CONTRIBUTOR| Chris Tan
Chris Tan
Lawyer Specialising in
Real Estate
Chris Tan is the founder and now
Managing Partner of Chur Associates,
a boutique legal practice that thrives in
delivering business friendly solutions for
its clients and having a niche positioning
of ‘Everything Real Estate’ serving the
entire value chain from the upstream
to the downstream. Chur Associates
is a boutique legal firm founded in
2004, specialising in designing legal
solutions catered to our clients’ needs.
Chur Associates’s brand promise is “We
Deliver!” To that end, they offer clientsthe
necessary means and methods to
ensure their requirements are met.
You can get in touch with him at
Facebook: Chur Associates
Email: consult@churassociates.com
UNVEILING GST MYTHS IN
REAL PROPERTY
I
mplementation of Goods & Services Tax (GST) in
April 2015 marks the birth of a new tax regime in
Malaysia. Fear and anxiety set amid this possible
price-hike tsunami, especially for real property.
Certainly, property prices will be affected with GST
being charged on raw materials and construction
expenses. However, incurring GST does not equal to
an auto 6% increase of property price. Let us pepper
herewith a few GST myths in real property so you may
have a clearer picture of its features.
1
NOT EVERY TYPE OF PROPERTY
IS SUBJECT TO GST
Generally, land or property is
standard rated supply (6% GST
chargeable). Nonetheless, land or
property for residential, agricultural
and general use is regarded as exempt supply under
the Goods and Services Tax (Exempt Supply) Order
2014 (“Exempt Supply Order”). In other words, if you
are purchasing a condominium from the developer,
GST will not be charged on the purchase price.
However, do bear in mind that the developer has to
pay GST on the construction and marketing cost and
thus causing an indirect impact on the purchase price.
Meanwhile, GST is also not chargeable on rental for
exempt supply. A recent press statement from National
Home Buyers Association indicates that we will be
expecting amendments to the Exempt Supply Order
to widen its scope to cover all categories of residential
stratified properties, including service charges by Joint
Management Body or Management Corporation.