Cukai Pintu and Cukai Tanah 2026: Two Taxes, Two Offices

Cukai Pintu and Cukai Tanah 2026 are two bills from two offices under two laws on two calendars — this covers Peninsular Malaysia; Sabah and Sarawak run their own systems and get their own section below. Most property owners in Malaysia pay both, and plenty could not tell you which envelope came from which — because nothing on either bill explains the other, and the two arrive months apart.

So: Cukai Pintu — assessment tax, cukai taksiran, the door tax — is your local council charging a percentage of your property’s annual value, twice a year. Cukai Tanah — quit rent — is the state land office charging rent on the land itself, once a year, and it is the one with teeth: the Code lets the Collector demand it and, if the notice period lapses unpaid, order the land forfeited to the State. One is a service charge; the other is rent owed to a landlord who happens to be the State government.

• Who charges it: assessment tax, your council under the Local Government Act 1976 [Act 171]; quit rent, the state land office under the National Land Code.
• How assessment is built: annual value × a percentage your council sets, capped by the Act at 35 per centum of annual value. There is no national rate and no average bill.
• When: assessment tax half-yearly in advance, in the months of January and July; quit rent due in full on the first day of the calendar year, in arrear from the first day of June.
• The date most people miss: quit rent paid after 31 May attracts an arrears fee — in Selangor, 7% of the amount payable once the bill is over RM100.00.
• The form nobody sends: on a transfer, both seller and buyer must notify the council within 3 months in Form I. Failing to carries a fine not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, or both.

One-off purchase costs are in the buying guide. This one starts the day the property is yours.

Two taxesAnnual valueTwo windows

Two Taxes, Two Offices, Two Calendars

Both fall on the owner, and the Act is precise about who that is. Rates “shall be paid by the persons who are the owners of the holdings for the time being”, and until paid they sit as a first charge on the holding. The “owner” is the registered proprietor — and if the council is of the opinion that the proprietor cannot be traced, the person for the time being receiving the rent. For subdivided buildings it stretches to the management corporation and any subsidiary proprietor.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: which is why “my tenant pays the assessment” describes a private contract, not the law. What a landlord and tenant agree in the tenancy agreement does not change who the council may look to.

Cukai Pintu: Annual Value × Your Council’s Rate

Your council fixes an annual value, then applies a percentage. The State Authority chooses whether the rate sits on annual value or improved value, and the Act caps it either way: not more than 35 per centum of annual value for the main rate or 5 per centum of improved value, with a drainage rate capped at 5 per centum and 1 per centum respectively.

Annual value is the part people mis-read: it is not your purchase price. Act 171 defines it as “the estimated gross annual rent at which the holding might reasonably be expected to let from year to year”, with the landlord paying repairs, insurance, maintenance and all public rates and taxes. For vacant land, both DBKL and MBPJ publish the same shortcut: 10% of the market value. Live in the house yourself and nothing changes — DBKL still works out what it would fetch if let, and MBPJ states there is no provision in Act 171 allowing a concession for a self-occupied house.

Two councils, two published tables

Not national rates. What these two councils publish, side by side, so you can see how far apart neighbours sit.

DBKL publishes three further lines with no MBPJ equivalent: village buildings 2%, vacant village land 1%, and Kampung Baru, Kampung Melayu Segambut and Sungai Penchala at 1% for both. Dashes are not zero rates — that council publishes no separate line for the category, so ask rather than assume.

Each council publishes its own worked example, which shows the arithmetic without inventing a house. DBKL: annual value RM13,200 at 4% is RM528 a year, or RM264 for six months. MBPJ: RM9,900 at 4% is RM396; and for vacant land worth RM90,000, annual value RM9,000, so RM360.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: MBPJ states its assessment currently rests on the 1992 value level while its costs are current — which is what revaluation exercises are for, and why a revaluation notice can produce a bill unlike last year’s. Your annual value stays put until a general revaluation, unless the Valuation List is amended under section 144 of Act 171: a new building, an extension, a demolition, a new title, a planning change, or a correction.

Two more things both councils say out loud. Vacant land is not exempt — MBPJ states titled vacant land is not exempt, and DBKL that all property, building or vacant land, may be assessed. And assessment tax is not your maintenance fee — DBKL spells out that the maintenance fee maintains your common property while assessment tax funds municipal services. You pay both.

The Two Windows, and What Late Actually Costs

Section 133: rates endure for a period not exceeding twelve months and are payable half-yearly in advance by the owner, at the council office or other prescribed place, in the months of January and July. MBPJ words its own deadlines as before 28 February and before 31 August. PBTPay, the ministry’s portal, says simply that assessment tax is usually payable twice a year.

Miss it and the Act moves in steps. A sum unpaid at the end of February or August makes the owner liable for it plus such fee as the council may fix from time to time — the council’s to set, so no national figure exists. Still unpaid by the end of February or August, it is deemed an arrear, and then:

1. Form E. No warrant may issue unless the council first serves a notice in Form E at the last known address, calling on the owner to pay within 15 days of posting or delivery.
2. Form F. A warrant of attachment may then issue, and movable property belonging to the owner or occupier who is liable to pay the arrear may be seized anywhere in the council’s area — plus anything movable found on the holding itself, whoever owns it. The officer executing it may break open any house or building in the daytime.
3. Auction. Unless the arrear with costs is paid within 7 days of attachment, what was seized is sold by public auction, with interest at 6 per centum per annum and costs added.
4. The holding itself. If that does not recover the arrear, the Registrar of the High Court may order the attachment and sale of the holding.

That is the ladder the statute provides, not a prediction about your council. Worth knowing the first rung is a 15 day letter, not a phone call.

Cukai Tanah: Due 1 January, In Arrear 1 June

The National Land Code makes rent on alienated land a debt due to the State Authority, without prejudice to forfeiture for non-payment. The rent for a calendar year falls due in full on the first day of that year and, if not sooner paid, is treated as in arrear on the first day of June. It is paid by or on behalf of the proprietor at the office of the Land Administrator, and a computed rent that includes a fraction of a ringgit is rounded up to the nearest ringgit above.

That June date is why land offices talk about 31 May. PTG Selangor publishes its arrears fee as applying to payment after 31 May:

Then the Code’s own ladder starts. The Collector may serve a notice of demand in Form 6A, and a note of that service is endorsed on the register document of title — visible to anyone doing a title search. A chargee, lessee, lien-holder, protected tenant or caveator may pay the demanded sum as well as the proprietor; tender the whole sum in time and the notice ceases to have effect and the endorsement is cancelled. Fail to, and the Collector may not accept a lesser amount during the notice period, and if the whole sum has not been tendered by the end of it he shall by order declare the land forfeit to the State Authority.

Rents do not move often: a subsequent revision may not take effect before the expiry of 10 years from the most recent revision date in that State. Which cuts both ways.

Cukai Petak: What Strata Owners Pay Instead

Own a parcel in a strata scheme and the land under the development is not yours alone, so the quit rent question changes shape. PTG Selangor states that parcel rent in Selangor is imposed by reference to subsection 23C(8) of the Strata Titles Act 1985 [Act 318], under which the tax for a parcel or provisional block is computed on a rate per square metre for each parcel, or parcel and accessory parcel, or provisional block.

Selangor then set its own rates by State Executive Council meeting number 4/2018 dated 7 February 2018, because the per-square-metre rate applied raw produced a very steep increase. For low-cost strata, parcel rent is 70% of the land tax rate under the Selangor Land Rules 2003 subject to a minimum — in Petaling district for town land, RM16.00 for low-cost residential holding a low-cost development scheme certificate, RM32.00 for commercial. For strata other than low-cost it is 25% of the same rate, with minimums in Petaling for town land of RM40.00 residential and RM80.00 commercial.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: bought a service apartment expecting a residential bill? PTG Selangor explains that strata titles for service apartment developments are issued under a business express condition, so parcel rent follows that condition. The same logic runs through assessment: MBPJ prices service apartments at 3.5% against 3% for a condominium, DBKL at up to 7% (within the 36 square mile zone; 5% outside it) against a flat 4% for a residential building. The word on your title matters more than the word in the brochure.

Those figures are Selangor’s. We found no official page listing which states have implemented parcel rent, so check your own state land office rather than assume they travel.

Where to Pay, and the Three Notices You Owe

Assessment tax now has a national front door: PBTPay, the official centralised payment portal for local authorities, built by the Department of Local Government under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. It takes assessment tax, compounds, rentals and miscellaneous charges by FPX, Visa or Mastercard, or DuitNow QR. As at 14 September 2026 it lists 102 local authorities across 14 states and federal territories — the number onboarded to the portal, not the number of councils that exist; Sarawak and WP Putrajaya are not on it. Your council will have its own channel too: DBKL publishes biller codes 6981 for assessment tax and 22046 for quit rent on sold houses.

Quit rent goes to the state. Selangor owners check and pay on the e-Tanah public portal with the 14-digit tax account number or the title details, or pay cash at the counter of any City, Municipal or District Council in Selangor and at all Post Office counters throughout Malaysia. Allow for posting: PTG Selangor states payments take 3 to 7 working days to update, and a certified copy of a receipt or a title account statement is RM20.00 each. In the Federal Territories, PTG Wilayah Persekutuan runs a separate check-and-pay service for each of WP Kuala Lumpur, WP Putrajaya and WP Labuan.

Three notices nobody reminds you about

1. Sold or bought — Form I, within 3 months. On a sale or transfer it is the duty of both seller and buyer to notify the council within 3 months in Form I. Until that notice is given or the transfer recorded in the council’s books, the seller stays liable for all rates on the holding. Failing to give notice carries a fine not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, or both. MBPJ repeats the duty and the window on its own information sheet.
2. The owner died — Form J, within 1 year. Whoever becomes the owner by succession or otherwise must notify the council within 1 year of the death.
3. Built, renovated or re-occupied — within 15 days. Where a building is erected, rebuilt, enlarged, altered, repaired or renovated, or a vacant building re-occupied, the owner must give written notice within 15 days, reckoned from completion or occupation, whichever comes first. MBPJ adds one more: the Owner’s Return Form must be completed correctly within 2 weeks of receipt, and refusing or giving false information carries a fine of up to RM2,000 or imprisonment of not more than 6 months or both.

If You Think the Bill Is Wrong

There is a route, and it runs on short clocks. Before a Valuation List is revised the council must give notice of a day not less than 42 days from notification in the Gazette. Section 142 gives five grounds for a written objection — valued above its rateable value, not rateable at all, wrongly left out of the List, valued below its rateable value, or valued jointly when it should be separate and the reverse — and sets the deadline at not less than 14 days before the time fixed for the revision. An amendment rather than a revision must be notified not less than 30 days ahead, and a new List confirmed on or before 31 December of the preceding year.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: DBKL words its own window differently — a written objection within 10 days before the date of the objection hearing meeting. That is not the Act’s 14 days before the revision of the Valuation List; the two answer different questions. Plan against the date printed on the notice you received, not the number in this paragraph.

If the decision on your objection does not satisfy you, the appeal is to the High Court by originating motion within 14 days of receiving it — and the rate appealed against must be paid into the council when the motion is filed. You pay first, then argue.

The empty-house refund almost nobody claims

An unoccupied building still gets a bill: MBPJ states assessment tax is payable whether the holding is occupied or not, and DBKL that a vacant property cannot be exempted — though it points owners to a vacancy allowance at its Revenue Division on 03-2617 9000. The Act’s mechanism is a refund, not an exemption. Where a building is unoccupied and no rent is payable for not less than one calendar month in a half year for which the rate has been paid, the council may order a proportionate refund — but only if the owner gave written notice of the vacancy within 7 days of the start of the period claimed and claimed in writing not later than 1 month after that half year ended, and can prove the building was in good repair and fit for occupation, that every reasonable effort was made to find a tenant, that the rent demanded was reasonable, and that it was vacant throughout. Read that first deadline again: 7 days from the start of the period you are claiming for, not from when the bill arrives.

Sabah and Sarawak: Different Ordinances, Different Systems

Everything above is Peninsular Malaysia. The Local Government Act 1976 and the National Land Code do not run in Sabah or Sarawak, which have their own land and local government legislation, so only what their own authorities publish is set out here.

Sabah. The Land and Survey Department states annual land rent is payable on 1 January each year. Failure to settle arrears can attract a demand notice fee of RM30.00 and a surcharge of 24% of the arrears once the demand notice period expires, and the land may be auctioned if it stays unpaid. Pay by instant transfer or IBG, through the SabahPay app under Payments, Public Sector, Jabatan Tanah & Ukur, Quit Rent, or at a District Land Office, Drive-Thru, headquarters or UTC tax counter; cash up to RM10,000, statement updated within 3 working days.

Sarawak. Land rent runs on Sarawak’s own Land Code and its own title types — Land Code Title, Grant of State Land, leases, occupation tickets — looked up through the eLASIS Land Rent and Premium enquiry by Division and title type. We found no Sarawak page publishing a due date or late-payment penalty, so we are not printing one; ask Land and Survey Sarawak. The council side in both states sits under their own local government ordinances, outside what this guide verified.

Walaoeh Verdict

Learn which office each bill comes from and the rest follows. Assessment tax is your council’s, twice a year, built from an annual value you can object to. Quit rent is the state’s, once a year, and the only one that can end with the land forfeit. Every figure that matters is published — by your council, by your state land office — and none of it is published as a national number, which is why the figures that float around in conversation are so often wrong.

Two dates do most of the damage. 31 May, after which quit rent starts costing extra — 7% of the bill in Selangor once it is over RM100.00. And the 3 months after a transfer, in which both seller and buyer owe the council a Form I notice that nobody sends, while the seller stays liable for rates until it is. Diarise both, and keep your own council’s rate table somewhere you can find it, because that is the only table that applies to you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Sources

Every figure above comes from federal legislation or an official Malaysian government page, checked on 14 September 2026.

• Local Government Act 1976 [Act 171] — the Laws of Malaysia reprint published by the Commissioner of Law Revision. Part XV, Rating and Valuation: sections 127, 130, 133, 134, 141 to 151 and 160 to 162, plus the definitions of “annual value” and “owner” in section 2. Its cover states that it incorporates all amendments up to 1 January 2006; we located no later reprint, which is why the operational dates here are checked against a council’s own current page where one is available.
• National Land Code — the digital text published by the Federal Department of Director General of Lands and Mines (JKPTG). Sections 93 to 101 on rent, arrears, notice of demand and forfeiture. JKPTG’s own disclaimer states the publication is for reference only, and its amendment list stops well short of the amendment that introduced parcel rent, so section numbering is given as JKPTG publishes it.
• DBKL — assessment tax FAQ, the source of DBKL’s published rate table, its annual value method, its worked example, its objection window and its vacancy allowance · DBKL online payment, for the biller codes.
• MBPJ — Valuation and Assessment Tax general information (July 2025), the source of MBPJ’s rate table, its 28 February and 31 August deadlines and its worked examples · MBPJ — revaluation and assessment FAQ (June 2024), for the empty-house answer, the Owner’s Return Form penalty and the 1992 value level.
• PTG Selangor — counter payment and arrears fee · online payment guide · Info Cukai Petak · revenue fees · e-Tanah check and pay.
• PBTPay, the centralised local authority payment portal built by the Department of Local Government under KPKT · its list of participating local authorities · PTG Wilayah Persekutuan e-Bayaran.
• Jabatan Tanah dan Ukur Sabah — how to pay land rent (December 2022) · eLASIS Land Rent and Premium enquiry, Sarawak.

PTG Selangor: +603-5544 7000, or [email protected]. MBPJ Valuation and Property Management Department, Level 11, Menara MBPJ: 03-7954 5984, or [email protected]. PTG Wilayah Persekutuan: 603-2610 3300, or [email protected]. DBKL complaints: toll-free 1800-88-3255.