Complyance, tax advisors, and industry leaders are jointly conducting a free e-invoicing webinar.

Best e-invoicing software for Malaysia

Discover why Complyance is Malaysia's top choice for LHDN e-invoicing. Learn about the benefits of e-invoice solutions, compliance with Malaysia's e-invoice regulations, and how e-invoices streamline your business operations.

Ajith Kumar M
August 6, 2024
6 min

Sign up for E-Invoicing Newsletter

The latest industry news, technologies and resources.
We care about your data in our privacy policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Imagine you’re operating a successful business in Malaysia, providing top-notch services and products to clients. Everything is going great until the new e-invoicing mandate by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) comes into action. Suddenly, your existing invoicing process is insufficient, causing compliance issues and operational disruptions.

You might question if there’s a solution that ensures compliance with LHDN regulations while simplifying your invoicing process.

That’s where Complyance malaysia steps in, transforming this challenge into a seamless experience. Complyance offers comprehensive e-invoicing solutions designed to meet all IRBM requirements, ensuring your business remains compliant and efficient.

No longer do you have to contend with manual invoicing processes. With Complyance, you can effortlessly integrate e-invoicing into your business operations, enhancing efficiency and compliance.

The Ultimate E-Invoicing Solution for Malaysian Businesses

Their user-friendly platform is designed to expedite the invoicing process, ensuring seamless compliance with all regulatory requirements. By partnering with Complyance, businesses can focus on growth with confidence, knowing that the complexities of compliance are deftly managed.

Complyance and its partners are actively collaborating with LHDN to implement cutting-edge e-invoicing solutions.

Furthermore, Complyance is recognized by regulatory bodies worldwide for its efforts in optimizing e-invoicing solutions to comply with global standards.

Complyance Solutions simplifies the e-invoicing process, assuring seamless integration with existing systems. Following the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia’s ("IRBM") announcement in May 2023 on the implementation of e-Invoicing in 2024, the IRBM has on 6 April 2024 issued updated e-Invoice Guidelines (Version 2.3), Specific Guidelines (Version 2.1), and SDK (Version 1.0) on their website.

The implementation of e-Invoicing is intended to support Malaysia’s digital economy development and to enhance the efficiency of Malaysia’s tax administration. e-Invoices will supplant the traditional paper-based invoices which will enhance the efficiency in recording financial transactions and facilitate real-time data collection.

To support the development of the digital economy, the Government shall implement e-Invoice in stages, in an effort to enhance the efficiency of Malaysia’s tax administration management.

What are e-Invoices?

An e-Invoice is a digital record of a transaction between a supplier and a buyer. It eliminates the necessity for paper invoices by enabling businesses to generate and store machine-readable, digitized versions of invoices, facilitating streamlined processes for invoicing and payments. e-Invoices will be created in IRBM’s specified format (XML, JSON) and shall contain 55 fields (37 mandatory).

What is the e-Invoicing Implementation Timeline in Malaysia?

The e-Invoicing implementation in Malaysia will start on 1st August 2024, initially applicable to taxpayers with an annual turnover or revenue exceeding RM100 million. Starting from 1st January 2025, the system will extend to taxpayers with annual turnovers or revenues extending from more than RM25 million to RM100 million. Finally, by 1st July 2025, e-Invoicing will become mandatory for all taxpayers in Malaysia, regardless of their annual turnover or revenue.

In summary:

  • 1 August 2024 - Taxpayers with annual turnover or revenue >RM100 million.
  • 1 January 2025 - Taxpayers with an annual turnover or revenue of more than RM25 million and up to RM100 million.
  • 1 July 2025 - All taxpayers.

What are e-Invoicing Transaction Types?

e-Invoicing applies to all taxpayers undertaking commercial activities in Malaysia. It will facilitate immediate validation and storage of Business-to-Business (“B2B”), Business-to-Consumer (“B2C”) and Business-to-Government (“B2G”) transactions. It will also apply to certain non-business transactions between individuals.

For certain B2C transactions where the end consumer does not need e-Invoices to support the transactions for tax purposes, suppliers are allowed to issue conventional receipts/invoices based on current practices.

Overview of e-Invoicing for Transactions with Buyers

Below is an overview of the process for Buyers who do and don’t require e-Invoices.

Scenario 1: Buyer requires an e-Invoice

  1. Supplier obtains Buyer’s details - For Malaysians: Either TIN or IC No. / MyTentera identification number / Both TIN & IC No./MyTentera identification no. - For non-Malaysians: Either TIN / Both TIN & Passport
  2. Supplier issues and validates e-Invoice with IRBM
  3. Supplier shares validated e-Invoice with Buyer
  4. Buyer may scan QR code to verify e-Invoice validity
  5. Buyer will be able to substantiate the transaction for tax purposes.

Scenario 2: Buyer does NOT require e-Invoice

  1. Supplier issues normal receipts to Buyer (same as current practice). However, the Buyer can request for an e-Invoice within the month of the transaction (i.e. if a purchase was made on 15 September, the Buyer is authorized to request an e-Invoice up until 30 Sept) via web portal/mobile application created by Supplier.
  2. Supplier consolidates all receipts (where e-Invoices are not mandated by Buyers) on a monthly basis. The consolidated e-Invoice is to be issued and transmitted for IRBM’s validation within 7 calendar days after month-end.

Who is Required to Comply with e-Invoicing in Malaysia?

All individuals and legal entities are required to comply with the e-Invoicing requirement, including:

  • Associations - Body of persons - Branches
  • Business trusts - Co-operative societies - Corporations - Limited liability partnerships
  • Partnerships
  • Property trust funds - Property trusts - Real estate investment trusts - Representative offices and regional offices
  • Trust bodies - Unit trusts

Scenarios Requiring e-Invoices to be Issued

Proof of Income

Issued whenever a sale or other transaction takes place to recognize the income of taxpayers.

Proof of Expense

Purchases made or other expenditure by taxpayers, including returns and discounts. It can also be used to correct or subtract an income receipt in terms of the quantities documented. In certain circumstances, taxpayers may need to issue a self e-Invoice to document an expense such as foreign transactions.

Determination of Annual Turnover or Revenue

  • Taxpayers with audited financial statements: annual turnover or revenue stated in audited financial statements for FY 2022.
  • Taxpayers without certified financial statements: annual revenue reported in tax return for YA 2022.
  • For new enterprises or operations commencing from the year 2023 onwards: the e-Invoicing implementation date is 1 January 2027 and further guidance will be provided in due course. Notifications will be sent to taxpayers that are mandated to implement e-Invoicing, in phases.

What are the e-Invoicing Models in Malaysia?

Two distinct e-Invoice transmission mechanisms are available:

  1. MyInvois Portal (administered by IRBM): A portal hosted by IRBM as an option that is available to taxpayers at no cost. Accessible to all taxpayers, suitable for MSMEs, but may not be efficient for large volumes of data.
  2. Application Programming Interface (“API”) (into IRBM’s related systems): An API is a set of programming code that facilitates direct transmission between the taxpayers’ system and MyInvois System. Requires upfront investment in technology and adjustments to existing systems. Ideal for large taxpayers or businesses with substantial transaction volume.

e-Invoicing Overall Workflow

  • Issuance of e-Invoice: When a sale or transaction is made (including e-Invoice adjustments), the supplier generates an e-Invoice and submits it to IRBM via MyInvois Portal or API for validation.
  • Validation of e-Invoice: Real-time validation by IRBM is performed, ensuring necessary standards and criteria are fulfilled. Once validated, the supplier will receive a Unique Identifier Number via MyInvois Portal or API.
  • Notification of validated e-Invoice: Both the supplier and client will be notified via MyInvois Portal or API once e-Invoice has been validated.
  • Sharing of e-Invoice: Upon validation, the supplier is obliged to share the cleared e-Invoice (embedded with QR code) with the client. The QR code can be used to validate the existence and status of the e-Invoice via MyInvois Portal.
  • Rejection or cancellation of e-Invoice: Buyer/supplier may reject/cancel the e-Invoice with justifications within 72 hours from the time of e-Invoice validation.

How To Assess Readiness for e-Invoicing?

  1. People: Allocate and equip personnel with the necessary capabilities to staff and oversee the implementation of e-Invoicing.
  2. Process: Review current processes in issuing transaction documents (i.e. invoices, debit notes, credit notes, refunds).
  3. Technology: Determine availability of data sources and structure, current IT capabilities to support system readiness and processes to comply with e-Invoicing requirements and obligations.

How can Complyance assist?

  1. GAP ANALYSIS:

Our team will assess and evaluate current invoicing procedures, process workflow (including internal controls) and related system mechanisms to identify changes/improvements required. We will conduct reviews on revenue-related transaction streams and Tax implication to recommend necessary adjustments whilst assessing potential limitations and identification of gaps

noted from the analysis. We will also review Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for e-invoice issuance as well as provide Cybersecurity advisory/recommendation in relation to e-invoice architecture.

  1. PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

We will manage the implementation of e-invoicing together with your accounting software service provider (e.g. Oracle, SAP, MS, etc.) to be compliant to the IRBM’s requirements and ensure that the implementation is in accordance with a defined scope and timeline.

  1. SYSTEM READINESS ASSESSMENT:

We will evaluate the readiness of the new system to comply with IRBM’s requirements as follows:

  • Gap assessment in respect of data field requirements per IRBM taxonomy
  • Validate e-invoice data to and from IRBM to guarantee accuracy and correctness
  1. MIDDLEWARE SERVICES:

Complyance Middleware is software that functions as a bridge between your ERP/business system and IRBM's MyInvois System. The complexity of enhancing your ERP/business system will be reduced to just exporting data to Middleware, which will manage and process e-invoices on your behalf. It will take care of future enhancements to keep up with evolving IRBM requirements, decreasing the cost of compliance over time.

Explore more on how our e-Invoicing middleware can assist your business here!