KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 —Approximately 160,000 taxpayers who have registered for e-Invoicing but are now exempted can choose whether to continue using the system or not.

Deputy Finance Minister Liew Chin Tong said they are part of the 1.1 million taxpayers among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with annual sales of RM3 million or below, who are now exempt from implementing e-Invoicing.

However, Liew said a total of 164,435 taxpayers in this category had opted to implement e-Invoicing voluntarily.

“They can choose to continue, or they can choose not to continue,” he said when answering a supplementary question in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Jimmy Puah Wee Tse (PH-Tebrau), who wanted to know the number of business entities or companies exempted from implementing e-Invoicing, as well as the estimated impact of the exemption on the country’s potential tax revenue.

Beginning Sept 1, 2026, the government announced that MSMEs with annual income or sales of less than RM3 million would not be required to implement e-Invoicing.

Liew said some of the challenges faced by MSMEs include tax compliance, the transition from physical stores to online platforms, and competition from other countries.

He said the government is taking and will continue to take steps to reduce the bureaucratic burden and ensure that MSMEs are not overburdened by e-Invoicing compliance requirements and other challenges they have faced following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Liew said companies with annual sales exceeding RM100 million began implementing e-Invoicing on Aug 1, 2024, involving 5,578 taxpayers.

He said the implementation was subsequently expanded to companies with annual sales between RM25 million and RM100 million, involving 14,567 taxpayers; companies with sales between RM5 million and RM25 million, involving 51,710 taxpayers; and companies with sales between RM3 million and RM5 million, involving 25,503 taxpayers. — Bernama