Yes. Training, consultancy and coaching are prescribed taxable services under Group G, column (2), item (g) of the First Schedule to the Service Tax Regulations 2018, and Customs has charged them at 8% since 1 March 2024. Only a service-tax-registered provider charges it. HRD Corp treats that tax as a claimable cost, but only up to the maximum claimable amount for the course.
- Training is taxable, not exempt. It sits in the Group G item that the 2025 SST scope expansion never had to touch.
- The obligation belongs to the provider. Registration starts once Group G turnover passes RM500,000 in twelve months — the threshold behind SST on recruitment agency fees too. Below it, no tax should appear on the quote.
- HRD Corp reimburses the tax, up to a ceiling. The Allowable Cost Matrix makes service tax claimable provided it stays inside the maximum claimable amount.
- The ceiling is where the surprise lives. A general public course is capped at RM1,750 per participant per day; read as a tax-inclusive ceiling, a fee above roughly RM1,620 grosses up past it and the overflow comes out of cash.
The two halves of this question are published separately: Customs sets out which training carries service tax, and the one line confirming HRD Corp reimburses it sits on page 25 of the Allowable Cost Matrix. This page joins them, and puts a number on where the reimbursement stops.
Why a course fee is taxable
Why is a training fee taxable at all?
Because Customs prescribed it by name. Item (g) of Group G covers the “provision of consultancy services including professional consultancy services other than specifically mentioned in this Schedule, or training or coaching services with or without the issuance of certificate for which the fees are imposed”. A certificate changes nothing; a fee is the trigger.
“Perkhidmatan perundingan, latihan dan tunjuk ajar adalah tertakluk kepada cukai perkhidmatan seperti dinyatakan di bawah Kumpulan G, ruang (2), butiran (g), Jadual Pertama, Peraturan-peraturan Cukai Perkhidmatan 2018.”
Consultancy, training and coaching services are subject to service tax under Group G, column (2), item (g), First Schedule, Service Tax Regulations 2018. — Royal Malaysian Customs Department, Panduan Perkhidmatan Perundingan, Latihan dan Tunjuk Ajar (29 February 2024), paragraph 7. English rendering ours.
Customs confirms in the same guide that these services became subject to 8% on 1 March 2024, when the general rate rose from 6% and only food and beverage, telecommunications, vehicle parking and logistics were held back.
The tax follows the provider’s registration, not your company’s: only a provider registered under the Service Tax Act 2018 charges it. Two quotes for the same programme can differ by 8% for a reason that has nothing to do with the price of the training.
Quotes that arrive with no tax on them
Which course providers do not charge service tax?
Two groups. First, providers whose Group G taxable services — training, consultancy and coaching measured together, not training alone — stay below the RM500,000 registration threshold. Second, providers Customs does not treat as taxable persons at all: the Federal Government, State Governments, local authorities, statutory bodies, and approved research and development companies and research institutes.
That threshold is easy to misread: a firm that also sells consultancy or engineering can cross RM500,000 on the combined figure without training coming close on its own.
The non-taxable-person carve-out produces the result employers find strangest. A public university is a statutory body, so Customs concludes a workshop it runs is “tidak tertakluk kepada cukai perkhidmatan” — not subject to service tax. A private college running a course for the public is supplying taxable training. Same room, same subject, different invoice.
Formal education is a separate group. Customs states education services are not part of the consultancy, training and coaching item, and the education-services category added on 1 July 2025 carries 6% — reaching registered private schools charging above RM60,000 per student per academic year, per Grant Thornton Malaysia’s 12 June 2025 tax alert. A compliance workshop for your finance team is not in it.
The line that answers the real question
Can the service tax on a course fee be claimed from your HRD Corp levy?
Yes, within a limit. HRD Corp’s Allowable Cost Matrix states that service tax is claimable provided it does not exceed the maximum claimable amount for that cost. So the tax is reimbursable — and stops being reimbursable where the total crosses the cap for that course type.
“Service Tax (SST) is claimable, provided it does not exceed the maximum claimable amount.”
— HRD Corp, Guidebook Allowable Cost Matrix (September 2025), page 25.
HRD Corp does not say whether that ceiling is read inclusive of the tax. Read inclusively — the only reading that gives the proviso work — the arithmetic below follows.
Under the HRD Corp Claimable Courses scheme the invoice is issued to HRD Corp rather than to you, which is why the tax question rarely reaches the employer until the claim comes back short. Our step-by-step guide to claiming the levy covers the submission, and what SBL-Khas is covers the scheme behind it.
Whether there is a ceiling to breach depends on what you booked. Focus-area, industry-specific and professional-certification courses are claimable “as per charge”, with no daily cap. General courses are the ones with a number attached.
Where the 8% stops being free
What happens when the 8% pushes the fee past the claim cap?
The excess becomes a cash cost. A general public course is capped at RM1,750 per participant per day, and read as a tax-inclusive ceiling that means a pre-tax fee above roughly RM1,620 pushes the total past the cap, so the overflow is no longer claimable from the levy.
The sum is one step: divide the cap by 1.08 to get the highest pre-tax fee that still fits.
| Claimable course category | Claimable-fee cap | Highest pre-tax fee that still fits with 8% added |
|---|---|---|
| Public course, full day | RM1,750 per participant | about RM1,620 |
| Public course, half day (four training hours) | RM1,000 per participant | about RM925 |
| In-house course, full day | RM10,500 per group | about RM9,722 |
| In-house course, half day | RM6,000 per group | about RM5,555 |
| Focus area, industry specific, professional certification | As charged — no daily cap | No cap to breach |
Caps from the HRD Corp Allowable Cost Matrix (September 2025). Third column is our arithmetic: the cap divided by 1.08. Verified 21 September 2026.
The wider trade-off is in whether in-house training is HRD Corp claimable. Where the tax-inclusive fee does sit above the cap, plan for the difference instead of discovering it at claim stage; the HRD Corp levy calculator shows the balance you are spending from.
Five checks before you sign
What should you check before approving a claimable-course quotation?
Whether the quote includes service tax, whether the provider is registered, which Allowable Cost Matrix category the course sits in, how the days are counted, and whether any content relates to matters outside Malaysia. Those five answers give you the claimable figure before you commit.
- Inclusive or exclusive? RM1,700 per head sits under the full-day cap. RM1,700 plus 8% is RM1,836, which on the tax-inclusive reading is RM86 over it.
- Is the provider registered? Only a registered provider may charge service tax, so tax on an invoice should have a verifiable registration behind it.
- Which category is the course? A general course meets a cap; focus-area, industry-specific and professional-certification courses are claimable as charged.
- How are the days counted? Caps run per day and per half day, so two half days and one full day do not reimburse the same way.
- Any content about matters outside Malaysia? Since 26 February 2024 that training is taxable too; a quote drafted on the old exclusion will be wrong.
Employer questions
SST on training fees — employer FAQ
Our trainer charged no SST. Is the invoice wrong?
A public university quoted us with no service tax. Why?
Can a claim fail on attendance rather than on cost?
Is this tax advice?
Where we fit
How does Carriera Academy handle this?
Carriera Academy Sdn Bhd (1112514-D) is an HRD Corp Approved Training Provider, so its programmes can be funded from your levy under SBL-Khas. Its sister company, Agensi Pekerjaan Carriera Talent Resources Sdn Bhd (1058296-H), holds MoHR licence JTKSM 615 for recruitment.
The claimable subjects run across tax, employment and labour law, accounting and finance, payroll, Microsoft Excel, soft skills and leadership, AI productivity and technical or quality topics, delivered as public workshops over Zoom from 9am to 5pm. Current dates and fees sit on the tax, SST and e-Invoice programme page, not in this article, because a stale number on a compliance page costs more than it earns.
Sources consulted and verified on 21 September 2026. Customs publishes its training-services guide in Malay only:
- Royal Malaysian Customs Department, Panduan Perkhidmatan Perundingan, Latihan dan Tunjuk Ajar, 29 February 2024 — item (g) (para 7); 8% from 1 March 2024 (paras 8–9, FAQ 21); RM500,000 threshold (para 24, FAQ 4); combined threshold (para 25); non-taxable persons (paras 20–22); Examples 19 and 20; education excluded (para 27); overseas matters (FAQ 20).
- MySST Industry Guides — where that guide is published, listed as Malay version only.
- Service Tax (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2018 — the gazetted wording of Group G item (g), amending P.U.(A) 214/2018.
- HRD Corp, Guidebook Allowable Cost Matrix, September 2025 — SST claimable within the maximum claimable amount (p25); public caps RM1,750 and RM1,000 (p24); in-house caps RM10,500 and RM6,000 (p23); as-charged categories and invoicing to HRD Corp (p35); 75% attendance (p36).
- Grant Thornton Malaysia, Tax Alert, 12 June 2025 — education services at 6% from 1 July 2025 and the RM60,000 per student threshold.
General information for employers, not legal or tax advice. Scope, rates and HRD Corp cost rules change often — confirm the current position on the MySST portal, in the current Allowable Cost Matrix, or with a licensed tax agent.
Want to know what your levy actually covers?
Tell Steph which programme you are looking at and how many people you are sending. Carriera Academy is an HRD Corp Approved Training Provider, and we will set out plainly what is claimable and what is not before you commit to anything.
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