Purchase of Sports Equipment for Tax Deductions

From the year 2008, individual taxpayers are allowed to claim tax deduction of up to RM300 a year on purchase of 'equipments for sports as defined by the Sports Development Act 1997.

The term 'equipment' is not defined and is thus open to discussion. As a general guideline, the IRB has taken the stand that 'consumables' such as shuttlecorks, golf balls, etc. are claimable whereas those long lasting items such as sports shoes, badminton rackets, tennis rackets, etc. are not.

It is doubtful if the IRB's stand is valid as the word 'equipment' tends to suggest items which are lasting in nature. In the game of tennis for example, the racket would be closer to 'equipment' rather than tennis balls.

The list of sports activities are as follows :-

Sports Development Act 1997
FlRST SCHEDULE
(section 2)
The following activities are regarded as sports for the purposes of this Act:
1. Archery
2. Athletics
3. Aquatics
4. Automobile Sports
5. Badminton
6. Basketball
7. Billiards and Snooker
8. Body Building
9. Bowling
10. Boxing
11. Cricket
12. Cycling
13. Equestrian Sports
14. Fencing
15. Foolball
16. Golf
17. Gymnastics
18. Handball
19. Hockey
20. Judo
21. Karate Do
22. Lawn Bowls
23. Netball
24. Rugby
25. Sepak Takraw
26. Shooting
27. Silat Olahraga
28.Soft Tennis
29.Softball
30.Squash
31.Table Tennis
32.Tae kwan do
33.Tennis
34.Volleyball
35.Waterski
36.Weightlifting
37.Wrestling
38.Wushu
39.Yachting

7 comments:

  1. I am assuming badminton racket (or racquet) qualifies in this case, right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. As there is no direct confirmation from the IRB that it does not, I would assume that it qualifies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i would like to purchase for gym plate. I'm not sure if consider for tax deduction.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear MC,

    I presume the gym plates are for Body Building purposes. As such it falls under Item * of the First Schedule of the SDA and should qualify for deduction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Can I Claim if I bought a Tennis racket?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mei Xuan,

    The same goes with the first comment above on Badminton racket. It should be allowed.

    ReplyDelete