Malaysia VAT rate

What this value means

STRUCTURAL NULL - Malaysia has NO value added tax. The GST introduced on 1 April 2015 at 6% was reduced to 0% from 1 June 2018 by the Goods and Services Tax (Rate of Tax) (Amendment) Order 2018 [P.U. (A) 118/2018] and the GST Act 2014 [Act 762] was then repealed outright by the Goods and Services Tax (Repeal) Act 2018 [Act 805] with effect from 1 September 2018. In its place Malaysia reinstated SST, a SINGLE-STAGE tax in two separate statutes with no input-tax credit and therefore no VAT-equivalent standard rate: (1) SALES TAX under the Sales Tax Act 2018 [Act 806], levied once at the manufacturer/importer level on goods, at 5% or 10% depending on the tariff line, with 0% on many essentials and exempt/exempted classes; the rate schedule was revised with effect from 1 July 2025 so that discretionary and non-essential goods attract 5% or 10% while rates on essential goods were left unchanged. (2) SERVICE TAX under the Service Tax Act 2018 [Act 807], levied on prescribed taxable services supplied by registered persons at 8% since 1 March 2024 (raised from 6% by the Service Tax (Rate of Tax) (Amendment) Order 2024 [P.U. (A) 64/2024], gazetted 26 February 2024) - but food and beverage preparation, telecommunications, provision of parking space and logistics services remain at 6%, and credit/charge card services are taxed at a flat RM25 per card per year. The service tax base was materially widened from 1 July 2025 to cover leasing/rental, construction, financial services, private healthcare, private education and beauty services, with targeted exemptions. NO SINGLE NUMBER honestly represents 'the Malaysian VAT rate': the 8% service tax is not a VAT (it cascades, it applies only to listed services, and four service classes stay at 6%), and the 5%/10% sales tax applies to goods at a different stage of the chain. Serving either as a VAT standard rate would misstate the law, so this field is null by design. Consumers of this API who need the indirect-tax figure should use the sales tax and service tax series separately. VERIFICATION NOTE: the commonly cited 'P.U. (A) 65/2024' for the 8% service tax rate is WRONG - P.U. (A) 65/2024 is the Service Tax (Imposition of Tax for Taxable Service in Respect of Designated Areas and Special Areas) (Amendment) Order 2024; the rate order is P.U. (A) 64/2024, independently re-confirmed on the Attorney General's Chambers Federal Legislation portal and against practitioner reproductions of the gazetted Order. ACCESS QUIRK: mysst.customs.gov.my returns HTTP 404 on most deep legislation paths; lom.agc.gov.my act-view.php responds to plain HTTP clients and is the reliable primary index.

Earlier values

Get it programmatically

curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/my/vat
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/my/vat/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/my/vat

Other Malaysia series: policy interest rate · minimum wage · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates