How to File Your Taxes in Malaysia if You Changed Jobs Last Year (YA 2021)

Disclaimer: This article should not be considered to be legal advice, and altHR is not liable for any actions taken based on this article. As of 1 July 2023, altHR no longer offers a Payroll module.

It’s that time of the year again, with employers and employees in the thick of preparing their documents and processes in time for everyone’s favourite: tax season. It’s been said that there are only three certainties in life: life, death, and taxes — and even with the pandemic, filing your taxes is very much a similar process for many in 2022 for the Year of Assessment (YA) 2021.  

If you’re an employer in Malaysia, you should have already issued EA forms to your employers, with an official deadline of the 28th of February 2022 set by the LHDN. This is a fairly routine process for many — particularly those that use the Payroll module on altHR — but for employees that switched jobs midway through 2021, filing your tax returns might be slightly different. 

Here’s what you need to know. ‍

Who needs to file for income tax in Malaysia?

If this is your first job, you might be wondering if you need to file for income tax in 2022 (for YA 2021). The answer is pretty simple, particularly if you’re a salaried employee receiving the entirety of your income from your employers. 

According to the LHDN, individuals in Malaysia earning a minimum of RM34,000 after EPF deductions must register a tax file; those earning around RM3,000 per month and above would qualify here. If you’re filing your taxes for the first time, you’ll need to register at the nearest LHDN branch, or you can use the e-Daftar portal. 

Find out more about that here.

Do note that the due date for salaried employees to file their tax returns in Malaysia is the 30th of April 2022 (15 May for e-Filing). 

What if you changed jobs midway through 2021?

You will, of course, still need to file your taxes for YA 2021 — even if you changed employment halfway through the year, or even if you lost employment at some point of the year. It’s a similar process, and you’ll need EA forms from both your present and past employers to help you with this. As long as you received income from them, you’ll need an EA form from the organisation. 

It’s fairly straightforward from then on, and you can then combine the total income, SOCSO, EPF, MTD, and other relevant contributions and categories from both EA forms in your Form BE. Then, fill in your present employer’s tax number on your BE form, and submit your tax file in the same way that you’d usually do so.

A quick Google search, however, seems to bring up old threads (such as this or this) with complaints about ex employers who aren’t sending EA forms to former employees. Your first recourse should be to reach out to the organisation’s HR department, as it is legally mandatory to prepare the EA form for all employees by the end of February, under the Income Tax Act 1967 in Malaysia. 

If you somehow can’t get your hands on the EA form from your previous employers, you can still file your taxes for income (and other relevant contributions) received during your previous job. You’ll need to manually combine all details via salary slips and other statements (EPF, SOCSO, MTD) to complete the full year’s assessment — pay close attention to avoid miscalculations. 

It’s a tedious process, and we wouldn’t recommend it. To employers out there, generating an EA form is a legal requirement. The good news? You can also do so easily with our super app, altHR, and the LHDN-compliant Payroll module.