Selling Your MM2H Car

If you are thinking of selling your MM2H car (the vehicle which you purchased or imported free of excise/import duties when you first came to Malaysia under the Malaysia My Second Home Programme) you will need to know how to go about it.

You could just ask your MM2H agent to arrange everything for you. My agent offered to do so for a fee of RM1,500 which I thought was a bit steep (he does have a tendency to regard me as a walking ATM machine). So, being thrifty I declined his offer and decided to do it myself.

It is quite a straightforward process but it takes a bit of time.

Procedure 

This was the procedure I followed in November 2018/January 2019. I live in Klang Valley. The procedure in other parts of Malaysia may vary.

My car was a locally-assembled Honda CRV which I purchased brand new in December 2009 at the tax-exempted price of approximately RM 97,500. This compared to the regular list selling price of RM 143,000 at the time, i.e. a saving of about RM 45,500.

Step 1 of Selling Your MM2H Car
Visit the Ministry of Finance in Putrajaya and apply for permission to sell the car.

Address: Tax Division, 7th Floor, Centre Block, Ministry of Finance Malaysia, Present 2, 62592 Putrajaya

GPS: 2.926775, 101.688838

Show the Way

Operating Hours: Officially Mon-Fri 8 am - 5 pm (I suggest you arrive around 10-11 am to avoid traffic and lunch time lull).

Documents You Need:

  • Copy of Car Registration
  • Copy of Passport
  • Copy of MM2H Visa
  • Application to Sell Letter (a blank letter is available at the 7th Floor counter or you can print and complete the specimen below):

Note: You need to provide the chassis number and engine number. These are shown on the JPJ Car Registration Certificate.

Hand in the letter and documents to the person on reception. There was no queuing involved here.

I was informed that approval would take 3 weeks and was given a number to call after 3 weeks to confirm it has been approved.

Update as at January 2020: I am informed that this info is out of date and they now accept email applications and for cars over 5 years old the request is not required, just the customs valuation. I suggest you call the Tax Division at the above number to obtain the latest guidance.

Step 2 of Selling Your MM2H Car
Return to the Ministry of Finance in Putrajaya to pick up the approval letter.

After the 3 weeks is up, call the number given and, if it is ready, return to the Ministry of Finance (same address and same counter on the 7th Floor) to collect the approval letter.

The approval letter will look like this: 

Note: Sale of the vehicle needs to be completed within 3 months of the date of the approval letter so do not apply too early if you are not planning to sell immediately.

Step 3 of Selling Your MM2H Car
Visit Customs Department in Kelana Jaya to assess duty based on the current value of the vehicle.

Address: Royal Malaysian Customs Department, 2nd Floor, Block A, 22 Jalan SS 6/3, Kelana Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya

GPS: 3.096718, 101.602313

Show the Way

Operating Hours: Mon-Fri 8.30am - 4.30pm. 

Note: Customs Department closes for lunch from 1-2pm which is a quaintly old-fashioned practice but often more efficient than trying to run an operation with skeleton staff during lunch. There is a visitor car park but it gets busy (though plenty of spaces from 1-2pm). Police were handing out parking tickets to cars parked on the road outside Jabatan Kastam so be aware.

Documents You Need:

  • Copy of Ministry of Finance's Approval Letter to sell the car 
  • Copy of Car Registration

The staff at the Customs Department were friendly, polite and helpful and I didn't have to wait long before the assessment was completed.

Note: They do not need to see the car - the assessment is calculated based on their system.

Note: A notice outside reminds visitors of the dress code which means no shorts, flip flops, sleeveless tops, mini-skirts etc. 

You will be handed a piece of paper showing the amount assessed. In my case I had to pay RM 5,716 which I though was quite high for a nine year old car. I know of other people with a similar car which they sold after 5 years and had to pay RM 11,000 so it appears to be some kind of straight line depreciation method they use but the formula is not transparent and when I queried how it was calculated I was told it was all done by the system.

As you can see from the receipt below they also charge SST on the amount assessed (tax on tax!). When I queried why the SST was 28% instead of 10% I was told this is according to the system.

I was also told I could appeal the assessment by visiting the Royal Malaysian Customs HQ at Putrajaya which seems a bit odd - either they are following a set formula in which case there is no point appealing, or a degree of discretion is applied by the assessing officer, which he told me was not the case. A Taxi owner who was in the queue at the same time as me told me that he had obtained a 70% discount by appealing at Putrajaya but his case was different and I can't imagine that supposedly 'wealthy' foreigners on MM2H would receive much sympathy from customs officials on appeal. However you might want to try appealing if you are not in a hurry.

Update as at June 2020:  A reader informed me that it is worth appealing. This is his comment:

I appealed to the assessment in Putrajaya HQ. I had a  2013 Honda Civic (7 years) and initially was asked to pay RM 4621. After the appeal, it was lowered to RM 3708.

To appeal, I just needed to email my car registration, the initial assessment, passport and a simple letter of "intention to appeal" to Ms. Rusminda Ahmadun who is the person in charge. Her email is rusminda.ahmad@customs.gov.my and her phone number is 03-8882 2474. She said it will take 2 to 3 weeks but she called me after 10 days to collect my letter. I collected it on level 6, Royal Customs in Putrajaya. But the payment cannot be done in Putrajaya and had to go back to Kuala Lumpur branch.

Step 4 of Selling Your MM2H Car
Pay the Duty & Obtain A Receipt

The counter for payment is in the same section of 2nd Floor, Customs Department, Kelana Jaya so you can immediately pay the duty after receiving the assessment to save another journey.

Note: They only accept cash or a bank draft. Since you won't know the amount until the assessment is done you cannot prepare a bank draft in advance so best to bring plenty of cash. 

The receipt is in duplicate, one copy for JPJ.

The real staff were friendly too.

Step 5.
Sell the car as per the normal procedure for selling any car in Malaysia, i.e. PUSPAKOM, JPJ etc.

As you can see the procedure is fairly painless (apart from paying the duty but that is unavoidable and at least I avoided having to pay the agent an additional RM1,500 on top).

Hope this is helpful.

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