ARTHURCorporate Solutions Request a consultation

Petaling Jaya · Selangor

Every filing, every deadline, one firm.

Arthur Corporate Solutions handles accounting, statutory audit, company secretarial and tax for Malaysian SMEs — coordinated in one office, so nothing is filed late and nothing is done twice.

Request a free consultation See the compliance calendar
Approved company auditorStatutory audits signed in-house
Licensed company secretaryNamed secretary under CA 2016
Registered tax agentFilings lodged direct with LHDN
Six service linesOne point of contact for all of them

What we do

Six service lines, built to hand off to each other.

Most SMEs run three separate providers and pay for the same information three times. Here the bookkeeper's ledger is the one the auditor tests and the tax agent files from. Two further practices — Labuan structures and cross-border M&A — we run alongside specialist associates.

01

Accounting

Full-set bookkeeping, monthly or quarterly management accounts, bank and payables reconciliation, and year-end schedules delivered audit-ready rather than as a shoebox of invoices.

  • Full set
  • Management accounts
  • Payroll
02

Audit & Assurance

Statutory audit of your financial statements under MPERS or MFRS, plus review engagements and agreed-upon procedures where a full audit is not what the situation calls for.

  • Statutory audit
  • MPERS / MFRS
  • Special purpose
03

Incorporation

Sdn Bhd registration with SSM end to end — name search, constitution, first directors and shareholders, share structure, and the paperwork your bank asks for on account opening.

  • Sdn Bhd
  • SSM
  • Bank account
04

Corporate Secretarial

A named company secretary, statutory registers kept current, board and members' resolutions drafted, annual returns lodged, share transfers and changes in officers handled properly.

  • Annual return
  • Resolutions
  • Registers
05

Tax Advisory

CP204 estimates and revisions, Form C, Form E and EA preparation, SST registration and returns, and planning around capital allowances, reinvestment and available incentives.

  • Form C
  • CP204
  • SST
06

Labuan & Cross-Border

Labuan company incorporation and substance planning, foreign-owned Sdn Bhd setup, withholding tax on cross-border payments, and transfer pricing documentation for related-party dealings.

  • Labuan
  • Foreign-owned
  • Transfer pricing
  • Licence applications
The Labuan service in full →

Labuan IBFC

A Labuan company, set up so it survives the substance test.

The 3% rate is not a property of the company. It is a property of the company meeting its substance requirements every single year — and the same entity that misses them is taxed at 24% instead. We build the structure around that test, then keep it standing.

How the work is split

With our Labuan trust company

The Labuan side is filed by a trust company registered with Labuan FSA under the Labuan Financial Services and Securities Act 2010. You deal with us throughout — one engagement, one point of contact.

The trust company provides

  • Incorporation and the Labuan registered office
  • Resident secretary, trustee and nominee services
  • Labuan FSA licence applications
  • Bank account opening, custody and escrow
  • Work permits and dependent visas

Arthur provides

  • Bookkeeping and management accounts
  • The statutory audit the 3% rate depends on
  • Tax filings, CP204 and the substance file
  • The onshore Sdn Bhd, SST and transfer pricing
  • Group and consolidated financial statements

A Labuan trading company claims the 3% rate on net audited profits. That is why the trust company and the auditor sit inside one engagement here, rather than being introduced to each other in month eleven.

What we handle

  1. Activity classification Trading or non-trading is the first decision and the most expensive one to get wrong. It sets your rate, whether an audit is required, and which substance category you fall into.
  2. Incorporation Name reservation and incorporation under the Labuan Companies Act 1990, filed through our associated Labuan trust company, with the Labuan registered office and resident secretary in place from day one.
  3. Substance The Labuan office, local headcount and annual operating expenditure your activity category requires — put in place properly and evidenced, so it holds up when Labuan FSA or LHDN asks.
  4. People, permits and banking Director and employment passes for the entity's own staff, dependent visas for their families, and account opening with a Labuan or onshore bank, including the source-of-funds file they will ask for.
  5. The running year Audited accounts, the annual tax return, the annual return to Labuan FSA, and a substance file kept current rather than reconstructed the week before it is needed.

Structures we set up

Trading companyGeneral trading, consultancy, management and administrative services, shipping and logistics.
Holding companyPure equity and non-pure equity holding of group investments, with the substance test that applies to each.
Labuan foundationA separate legal person for succession and long-term asset holding, with a charter and named officers.
Labuan trustIncluding special trusts and purpose trusts, drafted with the trustee and the family's own advisers.
Protected cell companySegregated cells for fund and captive insurance structures, where assets must not travel between cells.
Licensed entitiesFund management, money broking, leasing, captive insurance and digital financial services — applications lodged with Labuan FSA through our trust company.

Substance requirements — the minimum headcount and annual operating expenditure in Labuan — are set by regulation for each activity category and have been revised more than once since 2019. Some of Malaysia's tax treaties also exclude Labuan entities. We confirm what currently applies to your activity, in writing, before you commit to anything.

Ask about a Labuan structure

Mergers & acquisitions

Succession, when there is nobody in the family to hand it to.

A generation of Malaysian SME owners is reaching retirement without a successor. Selling to a strategic buyer is not giving up on the business — for a lot of them it is the only way the business outlives the founder. We get the accounts into a state where that sale is possible, and work with an M&A house that finds the buyer.

How the work is split

With our M&A associate

A cross-border M&A house with offices across Japan and Southeast Asia, and a buyer network that reaches strategic investors most Malaysian SMEs would never meet on their own.

The M&A house provides

  • Buyer and target search across the region
  • The approach, and the confidentiality around it
  • Valuation benchmarking against real deals
  • Negotiation and deal structuring
  • Cross-border introductions, including Japan

Arthur provides

  • Audited accounts a buyer will accept
  • Financial and tax due diligence responses
  • Normalised earnings and the add-back schedule
  • Completion accounts and price adjustments
  • Tax on the proceeds, and on the structure

Deals do not usually fall over on price. They fall over on what due diligence finds in the accounts — which is fixable, but only in advance.

What we handle

  1. Readiness review An honest look at what a buyer's due diligence will turn up, ideally 12 to 24 months before you go to market — while there is still time to fix it rather than discount for it.
  2. Cleaning the file Audited accounts brought up to standard, director and related-party balances settled, assets registered in the company's name rather than the owner's, and open tax exposures quantified and closed.
  3. Valuation and the numbers behind the story Normalised earnings, the add-backs a buyer will accept and the ones they will argue with, and the financial section of the information memorandum.
  4. The process Our associate runs the search, the approach and the negotiation. We hold the data room, answer financial and tax due diligence, and keep the trading business running while you are distracted by the deal.
  5. Completion, and the year after Completion accounts, working capital and price adjustments, warranty schedules, tax on the proceeds — and reporting to the new owner if you stay on through a handover period.

Transactions we support

Business successionThe owner is retiring and there is no successor in the family willing or able to take it on.
Sell-sideA full or partial sale to a strategic buyer or a financial investor, with the owner staying or leaving.
Buy-sideAcquiring a competitor, a supplier or a customer, and the due diligence that should precede it.
Cross-borderInbound buyers from Japan and the wider region, and the reporting standards they will expect afterwards.
Carve-outSelling a division, a brand or a subsidiary out of a group, and separating the accounts to do it.
Post-dealAligning accounting policies, reporting calendars and tax positions with the acquiring group.

We act on the accounting, tax and financial due diligence side of a transaction. Corporate finance advisory, buyer search and negotiation are run by our M&A associate; legal drafting by your solicitors. We will tell you plainly which of the three any given question belongs to.

Talk to us about a sale or succession

The compliance year

What a Malaysian SME owes, and when.

Some deadlines sit on fixed calendar dates. Others move with your financial year end. We track both for every client — this is the map we work from.

Q1 · Jan–Mar

January

Monthly payroll statutories only.

February

EA forms to employeesBy the last day of February

March

Form E — employer return31 March

Q2 · Apr–Jun

April

Form BE — individuals, no business income30 April

May

Monthly payroll statutories only.

June

Form B — individuals with business income30 June

CP204 revision — 6th monthWhere the basis period allows

Q3 · Jul–Sep

July

Monthly payroll statutories only.

August

Monthly payroll statutories only.

September

CP204 revision — 9th monthWhere the basis period allows

Q4 · Oct–Dec

October

Monthly payroll statutories only.

November

Monthly payroll statutories only.

December

CP204 for the coming year30 days before the basis period begins

And the ones that are not on the calendar

These have no fixed date. Some are counted from your own financial year end; others start running the day a transaction happens. They are the ones most often missed. Tell us your year end and we will send you the dated version.

Financial statements circulated to memberswithin 6 months of FYE
Audited accounts lodged with SSM in XBRLwithin 30 days of circulation
Form C — company tax returnwithin 7 months of FYE
Annual return to SSMwithin 30 days of incorporation anniversary
EPF, SOCSO, EIS & PCBby the 15th, every month
Consolidated e-invoice for the monthwithin 7 days of month end
Stamping an instrument, self-assessedwithin 30 days of execution
Capital gains tax return on a share disposalwithin 60 days of disposal

Indicative dates for a typical private company. Extensions, transitional rules and your own basis period can change them — confirm the dates that apply to you with us.

Regulatory update

What has changed, and what it means for your company.

Compliance in Malaysia has moved faster in the last two years than in the decade before it. Most of these changes were not announced to you directly — they simply became the rule. Here is where things currently stand.

Reviewed August 2026

Tax and payroll — LHDN, RMCD, EPF

1 January 2026 e-Invoice, the final mandatory phase The exemption threshold was raised from RM500,000 to RM1 million and the planned fifth phase dropped, so businesses above RM1 million turnover are now in. A relaxation period runs to 31 December 2026 — use it, because it will not be extended again.
1 January 2026 Stamp duty moves to self-assessment You now assess and pay stamp duty yourself through e-Duti Setem on MyTax, within 30 days of execution, instead of waiting for LHDN to assess it. Penalties are waived for the first year only.
1 January 2026 SST grace period is over Full enforcement of the July 2025 expansion, which pulled in leasing and rental, construction, fee-based financial services and more. Rental and leasing came down from 8% to 6%. If you should have registered and did not, that exposure is live now.
1 October 2025 EPF now covers non-citizen employees Registration is mandatory, at 2% employer and 2% employee on wages. Every foreign hire on your payroll is in scope.
YA 2025 2% tax on dividend income Applies to individual dividend income above RM100,000 a year, self-assessed in the personal return. It changes how owner-directors should think about salary against dividend.
2024, widened 2026 Capital gains tax on unlisted shares 10% on gains from disposals by companies, LLPs, trusts and co-operatives, with the return due within 60 days of disposal. From 2026 the definition of disposal also catches redemptions, conversions and winding up.

Company law — SSM

1 June 2025 MBRS 2.0 is fully mandatory Financial statements and annual returns are lodged in XBRL, with no exceptions — the taxonomy covers MFRS, MPERS and the Companies Act requirements. A set of accounts that used to be lodged as a PDF now has to be tagged, which is where most late lodgements now originate.
From 2024 Beneficial ownership reporting Under the Companies (Amendment) Act 2024 you must identify your beneficial owners, lodge them through SSM's e-BOS system, and keep the register current as the ownership changes. This is not a one-off filing.
Ongoing Annual return still runs off incorporation date Not off your financial year end, and not off the AGM — private companies no longer need one. It is due within 30 days of the anniversary of incorporation, and it is the deadline clients most often assume someone else is watching.

Audit and assurance

Financial periods from 1 January 2025 Audit exemption criteria reset — PD 10/2024 The old thresholds are gone. A company now qualifies if it meets any two of three tests, and the thresholds step up each year. The prior two financial years have to be within the limit as well.
FY 2025RM1m turnoverRM1m assets10 employees
FY 2026RM2m turnoverRM2m assets20 employees
FY 2027 onRM3m turnoverRM3m assets30 employees
Periods from 15 December 2023 ISA 600 (Revised) — group audits A tougher, risk-based approach to group scoping and to the work done on component auditors. If you own a group, expect the audit to reach further into the subsidiaries than it used to.
Periods from 15 December 2026 ISSA 5000 — sustainability assurance Adopted by the MIA. Only relevant if your sustainability reporting is being assured, but that list is growing from the top of the supply chain downwards.

Accounting standards

Periods from 1 January 2027 MPERS (2025) Issued by the MASB in October 2025 and aligned to the third edition of IFRS for SMEs. It updates nearly every section of the standard, so this is a re-read rather than a patch. Early application is permitted, and there is a case for it if a transaction is coming.
Periods from 1 January 2027 MFRS 18 replaces MFRS 101 The face of the income statement changes: defined categories, mandated subtotals, and disclosure of the performance measures management uses publicly. If you report under MFRS, your comparatives need to be ready before the year starts, not after it ends.
What this means Two standards changing in the same year Whichever framework you sit on, 2027 is a transition year. The work that makes it painless — deciding the framework, restating comparatives, agreeing the presentation — belongs in 2026.

A summary, not advice, and not a complete list. Thresholds, relaxation periods and effective dates move — several of the items above have already moved once. We will confirm what applies to your company before you act on any of it.

How we work

Four steps, and you know the fee before we start.

STEP 01

A scoping call

Thirty minutes on your turnover, transaction volume, headcount and year end. Free, and no commitment on either side.

STEP 02

A written quote

A fixed annual fee, broken down by service line, with the deliverables and dates spelled out. No hourly surprises.

STEP 03

Handover

We collect records from your previous agent, reconcile opening balances against the last audited accounts, and tell you what does not tie.

STEP 04

The running year

Accounts on a set cycle, deadline reminders before they bite, and one manager who knows your file rather than a call centre.

Engagement & fees

Priced on the work, not on your revenue.

Three starting points. Most clients begin at one and grow into the next — the scope moves, the relationship does not.

Tier one

Newly incorporated

Companies in their first year, dormant, or pre-revenue.

  • Sdn Bhd incorporation with SSM
  • Named company secretary & statutory registers
  • Annual return lodgement
  • Year-end accounts and Form C
  • We tell you whether you qualify for audit exemption under PD 10/2024
Request a fee quote
Tier two

Growing

Trading companies with staff, stock and a bank facility.

  • Monthly bookkeeping & bank reconciliation
  • Quarterly management accounts
  • Statutory audit signed in-house
  • Payroll with EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB
  • CP204, Form C, Form E and EA forms
Request a fee quote
Tier three

Established

Multi-entity groups, foreign shareholders, cross-border trade.

  • Monthly management accounts with commentary
  • Group and consolidated financial statements
  • SST returns and audit defence
  • Transfer pricing documentation
  • Labuan structuring and transaction support
Request a fee quote

Fees are quoted in writing after the scoping call and fixed for the engagement year. They are driven by transaction volume and complexity — a quiet company with high revenue costs less to service than a busy one with little.

Get in touch

Tell us your year end and what is outstanding.

We will come back within one business day with what needs to happen, in what order, and what it costs.

Office
24-3, Jalan PJS 11/28,
Bandar Sunway,
46150 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia
Telephone
+60 3-5611 1311
Email
info@arthurcorporate.com