-directory).

## Sources

- Income Tax (Single Family Office Incentive Scheme) (Pulau 1 of Forest City Special Financial Zone) Rules 2025, P.U.(A) 350/2025 — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputp/3109140/P.U.%20(A)%20350_2025.pdf (Attorney General's Chambers)
- Income Tax (State of Kelantan Special Incentive Scheme) Rules 2025, P.U.(A) 269/2025 — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputp/3038524/PUA%20269.pdf (Attorney General's Chambers)
- Income Tax (The Principal Hub Incentive Scheme) Rules 2022, P.U.(A) 164/2022 — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputp/1732397/PUA%20164.pdf (Attorney General's Chambers)
- Income Tax (Global Trading Centre Incentive Scheme) Rules 2022, P.U.(A) 48/2022 — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputp/1725091/PUA%2048%20(2022).pdf (Attorney General's Chambers)
- Guidelines for Global Services Hub (GS-Hub) Tax Incentive — https://www.mida.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GS-Hub_Guideline_MIDA.pdf (MIDA)
- Guidelines for Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) Tax Incentive Package, V2 — https://www.mida.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Guideline-JSSEZ-V2.pdf (MIDA)
- Guidelines and Procedures for the Application of Digital Ecosystem Acceleration (DESAC) Scheme — https://www.mida.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/DESAC-Guideline_MIDA.pdf (MIDA)
- Income Tax Act 1967 (Act 53), reprint as at 21 May 2024 — Schedule 1 Parts XIV and XVII, Schedule 7A, s.65B, s.127(3)(b) — https://www.hasil.gov.my/wp-content/uploads/20240521-akta-cukai-pendapatan-1967-akta-53.pdf (LHDN)

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