Estate agents call for taxes to be lifted on property deals

As property sales have gone flat, real estate agents are asking the government to consider lifting sales and services tax and the real property gains tax.

PETALING JAYA: With the property market at a standstill during the national shutdown of public activities, estate agents have called for a year’s relief to get business back on track.

Among the measures proposed by the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents are:

* sales and services tax on property sales to be suspended until the end of the year;

* real property gains tax to be zero-rated until the end of the year to boost property sales, which the association said had already gone soft. The tax, ranging from 5% to 30%, is levied on property sales within a time scale of one to six years after purchase.

The association’s president, Lim Boon Ping, also urged the government to provide subsidies for estate agents on a similar basis to those provided to e-hailing drivers.

Estate agents should also be given automatic renewal of their licences to practice in 2021, he said. - FMT