How to calculate take-home salary in Malaysia

Your take-home salary (gaji bersih) in Malaysia is your gross monthly pay minus five employee deductions: EPF (KWSP), SOCSO, LINDUNG 24 Jam, EIS (all PERKESO) and PCB income tax. For example, a single employee on a basic salary of RM5,000 takes home about RM4,268.20 after RM731.80 of deductions.

This guide walks through each deduction in the order your payroll applies it, with the 2026 figures and two worked examples you can check against your own payslip.

The take-home salary formula

Take-home pay = Gross pay − EPF − SOCSO − LINDUNG 24 Jam − EIS − PCB − other deductions

Gross pay is everything paid to you for the month: basic salary, fixed allowances, commission, overtime and any bonus. Each deduction then uses its own wage base, which is why you can't just apply one percentage to your gross salary.

Step 1: Work out your gross pay

Add up every item on the earnings side of your payslip. It helps to sort them into three groups, because each deduction treats them differently:

• Regular pay: basic salary and fixed monthly allowances.
• Variable pay: overtime, commission and bonus.
• Claims and reimbursements: money paid back for company expenses, such as mileage or parking. These are normally not salary at all and are usually not subject to EPF, SOCSO or tax.

Step 2: Deduct employee EPF (KWSP)

For Malaysians and permanent residents below 60, the employee share of EPF is 11% of wages. Your employer adds 13% on top if your wages are RM5,000 or below, or 12% if they are above RM5,000. The employer share is not taken from your salary.

KWSP doesn't let payroll use the exact percentage for wages up to RM20,000. Instead, contributions come from the Third Schedule, which works in wage bands. The amount is based on the top of your band and rounded up to the next ringgit. So on RM5,000 the employee share is exactly RM550, but on a salary like RM4,990 it is still RM550, because RM4,990 falls in the RM4,980.01–RM5,000 band.

Overtime payments are not counted as wages for EPF. A bonus is, so a bonus month also means a bigger EPF deduction.

Step 3: Deduct SOCSO, LINDUNG 24 Jam and EIS (PERKESO)

PERKESO runs three schemes that show up on your payslip. All three use a wage ceiling of RM6,000: if you earn more, you pay the same as someone on RM6,000.

• SOCSO (Category 1, below 60): about 0.5% from you and 1.75% from your employer, read from PERKESO's contribution table rather than calculated exactly.
• LINDUNG 24 Jam (SKBBK): a newer employee-paid contribution of about 0.75% that started on 1 June 2026. It covers accidents outside working hours. Local employees are enrolled by default unless they opted out, and it is compulsory for foreign workers.
• EIS (SIP): 0.2% from you and 0.2% from your employer.

Like EPF, these amounts come from fixed bands, not exact percentages. Here are three common bands:

• RM3,400.01 – RM3,500: SOCSO RM17.25 · LINDUNG RM25.85 · EIS RM6.90
• RM4,900.01 – RM5,000: SOCSO RM24.75 · LINDUNG RM37.15 · EIS RM9.90
• RM5,900.01 – RM6,000 (and anything above): SOCSO RM29.75 · LINDUNG RM44.65 · EIS RM11.90

The full band-by-band list is in our SOCSO & EIS contribution table 2026.

Step 4: Deduct PCB (monthly tax)

PCB (Potongan Cukai Bulanan), also called MTD, is income tax collected from your salary every month. Your employer works it out with LHDN's formula, which roughly does the following:

1. Estimates your income for the full year from your salary.
2. Subtracts your EPF (up to RM4,000 a year) and RM9,000 of personal relief, plus any extra reliefs you have declared to your employer on Form TP1.
3. Applies the resident tax rates to what's left (your chargeable income).
4. Takes off the RM400 rebate if chargeable income is RM35,000 or less.
5. Spreads the tax over the remaining months and rounds it up to the next 5 sen.

Two rules matter a lot for lower salaries. Because of the RM400 rebate, and because employers don't deduct PCB if the monthly amount works out to less than RM10, a single employee with no other reliefs usually pays no PCB at all on a basic salary of about RM3,700 or less. If a payslip or calculator shows PCB at that level, check whether the rebate has been applied.

Married employees whose spouse doesn't work, and parents who declare children, get extra relief, so their PCB is lower than the examples below.

Worked example 1: gaji RM5,000

Single, Malaysian, below 60, basic salary RM5,000, no allowances, enrolled in LINDUNG 24 Jam:

• Gross pay: RM5,000.00
• EPF (11%): −RM550.00
• SOCSO: −RM24.75
• LINDUNG 24 Jam: −RM37.15
• EIS: −RM9.90
• PCB: −RM110.00
• Take-home pay: RM4,268.20

How the PCB comes out: yearly income is RM60,000. After RM4,000 EPF relief and RM9,000 personal relief, chargeable income is RM47,000. Tax is RM600 on the first RM35,000 plus 6% of the next RM12,000 (RM720), so RM1,320 for the year, or RM110.00 a month.

Your employer separately pays EPF RM650 (13%), SOCSO RM86.65 and EIS RM9.90, so this job costs the company RM5,746.55 a month.

If you opted out of LINDUNG 24 Jam, take-home rises by RM37.15 to RM4,305.35.

Worked example 2: gaji RM7,000

Same person, but on RM7,000. This shows both the PERKESO ceiling and the lower employer EPF rate above RM5,000:

• Gross pay: RM7,000.00
• EPF (11%): −RM770.00
• SOCSO (capped at RM6,000): −RM29.75
• LINDUNG 24 Jam (capped): −RM44.65
• EIS (capped): −RM11.90
• PCB: −RM324.20
• Take-home pay: RM5,819.50

PCB working: RM84,000 a year minus RM4,000 EPF relief (your RM9,240 of EPF is capped at RM4,000) and RM9,000 personal relief gives RM71,000 chargeable income. Tax is RM3,700 on the first RM70,000 plus 19% of RM1,000 (RM190), so RM3,890 a year, which is RM324.17 a month, rounded up to RM324.20.

Notice that a RM2,000 pay rise only adds RM1,551.30 to take-home pay. Most of the gap is PCB (up RM214.20, because the extra income is taxed at 6%, then 11%, then 19%) and EPF (up RM220, which still goes into your own KWSP account). You can try other pay rises with the salary growth calculator.

What about bonus months?

A bonus is added to that month's gross pay. It attracts EPF and EIS, but under PERKESO's definition of wages an annual bonus is not counted for SOCSO. For PCB, LHDN uses a separate "additional remuneration" calculation: it works out your tax for the year with the bonus included and collects the difference in the month it is paid. That's why the PCB in a bonus month can look surprisingly large even though your annual tax hasn't changed much. Our guide on why bonus month PCB can feel higher explains this in more detail.

Common mistakes when calculating take-home pay

• Applying 11% EPF to your whole gross pay. Overtime and claims are not EPF wages, and EPF is read from bands, so small differences are normal.
• Forgetting the RM6,000 PERKESO ceiling. Above RM6,000, SOCSO, LINDUNG and EIS stop rising.
• Leaving out LINDUNG 24 Jam. Since June 2026, most local employees pay it unless they opted out. Older calculators and payslip templates may miss it.
• Using one PCB figure for every month. PCB changes when you get a bonus, change jobs mid-year or submit TP1 reliefs.
• Ignoring the RM400 rebate. Lower earners often pay no PCB at all.
• Counting the employer's EPF as a deduction. The employer share is paid on top of your salary, not taken out of it.

Check your own numbers

Enter your basic salary, allowances and any bonus in the KiraBoss salary calculator to see each deduction line by line, alongside your employer's contributions. Then compare it with your payslip. If there's a big gap, ask your HR or payroll team which items they treat as EPF wages and whether your TP1 reliefs have been applied.

These figures are estimates for general guidance. Your employer's payroll system and your final tax return with LHDN decide the exact amounts.