The Only Guide You Will Need To Start A Limited Liability Partnership In Malaysia

If you haven't heard of an LLP before, it's a new business model.

You can call it the love child between a traditional private limited (Sendirian Berhad) company and a partnership. An LLP offers benefits of a private limited company without its painful reporting requirements.

Private limited companies are great, but they cost a lot, especially for small business owners. Search online, and you'll find companies offering to help set up a private limited company for about RM1,500. And it costs at least RM2,500 per year to maintain (for mandatory expenses like secretary fees, auditor fees and accounting fees).

On the other hand, you can set up an LLP for the price below:

. Company name reservation: RM30
. Registration fees: RM500
. Certificate fees: RM47.70 (including GST)
(The RM500 registration fees don’t include your LLP certificate. As to why someone would register a company without wanting a certificate beats me, but anyway…)
. Total: RM577.70

And it will cost you this much to maintain it yearly:

Annual declaration: RM200

It's a lot cheaper because you don't need to do things like have an Annual General Meeting (AGM), hire a company secretary, and submit audited financial reports.

But why not form a sole proprietorship or partnership instead? They cost much cheaper. Only RM60 per year to start and maintain (RM30 if you're not creative and use your own name).

Because an LLP is a separate legal entity from its partners. It declares its tax separately from its partners (important, because it can help optimize the tax you pay). And then the most important point of all: like a private limited company, an LLP offers limited liability to its partners.

Meaning even if the LLP is sued and goes bankrupt one day, creditors cannot come after your personal assets. But in a conventional sole proprietorship or partnership — they can and they will.

Like many things in Malaysia — while the idea behind LLPs is good, the implementation hasn't gone so well. Most people only know the traditional business models like Sole Proprietorship and Private Limited, so getting things done can be troublesome.

Prime Example: I went to buy a car for my LLP recently and the officers at the Road Transportation Department (JPJ) didn't know how to do the vehicle transfer. They had never heard of an LLP before. I had to have several discussions and trips to the JPJ office before I could finally get it done.

Start by creating an account on the MyLLP system by going to their website here.

Click on the “Sign Up” button beside “I am new to MyLLP”. Then enter your identification number (can be IC, Army or Police) and first name. And click “Register”.

Once you’ve successfully registered on the system, they’ll email you something that looks like this:

Print a copy. You’ll need it for your visit to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia, SSM) office.

You can find a full list of SSM offices here.

The most convenient one for me is the head office at Menara SSM:

Menara SSM@Sentral
No 7, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5
Kuala Lumpur Sentral, 50623 Kuala Lumpur
Operating Hours: 8:15 AM – 5:15 PM

It’s about five minutes’ walk from the KL Sentral LRT station:

There are pedestrian walkways all the way from KL Sentral to Menara SSM. Walk “through” Sooka Sentral to get there.

You don’t need to register at the main counter on the ground floor. Just grab the lift and head to Level 17 for LLP matters.

In my experience, the staff at Menara SSM are efficient. I’ve never had to wait more than half an hour. And usually my number gets called within ten minutes.

Pass the email you printed in Step 1 (and your IC) to the friendly person at the counter. She will verify your registration and then give you your Login ID and Password.

At Menara SSM, there's a bunch of computers already hooked up to the MyLLP system. Login to the system using your newly obtained Login ID and Password.

(You could probably do this at home too, but since I was already there — I used the computers provided.)

Click on “Name Registration” and check if anyone else already has your company name. If not, reserve the name and make the RM 30 payment. I used the credit card option to pay.

I initially thought that I could complete the registration in one day. But after paying to reserve the LLP name, I couldn't find the next step. There was no "Proceed to Registration" button.

Confused, I went to the counter to ask for help.

"You have to wait for three working days," the lady at the counter said, "and then you can do the registration online."

So I waited a few days. Kept logging in to see the status, but it kept saying "Pending Payment". The strange thing was the system never emailed me or sent me an alert saying my name reservation was complete.

Remember what I said about good ideas, but poor implementation?

I found out later that this is a common problem if you use SSM's computers to do the payment in Step 4. My girlfriend used her personal computer for Step 4, and she immediately got approval to proceed.

This is what I recommend now: Skip Steps 4 and 5 (You will save RM 30 here). And use your own computer to do everything.

Anyway, after a week I couldn't wait any longer so I decided to try anyway. I logged back into MyLLP and clicked on "LLP Registration" >> "General Registration". Then I entered my "Proposed Name" and hit "Search". (The same name I reserved in Step 4).

This time, there was a line in green saying “Please proceed to reservation”.

Click on “Proceed”.

The next screen is to clarify your LLP name — if the name is unclear or if it's not in English/Bahasa Malaysia. It also allows you to add details of an authorisation letter.

For example, if you use a name that needs permission from a professional body (accountants, lawyers, secretaries). Leave this blank and click on “Proceed to LLP Registration” if you're just registering a simple LLP like me:

The first tab consists of basic information about your business: partnership agreement, address, and nature of your business.

And yes, for you solopreneurs — you can use your home address.

An LLP needs to have at least two partners…

...but the total number of partners is unlimited!

Business codes are numbers which help SSM classify what kind of business you’re involved in. You can search for business codes directly on the MyLLP system by keying in keywords. Or find the complete list here.

The closest thing I could find for a blog was “Web Portals”. Once you’re done, declare that you aren’t lying, and click “Pay and Submit”.

It costs RM500 to register an LLP. You can pay either via credit card or online fund transfer:

Congratulations, you’re now the proud owner of a company!

So you’re now the proud joint-owner of a Limited Liability Partnership, except that you have no proof — other than Mr. LLP Administrator’s email. How will you do things that a company needs to do — like opening a bank account and buying assets?

Right — you’re gonna need your company certificates. But they’re not going to be automatically sent to you. You have to specifically request for them at SSM.

Go back to Level 17, and look for the form below:

Take a number, submit the completed form, and make payment (cash only) at the counter. It’ll take three working days to process. So you’ll have to come back… again!

Since you’ve spent so much time at SSM, you’ve probably already made some 'friends' there. Go back and pay them a visit.

Take a number, wait for your turn, and collect your certificates at the counter.

It should take less than five minutes once it’s your turn. Like I said before, Menara SSM staff are really efficient.

And then you can give everyone a goodbye hug. Because you’re finally done!