Although Malaysia is a Muslim controlled country, laws of the land are such that they favor the person who has been victimized and the foreigners tend to hear the biased editorials and commentaries from the Print and Mass Media alike.
One of the many tales of Malaysia Business is that you need to know people to get things done, in other words, corruption and the works. This is not true. Last year, the Malaysian Government enacted the Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) or the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) which is an independent Agency of the Prime Minister's Department which handles and prosecutes corrupt practices in the government and private entities alike. They are now usually present in any inter agency raid to ensure that the enforcement officers are not blinded by gifts and throw away a case.
However, the laws governing business entities and immigration are very strict. Recently, the mandated investment amount for foreign entities are said to be RM500,000 (USD150,000) , up from the RM250,000 required back in 2007 to allow the company to acquire expatriate passes for their top management and professionals , whom otherwise would be just issued with a normal blue collar work permit, without any fringe benefits.
Levies and Visa fees also differ between professionals and work permit holders, such as Expatriate Pass Holders i-Kad are Gold in color whereas the Work Permit is Green or Blue in color, and that the levies are higher, and far subjected to much political scrutiny from the immigration department for application of the work permit, whereas the expatriates are automatically given a 5 year Pass, and if they wish, they can request for a permanent resident permit (PR) before the expiry of their pass.
Of course, there are many financial obligations required to get your gold card, such as a bail bond deposit of about RM3000 for most nationalities (RM200 for Singapore, RM1500 for low risk countries) for the duration of their stay here and that they have to file and pay their income taxes based on a minimum RM5000 monthly salary which stands at a tax rate of 12% for that income band. Muslims can pay their tithes or Zakat in lieu of the required tax instead.
Another thing that keep on crapping out is that the company must be owned or have Malaysian Shareholders. This is not exactly true as normally, the first directors can be of any nationality provided they have a proof of address here and a visa status. This rule is exempt for Singapore and Brunei Citizens as according the Federation of Malay States Act. However, it is preferred to have a Malaysian as a director to deal with the local authorities such as the local municipal licensing and other requirements such as GETTING YOUR WORK PERMITS.
One of our companies are 100% foreign owned and with foreigners as shareholders. However, as they don't deal with governmental contracts or such, they don't bother as much as they are more or less a holding company with itself owning few other companies. Contrary to the hear say, you can take out your investments from the company or even Malaysia without any restrictions provided those requirements are met when you start out in the first place.
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