Transferring Property to Family: Love & Affection Stamp Duty in Malaysia

A gift is still a chargeable transfer

Stamp duty on a Memorandum of Transfer is charged on the higher of the consideration and the market value of the property. In a normal sub-sale those two are close, so nobody thinks about it. In a family transfer the stated consideration is nil or nominal, so the market value is the only figure that matters, and it is determined by the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) on referral from LHDN — not by the family, and not by an agent's asking price.

That means the arithmetic starts from the same tiered rates as any purchase. The remission is applied afterwards, to the duty the transfer would otherwise have attracted.

Who actually gets the remission

The Stamp Duty (Remission) Order 2023 governs instruments of transfer of immovable property executed by way of love and affection on or after 1 April 2023. The recipient must be a Malaysian citizen. The relationship decides everything:

• “Child” for this purpose covers a legitimate child, a stepchild, and a child legally adopted under the Adoption Act 1952 or the Registration of Adoptions Act 1952 — informal adoption does not qualify.
• A transfer to a non-citizen child gets no remission, even where the parent is a citizen.
• The transfer must genuinely be by way of love and affection. If the recipient is paying, taking over a loan balance, or giving anything else of value, that is consideration and the instrument is not a gift.

Worked examples

Example 1 — father to son, RM800,000 house. Full duty would be RM1,000 + RM8,000 + RM9,000 (3% on the RM300,000 above RM500,000) = RM18,000. The entire value sits within the first RM1 million, so 100% is remitted and nothing ad valorem is payable. The instrument still has to be presented and stamped.

Example 2 — mother to daughter, RM1,800,000 property. Full duty is RM1,000 + RM8,000 + RM15,000 + RM32,000 (4% on the RM800,000 above RM1 million) = RM56,000. The duty attributable to the first RM1,000,000 of value is RM24,000 and is fully remitted. The remaining RM32,000 gets 50% remission, so RM16,000 is payable — against RM56,000 on an ordinary sale.

Example 3 — husband transferring a half share of a RM1,500,000 property to his wife. The chargeable value is the half share, RM750,000, on which full duty would be RM16,500. Spousal transfers are remitted in full, so nothing is payable regardless of value.

Example 4 — brother to brother, RM600,000 house. No remission applies. Duty is RM1,000 + RM8,000 + RM3,000 = RM12,000, and RPGT is charged on the transferor as well, because the sibling relationship is outside the no-gain-no-loss rule too.

The RPGT side, which people forget entirely

Stamp duty is the transferee's problem; real property gains tax is the transferor's. Under Schedule 2 of the Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976, a gift between husband and wife, parent and child, or grandparent and grandchild is treated as a no-gain-no-loss transaction where the transferor is a Malaysian citizen. The giver is deemed to receive exactly what the property cost them, so there is no chargeable gain and no RPGT.

The catch is on the other side. The recipient inherits the original acquisition price and, in practice, is treated as stepping into the giver's position — so the gain is not erased, only deferred until the recipient eventually sells. A child who receives a house bought for RM200,000 in 2005 and sells it for RM900,000 two years later is taxed on a much larger gain than the RM900,000 valuation might suggest.

Outside those three relationships there is no relief. A gift to a sibling is a disposal at market value and RPGT is assessed accordingly, on a transaction where the transferor received nothing to pay it with. CKHT forms are still due within 60 days of the instrument either way — a nil filing is still a filing.

The paperwork and the sequence

• Form 14A (Memorandum of Transfer) executed by both parties, plus identity documents and the original title or a certified copy.
• Evidence of the relationship — marriage certificate, birth certificate, or the adoption order. LHDN will ask for this before applying the remission; without it you are assessed at full duty.
• Adjudication by LHDN, which refers the property to JPPH for a market valuation. Expect the valuation, not your number, to drive the assessment.
• State authority consent if the title is leasehold or restricted-in-interest, and developer consent where the master title has not been split. These can take months and are the usual reason a family transfer stalls.
• Any existing charge must be dealt with first — a bank will not release the title while the loan is outstanding, so the loan is either settled or refinanced into the recipient's name.
• CKHT 1A and CKHT 2A filed with LHDN within 60 days of the instrument, even where the transfer is no-gain-no-loss.

Traps that turn a free transfer into an expensive one

• Missing the 30-day stamping deadline. The clock runs from execution, and section 47A penalties of 10% or 20% of the deficient duty apply even where the remission would have reduced the duty to nil on the underlying value above the exempt band.
• Structuring the transfer as a sale at a token price to “look cleaner”. It does the opposite — duty is on market value anyway, and calling it a sale can put you outside the love-and-affection remission entirely.
• Transferring to a sibling to reach a child indirectly. Two transfers means two lots of duty, and the sibling leg gets no remission and triggers RPGT.
• Assuming the remission covers everything. Legal fees, valuation, registration, consent applications and any refinancing costs are still payable, and on a mid-value property they routinely run into four figures.
• Gifting a property that is still generating rental income without repapering the tenancy — the rent follows the title, and so does the income tax on it.

Timing note for 2026 and 2027

Stamp duty moved to self-assessment on 1 January 2026, but instruments transferring ownership of property only enter the system in Phase 2, from 1 January 2027. A family transfer executed today is still adjudicated by LHDN in the usual way; one executed in 2027 will require you to compute and declare the duty, including the remission, yourself through e-Duti Setem on MyTax. If a transfer is being planned across that boundary, get the valuation basis and the remission entitlement documented now rather than arguing it later.

Important caveats

Remission orders, rate bands and RPGT treatment are revised at budget cycles, and the conditions attaching to the 2023 remission — citizenship, relationship definitions, the RM1 million threshold — are strict rather than indicative. Confirm the current position with LHDN at hasil.gov.my before executing anything.

A family transfer also has consequences this page does not cover: it is a gift for estate-planning purposes, it can affect the recipient's first-home exemption eligibility on a later purchase, and where it happens shortly before insolvency it can be challenged. Where the property is material, take advice from a conveyancing solicitor and a licensed tax agent before signing.

The calculator on this page computes full ad valorem transfer duty on the value you enter. Apply the remission yourself using the tables above — the tool does not model exemptions.