Sourced from RMCD MySST (mysst.customs.gov.my).
Last checked against MySST: 19 October 2026.
The 8% rate and the 6% carve-out
The standard rate of service tax is 8% from 1 March 2024 (raised from 6%). A 6% rate is retained for a specific carve-out list — food and beverage services (Group B), telecommunications services (Group I sub-heading), parking, and logistics.
Advertising is not in the 6% carve-out; agency and platform advertising fees supplied in Malaysia are charged at 8%. Primary source: RMCD MySST portal.
Source: mysst.customs.gov.my (opens in a new tab) — Service Tax rate order and Group listing.
Advertising is Group I, First Schedule
Advertising is explicitly named as a taxable service under Group I of the First Schedule to the Service Tax Regulations 2018. This is what makes agency fees taxable at all — the underlying legal basis is not "digital marketing" as a modern category but "advertising" as an enumerated Group I service, and that framing pre-dates the platform era.
The taxable event is the supply of an advertising service in Malaysia; the tax is charged on the fee for the service, not on ad-platform spend (which is billed directly by Meta, Google, TikTok etc. to the advertiser and follows its own SST treatment).
Source: Service Tax Regulations 2018, First Schedule Group I, cross-referenced against RMCD MySST Group listing.
Where can I read the full SST rules for Malaysia?
Last checked: 19 October 2026. This page covers SST on advertising and digital marketing only. For sales tax versus service tax, every current rate including the 2025 scope expansion and the 6% rental rate from 1 January 2026, registration thresholds, the registration status search and filing, see the SST Malaysia 2026 guide.
Since 1 July 2025 the 6% service tax rate also covers construction work, private healthcare and education, and from 1 January 2026 rental or leasing, as listed in Customs' scope expansion FAQ (opens in a new tab), as well as service tax policies (opens in a new tab).
- Advertising stays at 8%. This page is general information, not tax advice; for your own position, speak to a licensed tax agent.
RM500,000 threshold and registration
The registration threshold is RM500,000 in taxable turnover over a rolling 12-month period. A business whose turnover in taxable services crosses that threshold must apply to register with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department; check the application deadline with Customs on MySST before relying on any fixed number of days.
Registration is compulsory once the threshold is crossed — voluntary registration is available below the threshold but usually only makes commercial sense where the business predominantly serves other SST-registered customers (who claim the tax back via the B2B exemption).
Source: Service Tax Act 2018 s.13 and RMCD MySST registration guidance (mysst.customs.gov.my).
The 1 July 2025 expansion
The service tax scope was expanded on 1 July 2025 to bring additional service categories into charge. Check with Customs for any transitional or penalty-relief arrangements that applied to newly covered services. Advertising services under Group I were within scope throughout — the expansion added new service groups rather than reclassifying advertising.
If your business began charging SST in the second half of 2025, confirm with Customs how any transitional arrangements applied to you.
Source: RMCD MySST guidance on the 2025 expansion (mysst.customs.gov.my), corroborated against Ministry of Finance announcement.
B2B exemption for agency-to-agency services
A service-tax-registered advertising provider acquiring the same advertising services from another registered person may be relieved of the charge, subject to conditions in the Service Tax Regulations and RMCD guidance.
This is the mechanism that prevents cascading service tax on agency-to-agency and platform-to-agency supply chains. The conditions typically involve matched registration numbers, documented onward supply, and record-keeping — confirm the current specific conditions and record-keeping requirements against RMCD MySST guidance before relying on the exemption operationally.
Source: Service Tax Regulations B2B exemption provisions, RMCD MySST guidance (mysst.customs.gov.my).
Late-payment penalties (10% / +15% / +15%, to 40%)
Late payment of service tax attracts a graduated penalty: 10% for the first 30 days, an additional 15% for the next 30 days, and a further 15% for the following 30 days — a maximum of 40% of the outstanding tax.
Submitting the return but not paying, or paying late, both trigger the penalty; the ladder is on the tax due, not the return. For what happens after the 90-day window, check with Customs.
Source: Service Tax Act 2018 penalty provisions, RMCD MySST guidance (mysst.customs.gov.my).
SST registration and MyInvois — the real dependency
Once you are SST-registered, your SST registration number is a required field in the LHDN e-Invoice (MyInvois) submission flow. This makes the two compliance areas a genuine dependency rather than two separate topics: crossing the SST threshold changes what your invoicing system has to produce, not just what you have to declare.
See the e-invoice Malaysia hub and the e-invoice deadline checker for the tax-invoicing side. For consent and DNC obligations on the marketing data those invoices are generated from, see the PDPA Malaysia hub.
Cukai perkhidmatan atas perkhidmatan pemasaran digital (BM)
Ringkasan Bahasa Malaysia bagi rakan perniagaan yang mencari cukai perkhidmatan, sst rate malaysia atau sst registration malaysia. Perkhidmatan pengiklanan adalah perkhidmatan bercukai di bawah Kumpulan I Jadual Pertama Akta Cukai Perkhidmatan 2018.
Kadar semasa ialah 8% (dari 1 Mac 2024, dinaikkan daripada 6%). Ambang pendaftaran ialah RM500,000 dalam perolehan bercukai bagi tempoh 12 bulan bergolek — perniagaan yang melebihi ambang wajib mendaftar dalam tempoh 30 hari.
Pengecualian B2B
Pengecualian B2B melegakan caj apabila pembekal berdaftar cukai perkhidmatan memperoleh perkhidmatan pengiklanan daripada pembekal berdaftar lain, tertakluk kepada syarat. Kadar penalti bayaran lewat: 10% bagi 30 hari pertama, +15% bagi 30 hari kedua, +15% bagi 30 hari ketiga — maksimum 40%. Rujuk portal rasmi RMCD MySST di mysst.customs.gov.my untuk kewajipan khusus perniagaan anda. Halaman ini bukan nasihat cukai.
Tax aside, a Malaysian SME marketing abroad may be able to claim some export activities, such as trade fairs and overseas listings, under MATRADE's Market Development Grant. General online advertising is not covered.
Calculator note
An SST-on-agency-fees calculator is not published yet. If this hub earns impressions, an interactive calculator is the natural conversion surface. For a related tool live today, see the SST on digital ads calculator.
- Cite this
- shakalakaa (Plixitt Solutions). “SST on Digital Marketing in Malaysia.”
- https://shakalakaa.my/resources/sst-malaysia-digital-marketing · Updated 2026-10-19
- Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
shakalakaa (Plixitt Solutions). "SST on Digital Marketing in Malaysia." https://shakalakaa.my/resources/sst-malaysia-digital-marketing. Updated 2026-10-19. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
shakalakaa Resource Library
This is one of ~50 dated, sourced references in the reference library — ad cost benchmarks, KKM/MDC/PDPA compliance guides and Malaysian business regulation.
If you run a business buying SEO or ads in Malaysia, see SEO agency in Malaysia.