11th September 2026 - 5 min read
Donating to a registered charity doesn’t automatically qualify you for a tax deduction. The organisation must first be approved by Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) under Subsection 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967, and being registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) or the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) isn’t the same thing.
Julie Adila Mat Hassan, director of the Approval and Monitoring Division in LHDN’s Tax Policy Sector, spoke about this on the Bernama Radio programme Fokus 30 on 9 September 2026. She advised donors to check an organisation’s approval status before making a donation, rather than relying on its registration or claims made in fundraising materials.
For individual taxpayers, qualifying donations can be deducted from aggregate income when filing an income tax return, subject to a limit of 10% of aggregate income.
If your aggregate income is RM80,000, the maximum amount of qualifying donations that can be deducted is RM8,000. So if you donated RM12,000 during the year, only RM8,000 can be deducted in this example.
The deduction reduces the amount of income subject to tax. It doesn’t mean the amount donated, or 10% of it, is refunded in cash. What you save depends on the tax rate for the highest band your chargeable income reaches, so the same RM1,000 donation is worth different amounts to different taxpayers.
| Chargeable income | Tax rate on that band | Tax saved on a RM1,000 donation |
| Up to RM5,000 | 0% | Nothing |
| RM20,001 to RM35,000 | 3% | RM30 |
| RM50,001 to RM70,000 | 11% | RM110 |
| RM70,001 to RM100,000 | 19% | RM190 |
| RM100,001 to RM400,000 | 25% | RM250 |
*Illustrative tax savings based on selected YA2025 individual income tax rates. This assumes the donation falls entirely within that band and that you are under the 10% limit. If your chargeable income is RM35,000 or below, the RM400 rebate may already reduce your tax to nil. Actual tax savings depend on your chargeable income and tax position.
If your chargeable income falls below the taxable threshold, a donation reduces nothing because there was no tax to reduce in the first place.
Only cash donations to an organisation approved under Subsection 44(6) qualify for the deduction. Donations in kind, such as laptops, vehicles, or food, don’t qualify under this category, although a few other types of gifts are recognised separately and come with their own conditions.
LHDN’s guideline for approved organisations sets out what an official receipt has to carry. It should state that the deduction is under Subsection 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967, show LHDN’s approval reference number, and give the dates the approval runs from and until. It also has to show the organisation’s name and address, a pre-printed serial number, the date, your name and identity card or passport number, your address, and the designation of the person who collected the donation.
Check the validity dates in particular, since they show whether the approval was current on the day you gave. A receipt missing these details won’t support the claim, so check it when it’s handed to you rather than months later.
LHDN’s Donation Approval Check facility lets you search by the organisation’s name or its approval reference number. The page also lets you filter results by category, state, legal basis, and approval status.
Two of the filters affect your claim. The legal basis filter lists Subsection 44(6) and Subsection 44(11D). Subsection 44(6) covers qualifying donations to approved institutions and organisations, while Subsection 44(11D) has separate rules for waqf and endowment contributions.
The status filter is the other one. Diluluskan means approved, while diluluskan (lanjutan tempoh) means the approval has been extended, so both indicate a current approval. Kelulusan ditarik balik means the approval has been withdrawn, while tamat tempoh kelulusan means it has expired. A donation made while an organisation’s approval is withdrawn or expired isn’t eligible for the deduction.
The category and state filters help when several organisations share a similar name.
Plenty of donations happen away from a charity’s own counter, whether that’s a collection booth at a mall, a QR code at a place of worship, a crowdfunding page, or an appeal shared on social media. The receipt rule applies the same way in each case, and some of these channels make it harder to meet.
What you need is a receipt issued by the approved organisation itself, carrying the required Subsection 44(6) details. A screenshot of a transfer, a thank-you message, or a platform’s own acknowledgement won’t do.
If a collector can’t tell you which organisation will receive the money or can’t issue a receipt in that organisation’s name, don’t assume the donation will qualify for a tax deduction.
Fundraising posters, WhatsApp messages, and social media posts claiming that donations are tax-deductible shouldn’t be treated as proof of approval. Since 15 June 2026, new applications now go through LHDN’s e-Derma system on the MyTax portal, and an organisation that tells you its application is in progress isn’t yet approved.
Approval can also be withdrawn. LHDN reviews organisations after approval, and an organisation’s approval may be revoked or terminated if it no longer meets the relevant conditions. There’s a time limit as well, since 27 November 2025 caps new approvals at a maximum of ten years, which is why expired entries turn up in the search results. An organisation that qualified for a tax deduction last year may not qualify this year.
Check the organisation’s status when you make the donation, and keep the receipt with the required approval details. That gives you the documentation to support the claim if LHDN ever asks about it.
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As a creative content writer, Eloise has covered finance, business, lifestyle topics, and even moonlights as a singer-songwriter outside of RinggitPlus. Her current interests are learning the best ways to optimise spending and credit card hacks to gain more airline miles.
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