Updated: 12/06/2026 Tax rules and Meta's billing details can change without notice. We do not promise to update this page when that happens.

Please read this first

This page is simply how we, as a Facebook marketing agency, pay withholding tax on our own Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ad spending each month. We are not LHDN officers, not tax agents, and not lawyers.

We first wrote this as a private note so our own staff could repeat the steps without relearning them every time. We share it because many Malaysian business owners search for this exact topic and cannot find a clear explanation.

So please treat this as "here is what we do", not as instructions for you to follow blindly. By reading or using this page, you agree to our [Terms of Use] (https://treey.my/pages/terms-of-use). This is not tax, accounting, or legal advice, and using it does not create any advisor relationship with us. Before you pay anything to LHDN, please check with LHDN (call HASiL at 03 8911 1000) or your own tax agent.

Why this tax applies?

When a Malaysian business runs Meta ads, the bill comes from Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, a company based in Dublin, Ireland. (You can see this entity name in the footer of your own Meta receipt.)

LHDN's Practice Note No. 1/2018 explains how digital advertising payments to a foreign company are treated. The key test in that note is this: if you pay to use an application or platform that lets you build your own advertising campaigns, the payment is treated as a "royalty" and falls under section 109 of the Income Tax Act 1967. If instead you simply hand everything to a provider who runs the advertising for you with no platform access on your side, it falls under a different section (109B).

Because we log in and build our own campaigns in Meta Ads Manager, our payments are royalty payments under section 109. The withholding tax form for this is CP37.

The rate: 8% instead of 10%, but only with proof

(Official Link)

(Official Link)

The default withholding tax rate on a royalty paid to a foreign company is 10%. Because Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is a tax resident of Ireland, the tax treaty between Malaysia and Ireland lowers the rate on royalties to 8%.

The lower 8% rate is not automatic. LHDN's own DTA rate table states that to claim a treaty rate you must attach the Certificate of Residence (COR) from the payee's country of residence. For Meta that means a COR for Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, issued by the Irish tax authority.

What we do: we make sure we hold a current year Irish COR for Meta Platforms Ireland Limited before we apply 8%. If we did not have a valid COR for the year of payment, our understanding is the rate should be 10%, not 8%.

Honest note on where to get the COR

We are not aware of a single official page where this certificate can simply be downloaded for free for the Meta Ireland entity. What works is to contact Meta business support and request the Certificate of Residence for Meta Platforms Ireland Limited for the relevant year, and keep whatever they provide. If anyone tells you there is an easy public download link, verify it yourself before relying on it. We would rather tell you we are unsure than send you to a link we have not confirmed.

How to read the Meta receipt?

Let us use a real Meta receipt as the example. 

Only the subtotal matters here. Use it exactly as printed: RM2,257.00.

How we calculate the tax

Using this receipt, with a valid Irish COR (8%):

• Rate: 8%
• Step 1, find the "before tax" amount: RM2,257.00 ÷ 0.92 = RM2,453.26
• Step 2, find the tax: RM2,453.26 × 8% = RM196.26
• Net amount Meta receives: RM2,257.00

Why we work it out "backwards" (gross up)? There is a published rule (Public Ruling No. 11/2018) that lets you skip this backwards step for a different type of payment, section 109B, when the payer absorbs the tax. The wording of that concession names section 109B only. Meta ads royalty falls under section 109, and we have not found a published ruling that clearly extends the same concession to section 109. So, to be safe, we keep working it out the backwards way.

Some practitioners apply a flat 8% on the subtotal instead, based on guidance they say LHDN gives informally. On this receipt that flat method gives RM2,257.00 × 8% = RM180.56. You will notice that is exactly the same as the SST line on the receipt, because both are 8% of the same subtotal, which makes a handy sanity check. The backwards (gross up) method we use gives RM196.26, about RM15.70 more on this receipt. That may well be acceptable, but since the flat method is not something we can point to in writing for section 109, we choose the method that can never result in underpaying. If your tax agent confirms the flat method is fine for you, that is a decision for you and them.

How to Pay Withholding Tax Online? 

1. Visit https://mytax.hasil.gov.my and login to your account.

2. From the dropdown menu, select e-WHT.

3. On the left panel, select CP37 and then tick the CP37 checkbox.

4. Fill out the "Particulars of Payer" section with your own information. 

5. In the "Particulars of Person To Whom Interest / Royalty Had Been Paid / Credited" section, be sure to include the following details if you are paying Meta (formerly known as Facebook).

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Meta Income Tax Number: 23548671100

After entering the income tax number, the system will automatically display Meta's address. This address should match the one found in the footer of your Meta ads receipts/invoices.