Malaysia Gambling Tax



Malaysia have Genting casino so it is silly not to have sports betting also to increase govt revenue. Just pass the law to exclude them from the gambling tax. Gambling activities in Malaysia are strongly regulated by a set of rules and laws, under the Betting Act 1953.Being mostly a Muslim country, the local authorities have created a legal framework which bans various gambling games. Written law in Malaysia involving betting, sweepstakes, lotteries, gaming machines or games of chance is taxable, and is subject to service tax. SERVICE TAX ON BETTING AND GAMING When Service Tax is Due and Payable 11. The service tax chargeable for gaming activity is based on the following special.

There are only a few things that are certain in life, and one of them is taxes. While most of us don’t look forward to tax season (unless you’re with the tax department) we can at least look forward to the silver linings that are tax reliefs and tax exemptions.

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Most Malaysians are familiar with tax reliefs, which you can file as income that won’t get taxed because you spent them on certain types of expenses. But you might not have known that there are also “tax exemptions” in the law - which are basically types of income that you pay 0% tax on. You can actually find a complete list of tax exemptions in Schedule 6 of the Income Tax Act 1967 (you may have to use Ctrl/Cmd + F to find it).

While some of these exemptions won’t apply to you at all, such as being Malaysian Royalty, and being a local council. Here are 5 tax exempted incomes that can easily apply to you.

1. Retirement Benefits

Even when a person retires and doesn’t have income from a job anymore, their pension and even gratuity payments are still considered part of their income. It feels really bad if you still have to pay income tax after retiring, but good news - Malaysians don’t pay any tax on that.

Firstly, pensions paid to people after reaching the age of retirement are exempt from tax under Schedule 6, Paragraph 30 of the Income Tax Act 1967. It’ll also apply when the pension is paid due to retirement from ill-health, or if the pension is paid under any other approved fund (even if you have not reached the legal age of retirement). One limitation of this law is for some people have multiple pension payouts, only their highest pension paid will be exempted from tax.

Next up you have money received as a gratuity from your employer when you retire, which is also tax exempt under Paragraph 25 of Schedule 6. This is that one-time payout your parents or maybe you yourself look to get from your employer upon retirement.

But maybe most surprising of all is that severance packages are also exempted from income tax. They’re sometimes known as VSS-s (Voluntary Separation Schemes) and are paid by employers to employees as compensation for losing their job out of nowhere. This paid sum is exempted from tax if it was due to ill-health, or if the amount does not exceed RM10,000 per year of service with the employer.

While you might be disappointed that you can’t benefit from these incomes until retirement, you can still take advantage of the RM6,000 tax relief you get under Section 49 of the Income Tax Act - which covers insurance premiums and your EPF contributions. Think of it as investing RM6,000 for your future self with the bonus of getting a sweet tax exemption.

2. Some Employment Benefits

You might already know this, but under Section 13(1) of the Income Tax Act 1967, your employment benefits are also considered part of your gross income. As stated in the law:

13. (1) Gross income of an employee in respect of gains or profits from an employment includes—
...(b) an amount equal to the value of the use or enjoyment by the employee of any benefit or amenity (not being a benefit or amenity convertible into money) provided for the employee by or on behalf of his employer, excluding...

Normally, you might have to pay tax on those benefits as well, but this is where there are some exceptions. Section 13(1)(b) states that the following are not considered part of your income:

Malaysia Gambling Tax Returns

  1. Medical and dental benefits

  2. Child care benefits

  3. 3 company trips within Malaysia

  4. 1 company trip outside Malaysia for up to RM3,000

  5. Any benefits used only for the performance of your job duties

  6. Accommodation provided by your employer

Anything not covered by the above list, or exceeds the limits of the list will be considered part of your income and will be taxable as normal.

3. Royalty Payments

Gambling

If there was any form of encouragement that the law gave to aspiring creative people, it would be this law. A huge amount of the income that comes from royalties is tax exempt in Malaysia. If you’ve not heard of royalties, they are basically the fees others pay to use an original creation of yours.

This tax exemption applies for individuals who are Malaysian citizens, and it’s divided into four main categories:

  1. RM10,000 of income from royalties of artistic works (excluding paintings), recording discs, or tapes.

  2. RM12,000 for payment received for translations of books or literary work done for the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education, or the Attorney General’s Chambers. (doesn’t apply if the translations were done as part of official duties).

  3. RM20,000 of income from royalties for any literary work or original painting.

  4. RM20,000 of income from royalties for musical compositions.

Any income exceeding the amounts above will be taxable as personal income. If you have that book you’ve been meaning to write for a long time, this law is a pretty good reason to finish writing it!

4. Scholarships

Even scholarships are considered income, but they’re also exempt from taxes. As stated in Paragraph 24 of Schedule 6 in the Income Tax Act, any money paid as a scholarship or other similar grant or allowance to someone is exempt from income tax.

There’s actually no age requirement for someone to start paying income tax, so if this exemption didn’t exist, students would have to pay tax on scholarships and bursaries that they receive. Take the example of Malaysian Lara Alana who was 3 years old in 2017 when she started earning enough from her reality TV show to pay income taxes.

On top of that, any grants that scientists and professors receive for their research are not taxed either. You could take the tax exemption as a sort of “nod of approval” from the government for new discoveries to be made through the scholarships.

5. Bank interest & certain dividends

Investments can really pay off if done correctly. A savings account is probably the most basic form of investment we can have, and yes, the interest we earn from our bank accounts is tax-free. Specifically, any interest earned from the following institutions is tax-free.

  1. A bank or finance company licensed under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989

  2. A bank licensed under the Islamic Banking Act 1983

  3. A development financial institution under the Development Financial Institutions Act 2002

  4. The Lembaga Tabung Haji

  5. The Malaysia Building Society Berhad

  6. The Borneo Housing Finance Berhad

If you invest in financial instruments like mutual funds and company shares, your dividend payments might also be exempt from tax. The following 4 types will qualify:

  1. Dividends from exempt accounts of companies

  2. Dividends from co-operative societies (such as the Koperasi Polis Diraja Malaysia Berhad)

  3. Dividends from units trusts approved by the Minister of Finance (like Amanah Saham Bumiputera)

  4. Dividends from unit trusts approved by the Minister of Finance where 90% or more of their investment is in government securities (securities like sovereign bonds)

Perhaps the most notable form of tax-free dividend from companies is from Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) or Property Trust Funds (PTFs). Under Section 61A(1) of the Income Tax Act, these two types of companies do not pay tax as long as they pay out 90% of their profits for the year as dividends to their shareholders - and those shareholders in turn don’t have to declare this income for tax purposes.

Tax benefits are sometimes used encourage certain government objectives

Governments commonly tweak tax laws to encourage different types of industries. For example, the Malaysian government was offering tax breaks on hybrid cars for a while before they ended in March 2017. If you’re looking to switch industries or enter new fields of work, you can actually take the current tax laws as an encouragement of which fields to consider entering. As an overall observation from the 5 laws above, people who create original works through creativity and research are quite handsomely rewarded by our current tax system.

If you have a company, a more relevant example to you might be that any profit paid to partners in a limited liability partnership (LLP) is tax exempt as well (Paragraph 12C of Schedule 6, Income Tax Act), making the LLP an attractive business form to use.

Malaysia Gambling Tax Refund

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With so much to see and do, it’s no surprise that theUnited States is one of the world’s top tourist destinations, attracting roughly 70 million people annually. For many visitors, nothing beats the sights and sounds of a casino—and the chance of winning big. Not all winners are created equal, though; depending on what country you live in, your winnings could be subject to a 30% withholding tax.

Under U.S. law, substantial gambling winnings, typically over $1,200, are considered taxable income and subject to a withholding tax, though not all forms of gambling are taxable. If you love playing slots, gambling, playing poker, taking a chance on the lottery, or betting on horse races, a portion of your winnings can get withheld. But no matter where you live, gambling income is not taxed if you like to play blackjack, baccarat, craps, roulette, or Big Six wheel.

As a result of individual tax treaties, the gambling income won by those living in certain countries is not taxable by the U.S. Some of the countries that have signed gaming treaty tax exemptions include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Malaysia Gambling Tax Records

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the gambling winnings of residents of these countries are free and clear; when you get home, your government will tax you on those winnings.

List of Countries Subject to 30% Withholding Tax

The tax exemption list might seem big, but there are a lot more countries not on that list; essentially, every other country in the world.

Malaysia gambling tax refund

If you’re from Malta, your gambling winnings are taxed at 10%. All other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Mexico, Malaysia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates, are subject to a 30% withholding tax.

Of the top 10 international markets that visit the U.S., half are subject to a 30% withholding tax. Canada and Mexico come in at first and second place, respectively, while Brazil (5th), China (7th), South Korea (9th), and Australia (10th) round out the list.

When it comes to visitor spending, six of the top 10 countries have 30% of their winnings taxed, including Canada (1st), Mexico (4th), Brazil (5th), China (6th), Australia (8th), and India (10th).

Not so coincidentally, tourists from these countries love visiting the gambling capitals of America. Las Vegas is the undisputed champion of gambling in the U.S., Los Angeles is the most popular gambling destination on the West Coast, and Atlantic City remains popular on the East Coast. That said, it’s legal to gamble in some form in most U.S. states; that means Canadians and other non-U.S. residents can take a chance on slot machines, poker, or horse racing from coast-to-coast.

Malaysia

RMS: The #1 Choice Internationally for Gaming and Casino Tax Refunds

Refund Management Services (RMS) has successfully completed the most U.S. gambling tax refunds for Canadians and other non-U.S. residents since 1998. In fact, Refund Management Services has NEVER BEEN REFUSED AN ELIGIBLE REFUND.

If you won a substantial amount while gambling in the U.S. and had 30% of your winnings withheld by the IRS, Refund Management Services can help. That’s because the U.S. casino tax recovery professionals at RMS have CA designation and are certified agents of the IRS for filing W-7 applications.

Malaysia Gambling Tax Credit

In order to claim the 30% U.S. casino tax withheld by the IRS, you need to meet several requirements:

  • You must be a non-U.S. citizen at the time of your winnings and have proof that you are not a resident of the U.S.
  • Your winnings (or a portion thereof) were withheld by a gaming facility in the U.S.
  • You make your claim within three years of winning.

Malaysia Gambling Tax Rate

If you’ve won money in the U.S. while gambling and have had a portion of your winnings withheld by the IRS, contact Refund Management Services toll-free from the United States or Canada at 1-888-272-5559.

In just five minutes, we’ll explain how RMS can help you get a portion or all of your gaming tax refund back. In some cases, we can get your withheld winnings returned in as little as six to nine weeks.

Sources:
U.S. Department of Commerce, “Fast Facts: United States Travel and Tourism Industry, 2013,” May 2014; http://travel.trade.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/Fast_Facts_2013.pdf.

U.S. Department of Commerce, “Top 10 International Markets: 2013 Visitation and Spending;” http://travel.trade.gov/pdf/2013-Top-10-Markets.pdf, last accessed November 27, 2014.





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