Suggestions | Considering to move to KL,Malaysia

Once you qualify as being tax resident then you only pay the graduated rates on income.  Each band of salary is taxed at a specific percentage as opposed  to the flat rate of 28% when not tax resident. You can read about the rates here: https://www.pwc.com/my/en/publications/ … oklet.html

To work out the monthly tax, take your annual salary and apply the different rates. i.e. only the highest portion of salary is taxable at the upper rate. Once you work out this, then divide by 12 for the monthly tax deduction.

The eventual tax refund is the difference between resident and non-resident  rates, plus tax residents get a tax-free allowance of RM9000.

The salary you have been offered is good by local standards and you should be able once tax resident to live on half i.e. RM2k for accommodation and the same again for food and utilities.  Transport may be an issue though, as hiring a car or buying one eats into available money. Spouse unlikely to find work - so professional women often find  living here problematic. Malaysia is not a cheap place to live these days but check COL at expatistan and numbeo and ad 6% to be on the safe side.

Gravitas,
New year wishes to you. Thanks for you reply.

You reply helps me to get an idea, however, I'm still puzzled on my on hand salary if my income is 12000RM. If you can help me understand that, it'll be great.

Second, this means my on hand will be less for first 6 months, and if I continue to be in malaysia, my onhand will be higher as there won't be tax levied on it.

Kindly help me understand this.

Monthly living expenses will depend mainly on the rent you pay because of where you choose to live. If your rent is RM2500 per month then RM1500 for food and household needs and RM500 for utilities and mobile phones. Travel will depend on distance if you use public transport of about RM400 per month. So minimum will be about RM5000 per month.

Your understanding is not quite right. 1. You pay 28% tax for the first 182 days whilst you become tax resident. 2. The rest of the tax year you pay the graduated rates (which is less than 28%). 3. When you do your tax filing for 2018, you will get a refund  of the difference between 1) and 2) above i.e. the whole year is revisited and the whole period is taxed as if you were tax resident for throughout 2018

https://www.pwc.com/my/en/assets/public … ooklet.pdf

Based on annual salary March-December = RM120,000
Deduct RM9,000 (tax free allowance) = RM111,000 taxable salary. Then apply the different tax rates shown on Page 7.

Basically the tax on the first RM100,00 is RM10,900
Remaining RM11,000 is taxed at 24% so RM2,640
Total is RM13,540
Monthly rate (x 10 months) RM1,354

You will be refunded the difference between RM1,354 per month and RM2,800 (tax per month for the 6 months you paid non-resident tax). This takes place when you complete your tax report in March 2019.

Dear Gravitas,
thanks a lot for your time.
This helps a lot!