# Non-cash donations: can we issue a tax receipt for rice, equipment or a donated car? > Under Malaysian tax law, the general rule for a tax-deductible donation receipt is that it must be a gift of _money_. Subsection 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967 — the provision almost everyone means when they say "tax-deductible donation" — only covers cash. Rice, a laptop, a car, free accounting hours or any other non-cash gift falls outside it. A handful of narrow, specific provisions let _some_ in-kind gifts qualify for a deduction — but each has its own approving authority, its own valuation method, and its own recipient (often the government, not your NPO), and none of them let you simply decide what the donated item is "worth" and write that figure on a receipt. For most in-kind gifts to a typical NPO, the honest answer is: no tax-deductible receipt, but you can and should still acknowledge the gift and record it in your own books. Source: https://donorcare.my/resources/in-kind-donations-tax-receipt Reviewed: 2026-09-28 Reference material, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with LHDN or your own advisor before acting. ## The donor who calls asking for "a receipt for the rice" A company drops off 200 bags of rice for your food-relief programme, or a member hands over a laptop "for the office," or someone offers their car, or an accountant volunteers to do your books for free. Everyone assumes a receipt follows — cash gifts get one, after all. The awkward part is explaining that this one might not. Under LHDN's own current guidance, that awkwardness is correct, not a gap in your process. **Public Ruling No. 7/2025**, _Taxation of a Resident Individual, Part I — Gifts or Contributions and Allowable Deductions_ (published 5 December 2025, seventh edition of a ruling first issued in 2005), sets out every gift a person can claim under sections 44(6) to 44(11D) of the Income Tax Act 1967 [1]. The first and best-known one — subsection 44(6), the provision your organisation's own approval letter is almost certainly issued under — is described in exactly these terms: > "Gift of money to the Government, a State Government, a local authority or an institution or organization, or a fund approved by the DGIR — subsection 44(6) of the ITA." \[1, §5.2.1\] Money. Not "a gift", not "a contribution in kind" — money. Gifts straight to the Government, a State Government or a local authority are unrestricted; gifts to a DGIR-approved institution or fund (the case for virtually every NPO reading this) are capped at 10% of the donor's aggregate income \[1, §5.2.1\]. LHDN's own plain-language FAQ on subsection 44(6) puts the in-kind point even more bluntly: _"Only cash contributions are allowed for tax deductions under subsection 44(6)... Institution/organization/fund can accept contributions in the form of goods, but tax deduction receipts cannot be issued for them"_ \[4, Q25\]. If your organisation's tax-exemption approval is an ordinary s44(6) approval — covered in our [s44(6) approval guide](https://donorcare.my/resources/s44-6-approval) — it does not, by itself, extend to anything a donor hands you that isn't cash. (Note: PR No. 7/2025 is framed around resident individual taxpayers specifically \[1, §1.1, §3.4\]; the underlying s44 subsections aren't limited to individuals, but confirm the equivalent treatment for a corporate donor with your own advisor.) **Practical tip:** don't assume "tax-exempt organisation" means "every gift we receive is tax-deductible" — the exemption attaches to the _form_ of the gift as much as to your status. If a donor asks for a receipt for goods, check the narrow categories below before promising anything. ## The narrow list of in-kind gifts that _do_ qualify — and who has to approve them The Act does carve out a small number of specific in-kind categories. PR No. 7/2025 lists them, each naming the body that certifies the value — never the donor, never your NPO \[1, §5.2\]: | Provision | What it covers | Who values it | | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | s44(6A) | Gift of an artefact, manuscript or painting **to the Government or a State Government** | Department of Museums Malaysia or the National Archives | | s44(8) | Gift of money for library facilities open to the public, or to school/university libraries (max RM20,000) | — (money only; not in-kind) | | s44(9) | Gift of money **or contribution in kind** for facilities in public places for disabled persons | The relevant local authority | | s44(10) | Gift of money **or the cost/value of medical equipment** to a healthcare facility approved by the Ministry of Health (max RM20,000) | Ministry of Health | | s44(11) | Gift of a painting **to the National Art Gallery or a state art gallery** | The National Art Gallery / the respective state art gallery | | s44(11C) | Gift of money **or cost of contribution in kind** for a project of national interest approved by the Minister of Finance | Not stated in PR 7/2025 — confirm the valuation method with the Minister of Finance's project approval itself | Notice what these are not: a general "donate anything useful to a charity" provision. They are gifts to _specific recipients_ (the government, a state art gallery, an MOH-approved healthcare facility) or contributions to a _specific, pre-approved_ project. A bag of rice to a temple's food bank, a laptop to a clan association's office, or a car handed to a welfare society fits none of them. There is no catch-all "gift of goods to an approved charity" subsection. **Practical tip:** before telling a donor "yes, that qualifies," check the recipient and purpose against the table above, not just whether your organisation is generally 44(6)-approved — and if it genuinely fits, get the valuation from the named authority, never the donor's invoice or your own estimate. ## The company that wants a deduction for its own contribution — a different mechanism entirely This is the part that trips organisations up most: a company donating goods or services doesn't get _your_ organisation to issue it a receipt for the item's value. Instead, it applies for its own, separate deduction under **paragraph 34(6)(h)** of the Income Tax Act, against its own business income — and the process runs through the government, not through you. The Ministry of Finance's guideline on subsection 34(6)(h), effective **15 September 2025**, sets the mechanics [2]: eligible forms are cash, **new** equipment, services (valued at the _cost_ of providing them, not the fee the donor would otherwise charge), and stock-in-trade (valued at cost, not retail price) \[2, §4.1–4.2\]. The project must be approved _before_ the contribution is made — by the Relevant Government Authority (RGA) for contributions up to RM300,000, or the Ministry of Finance itself above that \[2, §2.2, §6\] — and must be a genuine community/charity project (education, health, housing, poverty relief, infrastructure, ICT, environment, or heritage conservation) benefiting the public with nothing given back to the donor \[2, §3\]. The donor keeps the approval letter, a recipient's acknowledgement, and an RGA value-confirmation letter, then claims the deduction on its **own tax return** \[2, §7\]. The guideline is explicit that **cash gifts to an institution already approved under s44(6) don't use this route** — those go through s44(6) instead \[2, §9(i)\]; 34(6)(h) exists for the in-kind and services side of business giving. So when a company says "we want to donate 200 bags of rice and get a deduction," the honest answer is: their accountant can apply for RGA approval of the food-relief distribution as a qualifying project _before_ the rice is handed over — but your organisation doesn't issue a receipt for it, and if they skip that process (as most casual in-kind gifts do), no deduction is available to either side. A sibling provision, **s34(6)(ha)**, under the same guideline, covers businesses financing public infrastructure (a bus shelter, a community hall) on the same terms [2]. Neither provision is usable by an ordinary individual with no business income: both are restricted to "companies and others with business income (individuals, partnerships, trust bodies and co-operatives)" \[2, §5.1\]. **Practical tip:** if a corporate donor asks about a deduction for goods before they give, point them to their own accountant and the MOF/RGA process — it's their application, not yours, and you should never offer to "certify the value" of a donated item yourself. ## The laptop, the car, and the free professional hours Individual, non-business donors sit outside almost all of the above. A member's used laptop or personal car doesn't fit s44(6A)/(9)/(10)/(11) (each names a different specific recipient or purpose), and an ordinary individual has no "business income" to claim a s34(6)(h) deduction against even if the gift were otherwise eligible. In practice, **most in-kind gifts from individuals have no tax-deduction route at all**, however generous and useful they are. Free professional services sit in the same place — an accountant's bookkeeping, a doctor's free clinic, a volunteer's time. Section 34(6)(h) lists "services" as an eligible form, but only when the contributor is a _business_ with prior project approval, valued at the _cost_ of delivering the service, never the fee it would otherwise bill \[2, §4.1–4.2\]. A volunteer donating personal time outside any registered business has no mechanism to plug into — there is no provision anywhere in the Act for deducting volunteered time. Say this plainly to a donor expecting a receipt: their generosity is real, but the tax system has no lever for it. That's a limitation of the law, not your paperwork. ## Valuation: never the donor's own number Every provision above shares one design feature: the value is set by a named third party, never the giver and never the recipient. Artefacts/manuscripts/paintings to government: Department of Museums Malaysia or National Archives \[1, §5.2.2\]. Facilities for disabled persons: the relevant local authority \[1, §5.2.4\]. Medical equipment: certified by the Ministry of Health \[1, §5.2.5\]. Paintings to an art gallery: the National Art Gallery or state gallery \[1, §5.2.6\]. A s34(6)(h)/(ha) contribution: the RGA verifies value against actual eligible expenditure — stock at its cost, a service at the cost of providing it \[2, §4.2, §7.1(ii)\]. Nowhere does "the donor's invoice" or "what a similar item retails for" appear as the valuation method. If a donor hands you a figure and asks you to print it on a receipt as the tax-deductible value, that isn't how any of these provisions work — and a receipt that implies otherwise is a real exposure for your organisation. ## e-Invoicing and sponsorship, briefly LHDN's _FAQs for Donations or Contributions_ (as of 7 July 2025) is direct: **"No e-Invoice is required to be issued for donations-in-kind received from donors"** \[3, Q3\]. E-Invoicing on donations attaches only to money gifts — an in-kind gift sits outside the system entirely. (Full detail: [Do we need an e-Invoice for a donation?](https://donorcare.my/resources/e-invoice-for-donations)) A company that gives money or goods **in exchange for its logo on your banner, an event mention, or naming rights** isn't making a donation in the tax sense at all — it's buying advertising, a business expense for them, not a gift under any provision above. See [temple offerings: donation or sale](https://donorcare.my/resources/temple-offerings-donation-or-sale) for the same donation-versus-exchange line applied more generally. ## What this means for your organisation 1. **Default to "no tax receipt" for in-kind gifts** unless the recipient and purpose clearly match s44(6A), (8), (9), (10), (11) or (11C) — and even then, get the value from the named approving body, not the donor. 2. **Never let a donor's own valuation appear as a tax-deductible figure.** No independent valuation from the body the law names means no tax receipt. 3. **Record every in-kind gift in your own books anyway**, at a reasonable estimated value — for your accounts, AGM report and auditor, an untracked stack of rice or an unrecorded laptop is a control gap regardless of its tax treatment. 4. **Give a plain acknowledgement letter, not a tax receipt**, for anything that doesn't qualify — describe the item and its approximate value, and say explicitly it isn't tax-deductible. 5. **Point corporate donors wanting a deduction to the s34(6)(h)/(ha) route** — make clear it's _their_ application, made _before_ the gift, not something your organisation processes. 6. **Separate sponsorship from donation** at the point of ask: anything offered in return means it isn't a gift under any of these provisions. 7. **Re-check this list periodically** — the s34(6)(h)/(ha) guidelines only took effect 15 September 2025, and the Public Ruling on gifts is already in its seventh edition since first published in 2005. ## Common questions ### A company gave us 200 bags of rice. Can we give them a tax-deductible receipt? No, not from your organisation. Subsection 44(6) covers gifts of money only \[1, §5.2.1\]. The company can instead apply, before contributing, for its own deduction under s34(6)(h) via the RGA or MOF — a process it runs itself, not a receipt you issue [2]. ### A member donated a laptop. What do we put on the receipt? Nothing tax-related — an individual with no business income has no route to a deduction for a gift of goods under PR No. 7/2025 [1]. Thank them with an acknowledgement letter, record it in your own register at a reasonable value, and don't call it a tax receipt. ### What if someone offers us a car? Same answer as the laptop — it fits none of the named in-kind categories (artefacts to government, MOH-approved medical equipment, disabled-access facilities, art-gallery paintings, a Minister-approved national-interest project) \[1, §5.2\]. Record and acknowledge it; no tax receipt. ### An accountant offered free bookkeeping — can we thank them with a tax receipt? No, a volunteer has no deduction mechanism under the Act. If the accountant's own firm wants to claim the service as a business deduction, it must apply for prior s34(6)(h) project approval, valued at its cost of delivering the service, not the fee it would normally charge [2]. ### Who decides how much a donated item is worth? Never the donor, and generally not your organisation. Each qualifying category names its own valuer — Museums Malaysia, the National Archives, the relevant local authority, the Ministry of Health, the National Art Gallery, or the RGA/MOF for a s34(6)(h)/(ha) project \[1, §5.2; 2, §4.2\]. ### Do we need to issue an e-Invoice for an in-kind gift? No. LHDN's own FAQ says plainly that no e-Invoice is required for donations-in-kind \[3, Q3\]. ### Is a sponsorship the same as an in-kind donation? No. If the giver receives something in return — logo placement, an event mention, naming rights — it's an exchange, not a gift. See [temple offerings: donation or sale](https://donorcare.my/resources/temple-offerings-donation-or-sale) for the same principle applied more broadly. ## Where DonorCARE fits DonorCARE has no distinct "in-kind donation" record type, and this isn't the place to pretend it does. Its donation and receipt tools are built for money gifts: [recording an offline donation](https://donorcare.my/help/organisations/donations/record-an-offline-donation/) takes a payment method (Bank Transfer, Cash, Cheque, FPX, card, DuitNow QR or e-wallet) and an amount, and once that donation is marked Completed, [a numbered receipt is generated and emailed automatically](https://donorcare.my/help/organisations/receipts/how-receipts-are-issued/) — exactly the outcome this article says to avoid for a gift of rice, a laptop or free hours. Don't force an in-kind gift through that flow to "give it a number"; keep it in your own register or accounting books instead, at a reasonable estimated value, the way item 3 of the checklist above describes. Where DonorCARE does help is keeping the _money_ side honest, so a non-qualifying gift never gets swept up by accident: - **Tax-deductible receipts only switch on where you're actually entitled to issue them.** A campaign's donations only carry tax-deduction fields once your organisation's Tax Exemption Status shows Approved _and_ that campaign's own Tax Deductible Campaign switch is on. ([Make a campaign tax-deductible](https://donorcare.my/help/organisations/campaigns/make-a-campaign-tax-deductible/)) - **A second template can carry different wording.** [Customising your receipt template](https://donorcare.my/help/organisations/receipts/customise-your-receipt-template/) lets you build a separate, non-Primary template and assign it to a specific campaign — so you can make sure the receipt wording on a given campaign matches what that campaign is actually entitled to say, rather than relying on your default Primary template everywhere. [Start free](https://donorcare.my/pricing) or read [why organisations choose DonorCARE](https://donorcare.my/why-donorcare). ## Sources 1. Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN/IRBM), _Taxation of a Resident Individual, Part I — Gifts or Contributions and Allowable Deductions_, Public Ruling No. 7/2025, 5 December 2025 (replaces PR No. 4/2024). — §5.2.1–5.2.9: s44(6), 44(6A), 44(8)–(11D) conditions and valuing authority per in-kind category. 2. Ministry of Finance Malaysia (Bahagian Cukai), _Garis Panduan Permohonan Potongan Cukai Di Bawah Subseksyen 34(6)(h) dan 34(6)(ha) Akta Cukai Pendapatan 1967_, effective 15 September 2025\. — §2.2 MOF thresholds; §4 valuation method (cost basis, new equipment); §9(i) excludes cash gifts already under s44(6). 3. Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN/IRBM), _Implementation of e-Invoice in Malaysia: FAQs for Donations or Contributions_, as of 7 July 2025\. — Q3 no e-Invoice for donations-in-kind; Q1–Q2 monetary-donation e-Invoice treatment and religious exemption. 4. Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN/IRBM), _Frequently Asked Questions — Institutions/Organisations/Funds: General Matters on Subsection 44(6)_, last updated 9 June 2026\. — Q25 only cash qualifies for a receipt; Q27 same rule for product-sale proceeds.