(TAX UPDATE) You Filed Your Borang B or BE, Then Spotted a Mistake. Here Is How to Fix It Properly

(TAX UPDATE) You Filed Your Borang B or BE, Then Spotted a Mistake. Here Is How to Fix It Properly

Introduction

You submitted your return. A few days later, you see it. A relief you forgot to claim. A rental figure keyed one digit too high. Business income you left out entirely. The submit button is gone, and there is no undo button on the LHDN portal.

Here is the reassuring part. Malaysia runs a self assessment system, and that system is built to let honest taxpayers correct genuine mistakes. What most people get wrong is not the fixing. It is choosing the wrong door.

The right door depends on a single question. Does your correction increase your tax, or reduce it? Answer that first, and the rest follows.

Start With One Question, Not With the Form

There are only two directions a correction can move.

The first is where the fix increases your tax. You under declared income, or you over claimed a relief, deduction, or expense you were not entitled to.

The second is where the fix reduces your tax. You over declared income, or you forgot a relief you were fully entitled to, so you have overpaid.

The Income Tax Act 1967 treats these two situations through completely different routes. Use the wrong one and your amendment either bounces back or costs you more than it should.

When the Fix Increases Your Tax: the Amended Return Form under Section 77B

This is the self amendment mechanism. Section 77B of the ITA 1967 lets an individual who has filed a return amend it by submitting an Amended Return Form, commonly called the ARF.

The statutory trigger is precise. You use it where the amendment produces additional chargeable income or additional tax payable, including tax that has been or would have been wrongly repaid to you.

In plain terms, it is the route for under declared income or over claimed reliefs, the cases that leave additional tax to pay. It is not a general purpose tool for anything you feel like changing, and it does nothing for you where you have overpaid.

The rules are strict and worth committing to memory.

You may self amend only if your original return was furnished on time under Section 77(1). File late, and this door is closed to you from the start.

You get one self amendment per year of assessment. Not two. One.

You must submit the ARF within 6 months after the due date for furnishing the return. Miss that window and Section 77B no longer applies.

The ARF must state the additional chargeable income, the additional tax payable on it, and the increase in tax that comes with a self amendment.

That increase in tax is the price of the self amendment. Under Section 77B(4), it is 10% of the tax payable or additional tax payable arising from the amendment. Think of it as the cost of catching your own error rather than having LHDN catch it later.

Two practical points that trip people up. Once furnished, the ARF is treated as a notice of assessment under Section 91A, deemed served on the day you submit it, so the additional tax and the 10% become due on that basis.

You cannot use the ARF to change the type of assessment you originally chose, for example switching between separate and joint assessment. You also cannot use it at all if the Director General has already raised an additional assessment under Section 91 within that 6 month window.

When the Fix Reduces Your Tax: a Different Door Entirely

Here is the trap. Section 77B only bites where the correction produces additional tax. It gives you nothing where you have overpaid. So if your correction would reduce your tax or generate a refund, the ARF is the wrong instrument.

For over declared income or an under claimed relief, you have two options.

For Borang BE, LHDN provides an online amendment route on MyTax, the e-Permohonan Pindaan BE. It is limited to corrections that work in your favour, that is over declared income or under claimed reliefs and rebates.

A common example is an income figure keyed too high, or a life insurance relief you forgot to claim. It does not cover the reverse. Under declared income or over claimed reliefs increase your tax, and those must go through the ARF, known in Malay as the Borang Nyata Terpinda or BNT. Note also that the online facility is not open all year. It typically becomes available on MyTax around the filing season, and in practice LHDN often enables it only after the filing deadline has passed, so check the portal for the specific year of assessment before you rely on it.

How to Amend Borang BE Online via MyTax

Use this only where your correction reduces your tax, that is over declared income or an under claimed relief or rebate. If the correction increases your tax, this route is closed and you must use the ARF, the Borang Nyata Terpinda. This facility is for Borang BE. Borang B has no online amendment and is handled at the branch.

  1. Log in to the MyTax portal at https://mytax.hasil.gov.my.

  2. Open the ezHasil Services menu and select e-Filing.

  3. Choose the e-Application for Amended BE, the e-Permohonan Pindaan BE.

  4. Enter the corrected income or relief figures in the editable fields.

  5. Upload your supporting documents, such as receipts and invoices, as proof. Amendments without evidence are unlikely to be approved.

  6. Submit, and keep the acknowledgement.

Two reminders. The amendment is normally allowed only once per year of assessment, so check every figure before you send it. And the portal's labels change from year to year, so if one differs, follow the on-screen prompts for the amended BE application.

Where the online route does not fit, or the timing has passed, you apply for relief under Section 131 of the ITA 1967. This distinction matters. Section 131 is not a self amendment that you control. It is an application for relief to the Director General, made by letter or through the prescribed Form CP15C, within 5 years after the end of the year of assessment. If the Director General is satisfied there was a genuine error or mistake, the assessment is amended and a reduced assessment is issued. If not, the application can be refused.

One important limitation. Relief under Section 131 will not be granted where your original return followed a known stand, rules, and practices of the Director General at the time the assessment was made, unless the error was purely arithmetical or computational.

In plain terms, disagreeing later with a settled tax position is not an error or mistake for this purpose. And there is a boundary worth naming here. Where your real issue is not a slip but a genuine disagreement with LHDN's tax treatment, relief is not the answer. That belongs to the appeal process, which is an appeal against the assessment itself, made by Form Q under Section 99, as the Sources and Authority note below explains.

When the 6 Months Has Already Passed and You Under Declared

This is the anxious case. You realise months later that you under declared, and the Section 77B window has closed.

You cannot use the ARF anymore. The correct move is a voluntary disclosure to LHDN. Section 113 is the provision that deals with incorrect returns and understated tax. What actually follows, the assessment raised and the penalty applied, depends on the facts and on LHDN's prevailing voluntary disclosure policy, not on a single fixed rate written into the Act.

Coming forward on your own almost always leaves you better off than waiting for an audit to surface it. Penalty rates for voluntary disclosure are set by LHDN and revised from time to time by program, so confirm the prevailing rate before you disclose, rather than assuming last year's terms still apply.

Borang B and Borang BE: Same Mechanism, Watch the Clock

Both individual return forms use the same Section 77B mechanism. The only difference that matters for amendments is the deadline that starts your 6 month clock.

Borang BE, for individuals without business income, has a statutory due date of 30 April. For YA 2025, that is 30 April 2026, with an e-Filing grace period to 15 May 2026.

Borang B, for individuals with business income, has a statutory due date of 30 June. For YA 2025, that is 30 June 2026, with an e-Filing grace period to 15 July 2026.

Now the detail almost everyone misses. The 6 month self amendment window runs from the due date specified in Section 77(1), which is the statutory deadline, not the e-Filing grace date. Do not assume the grace period stretches your amendment window. Treat the statutory date as the start of the clock, and if your timing is tight, confirm the exact cut off with your tax agent or the branch handling your file before you rely on it.

Three Pictures to Make It Concrete

A salaried taxpayer files Borang BE on time, then realises a director's fee was left out. The fix increases tax. Within 6 months of 30 April, file an ARF and pay the additional tax plus the 10% increase.

The same taxpayer later finds an unclaimed life insurance relief. The fix reduces tax. This is not an ARF case. Use the e-Permohonan Pindaan, or apply for relief under Section 131.

A sole proprietor on Borang B discovers under declared sales eight months after the due date. The window has closed. Make a voluntary disclosure and expect a Section 113 penalty on the tax undercharged.

KTP's View

The instinct after a filing error is either to panic or to quietly hope no one notices. Both are wrong, and both are expensive.

Malaysia's self assessment framework is designed to let honest taxpayers self correct, and it consistently rewards those who move early. So lead with the one question that decides everything. Does the fix increase or reduce my tax? That single answer tells you which door to walk through.

If it increases tax, the ARF within 6 months caps your exposure at a 10% increase. That is far cheaper than a Section 113 penalty after an audit.

If it reduces tax, do not leave your money sitting with LHDN. Claim it back through the online amendment or a Section 131 relief application, and mind the 5 year limit.

The heaviest cost in tax is almost never the mistake itself. It is the one you create by doing nothing about it.

Sources and Authority

For the self amendment route, where the correction increases tax, the authority is Section 77B of the Income Tax Act 1967, read with Section 91A on the deemed notice of assessment. There is no dedicated Public Ruling on Section 77B.

LHDN's operational guidance is the Guide Notes on Amended Return Form issued with each year's ARF, for example the Guide Notes on Amended Return Form B, while the due dates that start the six month clock are fixed by the annual Return Form (RF) Filing Programme.

For the relief and appeal route, where the correction reduces tax or you dispute an assessment, the guidance is Public Ruling No. 7/2020, Appeal Against an Assessment and Application for Relief. It was issued under Section 138A of the ITA and published on 7 October 2020 as the third edition, replacing PR No. 12/2017. Relief for an error or mistake is dealt with at paragraph 13.1 under Section 131. Relief other than for an error or mistake is at paragraph 13.2 under Section 131A. Non taxable cases are at paragraph 13.3 under Section 97A(5).

The application is made by letter or Form CP15C, currently the Pin. 1/2026 revision, within five years after the end of the year of assessment, and the taxpayer must first have paid the tax assessed for that year. Relief is not given where the return followed a known stand, rules, and practices of the DGIR prevailing at the time, unless the error is only arithmetical or computational, per paragraphs 13.1.7 and 14.6.

An appeal against an assessment is made under Section 99 by Form Q within 30 days of the notice of assessment, with late appeals under Section 100 by Form N. Where the self amendment window has passed and income was under declared, a penalty on the tax undercharged applies under Section 113.

This article is general educational content on Malaysian tax administration and is not advice on any specific taxpayer's circumstances. Statutory references are to the Income Tax Act 1967. Figures, deadlines, and procedures should be verified against the primary sources, LHDN and the Act, before you act, as tax rules and program terms change. For your own situation, speak to a licensed tax agent.

Visit Us

  • Wisma KTP, 53 Jalan Molek 1/8, Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru

  • Wisma THK, 41, Jalan Molek 1/8, Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru

KTP (Audit, Tax, Advisory)

An approved audit firm and licensed tax firm operating under the KTP group based in Johor Bahru providing audit, tax planning, advisory and compliance services to clients

THK (Secretarial, Bookkeeping, Payroll, Advisory)

A licensed secretarial firm in Johor Bahru providing fast reliable incorporation, secretarial services, corporate compliance services, outsourcing bookkeeping, and payroll services to clients

KTP Lifestyle

An internal community for our colleagues on work and leisure.

KTP Career

An external job community on vacancies in Johor Bahru for interns, graduates & experienced candidates.

#Thk

#KTP


taxKtp Ktp