For many young adults, buying their own car is a major stepping stone into adulthood. It’s also one of those ‘adulting’ things that involve a steep learning curve, with many different challenges you never knew you’d face.

Let’s say you’ve navigated your way through the car-buying myths and separated truth from fiction. You’ve taken the time to choose the exact car brand, model and even the perfect car body type to suit your style. All that’s left to do is make the downpayment and choose a payment plan and you can start driving immediately, right? 

Hold on a minute. 

There might be one more thing you haven’t figured out yet, and that’s your road tax. Yes, you may own your car and that is your private vehicle, but you still have to pay a tax before you’re able to drive that car out on public roads.

What Is A Road Tax?

A road tax is a pretty straightforward thing, so don’t worry too much about it. The purpose of this article is to help you understand what you need to do about your road tax so that it doesn’t catch you by surprise. 

A road tax is basically a charge by the government that gives you the ability to drive your car on public roads. There might be different names for the tax in different countries, but generally, they’re all just referred to as ‘road tax’. Once you’ve paid up, you’ll receive a sticker that you can display inside your car windscreen to show that you’ve paid your road tax.

Displaying your road tax sticker is important so that you won’t get fined by the authorities should they check your vehicle.

How Is My Road Tax Calculated?

In Malaysia, your road tax is calculated based on three factors. The first is your car’s engine capacity (how many cc’s the engine has), which basically means that the bigger your engine, the higher your road tax. The tax is also affected by the region you’re in. Peninsular Malaysia, for example, will have a slightly higher road tax compared to cars registered in Sabah or Sarawak. Finally, your road tax is also influenced by the type of car you have and its ownership status. Private cars and company cars have different charges, as do saloon cars (like sedans, hatchbacks, coupes, wagons and convertibles) and non-saloon cars (like MPVs, SUVs, pick-ups and commercial vehicles).

I know this sounds overwhelming or confusing, but don’t worry. Just do a quick Google search using terms like “Malaysia road tax calculator” and you’ll find many calculators to help you figure out how much the road tax will be for your car.

When Should I Renew My Road Tax?

The simple answer is that you should renew your road tax before it expires. The expiry date is clearly shown on the road tax sticker that you were given the last time around.

In Malaysia, you have the option to renew your road tax for either six months or one year at a time. Most people prefer to renew their road tax one year at a time just so they don’t have to do it so often. Of course, doing this would depend on their personal budget. You can decide which option works best for you.

What many people might not know is that you don’t have to wait until your road tax expires to renew it. As a matter of fact, you can renew it up to 60 days before it expires. This is great if you prefer not to leave things to the last minute and want to get it done early.

How Do I Pay For My Road Tax?

Road taxes are paid to the Road Transport Department Malaysia, most commonly known as Jabatan Pengangkutan Malaysia or JPJ. The most direct way to do this is to head over your nearest JPJ branch and pay for your road tax over the counter.

Are There Other Ways To Pay My Road Tax?

These days, there are many other convenient ways you can renew your road tax. 

Physically, you could head over to your local post office and get it done there. Aside from your road tax, you could even renew your motor insurance at the post office at the same time (I’ll explain why this matters below).

If, however, you prefer to do it from the comfort of your home or office, you could also renew your road tax online. MyEG is a popular and convenient website for government services. Among their many services, they also offer to help you with road tax payments and renewing your motor insurance simultaneously. 

After you’ve completed the transaction through their website, they’ll send your road tax sticker to you via courier!

What Does Car Insurance Have To Do With Road Tax?

Now I know this article is all about road tax, but I assure you that car insurance (or motor insurance) also matters. These two things go hand-in-hand.

The simple fact is this: in Malaysia, you can’t renew your road tax until you’ve also renewed your motor insurance first. As a result, your road tax and car insurance usually expire at the exact same time. That also means that they’re renewable at the same time as well.

If you decide to use the post office or online services like MyEG to renew your road tax, you’ll also see that they offer a wide range of motor insurance providers that you can choose from. However, if you or your family already has a preferred insurance provider, you can go with them as well. Regardless of which insurance provider you choose, as soon as you’ve renewed your motor insurance, JPJ’s system will be updated almost immediately. Once this happens, you’ll then be able to renew your road tax as well.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like many other ‘adulting’ skills, sorting out your road tax is a matter of practice. Doing it might be confusing and stressful at first, but after a few times you’ll get used to it and it’ll be a regular part of your life as a car owner. Then, you can help your friends understand their road tax better, too!

To make it easier on yourself, you might want to consider setting a reminder on your phone a year in advance. That way, you’ll never forget to set aside some cash so you can renew your road tax on time. Once you’ve done that, you can continue driving your car without any worries.