e-Invoice (LHDN MyInvois): what Malaysian contractors need to know
If you run a contracting business in Malaysia, you've probably heard the term e-Invoice being thrown around. It can sound complicated, but the idea behind it is simple: instead of just printing or emailing an invoice, the document also gets sent to LHDN (the Inland Revenue Board) for validation. This guide explains what that means for a contractor in plain language.
What is e-Invoice and MyInvois?
An e-Invoice is a structured digital record of a sale — a quotation turned invoice, a deposit, a progress claim — that is submitted to LHDN through a system called MyInvois. Once LHDN validates it, you get back a unique identifier and a QR code that proves the invoice is genuine and recorded.
It is not the same as the PDF you send your client over WhatsApp. The PDF is the human-readable copy; the e-Invoice is the machine-readable record that LHDN keeps. In practice you will still hand your client a normal-looking invoice — it just carries a validation reference once it has gone through MyInvois.
The phased rollout by annual turnover
LHDN is introducing e-Invoice in stages, starting with the largest businesses and working down to smaller ones. The order is based on a business's annual turnover, so larger contractors are brought in earlier than small subcontractors and tradesmen. Smaller businesses get the most time to prepare.
What this means for you: check your own annual turnover against the band that applies to you, and confirm your start date directly with LHDN or your accountant rather than relying on a rule of thumb. Dates and thresholds have been adjusted before, so the official LHDN guidance is always the source to trust.
What a contractor must capture
An e-Invoice carries more fields than a basic invoice. To submit cleanly, you generally need to have these details ready:
- Your own TIN (Tax Identification Number) and business registration details.
- The buyer's details — name, TIN where required, address and contact. For many sales to other businesses, the buyer's TIN matters.
- SST information where it applies to the work you do, including any tax amount charged.
- A clear line-item breakdown: description of work, quantity, unit price and totals.
- The classification code for what you're selling and the correct currency (MYR for local jobs).
The good news is that most of this is information you already collect when you write a proper quotation. The shift is mainly about capturing it consistently, every time, in a structured form.
How it differs from a normal invoice
A normal invoice is a document you create and send. An e-Invoice adds a validation step in the middle: the data goes to LHDN first, gets checked, and comes back stamped before it is considered final. Because of that, the buyer's TIN and the tax fields can't be left vague — they need to be correct for validation to pass. It also means a finalised e-Invoice shouldn't simply be edited after the fact; corrections are handled through credit or debit notes instead.
How MORTAR will support it
MORTAR is built so the move to e-Invoice is a small step, not a scramble. Today the app already produces clean, professional invoices and stores the details an e-Invoice needs — your company profile, buyer records, line items and tax — so you're collecting the right data from day one.
LHDN MyInvois e-Invoice support is on our roadmap. We're building toward it deliberately, and we will not claim live submission to LHDN until the integration is officially in place and working. Until then, MORTAR produces standard invoices, and we'd rather be honest about that than overpromise.
Want to get your invoicing tidy before e-Invoice reaches your turnover band? Join the MORTAR early list and start every project on the right footing.