Stamp Duty Self-Assessment in Malaysia (STSDS): What Actually Changed for Buyers in 2026

In 2026 your loan agreement is self-assessed and your MOT is not

This is the point most easily got wrong in 2026, and the one almost nobody spells out. Stamp duty self-assessment did not arrive all at once. LHDN’s STSDS page sets out three phases: Phase 1, 1 January 2026 – lease/tenancy, security, and general stamping; Phase 2, 1 January 2027 – transfer of real property, with LHDN’s own parenthesis, “not involving JPPH valuation”; Phase 3, 1 January 2028 – instruments other than the categories in Phases 1 and 2. That page was last updated 28 August 2026.

Map those phases onto an ordinary buyer’s file and the conclusion is blunt: the two main instruments in one transaction run on two different regimes in 2026.

Two honest caveats. First, LHDN’s page names a category (“security”), not the instrument. Treating a loan or facility agreement as a security instrument is reasoning from its nature – the firm Nik Saghir and Ismail puts it the same way, that loan securities moved to self-assessment “since 1 January 2026”. Ask your solicitor to confirm the instrument type in the BNDS drop-down on e-Duti Setem when they file. Second, a sale and purchase agreement, stamped at the fixed RM10, is not a transfer and would ordinarily sit in “general stamping”, hence Phase 1 – but that too is reasoning from LHDN’s categories. LHDN does not address the SPA expressly.

One more thing changed that is not self-assessment: the old STAMPS portal closed completely on 31 December 2025. LHDN’s e-Buletin HASiL Edisi 1/2026 says it in terms – “Sistem STAMPS ditamatkan sepenuhnya pada 31 Disember 2025” – and everything now goes through the e-Duti Setem module inside MyTax, which opened for early access on 15 December 2025 (KPMG, December 2025). So a 2026 MOT is still assessed by the Collector, but it is submitted through a different channel.

The 2026 first-year penalty concession is Phase 1 only – and it never reaches an MOT

On 21 December 2025 LHDN issued a media release, ref HASiL/2025/12/21 – 95, giving a transitional penalty concession for the first year of self-assessment. Two details decide whether a buyer can use it, and they are the two details usually left out.

Put those two details together and the consequence for a buyer is direct: this concession will never apply to your MOT. A transfer executed in 2026 is not a self-assessed instrument, so there is no “incorrect return” to forgive; a transfer executed in 2027 is self-assessed, but the concession closed on 31 December 2026. LHDN has not said whether a first-year concession will be given for Phase 2 – nothing was found on hasil.gov.my either way as at 2 October 2026.

A second 2026 relief is constantly confused with this one. PKPS 2026, the stamp duty voluntary disclosure programme, gives a full remission of the section 47A late-stamping penalty on instruments executed 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025 that were never stamped or on which duty was never paid, on application to 31 December 2026. The two do not overlap: the concession above forgives errors in 2026 filings, while PKPS forgives old instruments never stamped. The fuller treatment, including the date conflict between LHDN’s guideline and two advisory firms, is in renting out property: tenancy stamp duty and rental income tax.

From 1 January 2027 (Phase 2): declaring market value yourself

Duty on a transfer is charged on the purchase price or the value of the property, whichever is higher (Item 32(a), First Schedule, Stamp Act 1949; the Collector’s determination of market value runs through section 3A(4)). Today, and throughout 2026, that value is obtained up front by the Collector through JPPH and the buyer pays on that figure. From 1 January 2027, for transfers not involving a JPPH valuation, the taxpayer declares the value. Nik Saghir and Ismail put the consequence bluntly: if LHDN later disagrees with the declared price, you are the one who has to justify it, rather than relying on a government valuation obtained up front.

And a JPPH report would not be a shield in any case. In Lagenda Mersing Sdn Bhd v Pemungut Duti Setem (High Court, Civil Suit No. AA-24NCvC-23-01/2024, decided 30 January 2026) the court held that the Collector is not bound by a JPPH valuation and must weigh all relevant evidence – the purchase price, independent valuations, comparables and market conditions – against the hypothetical willing buyer and willing seller at the date of transfer. The case cuts both ways: a taxpayer can displace an inflated JPPH number, and the Collector can depart from a low one. (Reported by the firm that acted in the case; we did not read the judgment itself.)

If LHDN disagrees with your declared value, the cost stacks

1. The duty shortfall itself;
2. An additional assessment within 5 years of the date the duty was paid, under section 36CA – and at any time, without limit, where there has been fraud, wilful default or negligence (commencement 1 January 2026, per Moore’s reading of the Finance Act 2024);
3. The section 47A penalty on the deficient duty: RM50 or 10% within three months, RM100 or 20% thereafter, whichever is greater;
4. Outside the 2026 concession window, exposure under section 72D (incorrect return) and section 61 (failure to disclose all facts to the Collector), the latter now pitched at RM2,500 to RM50,000 on Rahmat Lim’s reading.

Self-assessment also does not mean no audit. The Stamp Duty Audit Framework has been in force since 1 January 2025, and its scope, per Crowe and KPMG, is the instruments of the preceding three calendar years (except in fraud cases), now expressly including employment contracts and intercompany arrangements. On audit you must produce the instrument and the records – which is exactly what the 7-year retention rule is for.

• An arm’s-length sale at a real market price: keep the SPA, the agent’s marketing evidence, and comparable transactions in the same block or area.
• Anything not arm’s length (between family members, for love and affection, below market value): get a professional valuation before filing, and expect the instrument to need a JPPH valuation – which takes it out of Phase 2 altogether.
• A first-home or any other exemption: expect LHDN to review it, and file for endorsement even though the duty is nil.
• Every file: save the stamp certificate PDF and the written computation, and keep both for seven years.

What LHDN has not published about stamp duty self-assessment, as at 2 October 2026

This site’s rule is that where a figure is not published, it does not go on the page as if it were. These gaps bear directly on anyone buying in 2026 or 2027, and none of them has an official answer yet.

• There is no Phase 2 valuation guidance. From 2027 the taxpayer declares market value, but how to declare it and what evidence LHDN will expect is not published on hasil.gov.my. This is the single biggest unknown for a 2027 buyer.
• LHDN has not said whether Phase 2 gets a first-year concession. The 2026 concession is expressly Phase 1 only.
• LHDN publishes no payment deadline for the adjudication route. The Collector keeps a discretion to send an instrument down the adjudication route under section 36(1)(b). Rahmat Lim and Partners’ two articles give different readings of the deadline after a notice of assessment – one says 14 days, the other 30 days. Neither is LHDN’s published figure, so both are printed here and this page does not pick one.
• The consolidated amended text of the Stamp Act 1949 could not be read. The AGC’s law repository (lom.agc.gov.my) would not open when this was checked – robots.txt returned HTTP 500 – and the LHDN-hosted reprint of Act 378 is the 1 January 2024 version, which predates the self-assessment sections. That is why every new offence provision and fine range on this page is second-hand, as flagged above.
• No LHDN document assigns any responsibility to solicitors under STSDS. The agent model exists (SPK 2025 Q&A), but the liability stays with the duty payer, and the Bar Council’s only output found on the topic is the feedback-invitation Circular No 301/2025 of 21 August 2025.