Residence Status for Mm2h visa participants.

You would need to get a Certificate of Residence. That requires your being in Malaysia for 182 days in a Malaysian tax year (January-December).  This can be obtained from the tax office.

http://www.hasil.gov.my/bt_goindex.php? … p;bt_lgv=2

It's used for Double Taxation purposes.

The first step after arrival will be to apply for a Taxation Reference Number, again from the tax office.

Lehtju wrote:

Hi!
Can anyone help me. We have received with my wife mm2h visa approval and received the visas.
We have rented the apartment and we are moving to KL in the end of October. We are retired and we do not have any income from Malaysia. We want to get the tax residence status to Malesia in order to prove the Finnish tax authorities that we are permanently living in Malaysia.
Does anyone know what should we do to get the residence status?

You won't be able to get tax residence for this year (because of the 183 days requirement). Whether or not you have the MM2H doesn't matter for your tax residence as far as I know.
Next year should be easy, assuming that you live in Malaysia the majority of the time.

Thank you Gravitas and Floaton of your responses.
Do you know if there is a separate residence status in Malaysia, so that the authorities confirm that your permanent address is in Malaysia?

There is no such authority in Malaysia. When you are on the MM2H visa a person is just on an open 10 yr social visit pass and is not a Permanent Resident.

You could get your lease certified by a Notary Public - but that is not a permanent address either - just valid for the length of the lease. It might be different if you owned property - but I am certainly not suggesting to buy, especially at the moment, as prices should continue to come down.

You need to find out what the Finnish tax authorities will accept. The usual process is to get a Certificate of Residence from the Malaysian tax office.

If you are getting Pension payments from overseas it can be quite difficult to sever ties with another country. The only way I know is to change your DOMICILE to Malaysia. But that has quite a few legal consequences.