EPF and SOCSO Employer Registration in Malaysia 2026: How a New Sdn Bhd Registers With KWSP, PERKESO, EIS and LHDN — Documents, the 7- and 30-Day Deadlines, Foreign Staff and LINDUNG 24 Jam

A new Sdn Bhd can go months without needing EPF or SOCSO, then need both within days of its first hire. Most owners find out when payroll is due and there is no employer number to pay into. This guide covers what a new Malaysian company must register when it takes on its first employee: the agencies, the forms, the documents SOCSO actually asks for, the 7-day and 30-day deadlines, how foreign staff are treated, and the 2026 changes (LINDUNG 24 Jam and the review of the 2% EPF rule for foreign workers) that payroll templates copied from last year will miss.

Quick answer (as at 28 September 2026): once a Malaysian company hires its first employee it must register as an employer with EPF (KWSP) within 7 days using Form KWSP 1, and with SOCSO (PERKESO) within 30 days on the ASSIST portal. That one PERKESO registration covers both SOCSO (Act 4) and EIS (Act 800), using Borang 1 and Borang SIP 1. It must also hold an LHDN employer (E) number and file Form CP22 within 30 days of each new hire. The agencies charge no registration fee. EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB are all paid by the 15th of the following month. Foreign employees have paid EPF at 2% + 2% since October 2025. The Cabinet agreed on 8 July 2026 to review that rule, but no change has been announced yet.

Four registrations, not one

New owners often think of "EPF and SOCSO" as a single formality. There are actually four employer registrations, run by three agencies under four different laws. A fifth one, HRD Corp, applies only once headcount crosses a threshold. Each has its own portal, form and clock, and missing one is an offence in its own right, separate from any late contribution.

When the clock actually starts

The trigger for EPF and SOCSO is simple: the first person the company pays wages to under a contract of service. It does not matter whether they are full-time, part-time or on probation. What catches new companies is how often that first "employee" turns out to be the director.

A director who takes a monthly salary under an employment arrangement is generally an employee for EPF purposes, so the company becomes an EPF employer the month that salary starts. A director who takes only directors' fees, with no employment contract, is in a different position. Fees and salary are treated differently for contributions, so decide which you are paying before the first payment rather than after. If the only person on payroll is a foreign director on an Employment Pass, the company is still an employer and the registrations below still apply. Only the contribution mix changes.

The second trap is timing. Seven days is short. A company that signs its first employee on the 1st and plans to "sort out EPF with the first payroll" at the end of the month is already three weeks late. Register as soon as the offer letter is signed, not when salary is due.

EPF (KWSP) employer registration, step by step

The EPF registration creates the employer reference number that every monthly contribution is paid against. For a Sdn Bhd the sequence is:

1. Complete Form KWSP 1 (employer registration) with the company's registered and business addresses, nature of business, the date the first employee started and the authorised contact person.
2. Attach the SSM documents. These are the incorporation documents issued under the Companies Act 2016 (the Section 14 application and the Section 15 notice of registration, or a current company profile), plus the identity document of the director signing.
3. Submit through EPF's online employer registration or at an EPF counter. EPF issues the employer number once the form is accepted.
4. Activate i-Akaun (Employer) using Form KWSP 1(i). This is the online account used to submit the monthly contribution schedule and pay. EPF expects it to be activated within 30 days of registration. Without it, every payment has to be made manually.
5. Register the employees. Malaysian employees normally already have an EPF membership number linked to their MyKad. A non-Malaysian employee with no EPF account needs one opened. Since January 2026 EPF has been asking non-Malaysian members to complete fingerprint registration at an EPF branch so that contributions are credited correctly.

None of this is complicated, but the forms must match SSM records exactly, down to the registered address and the directors' names. A mismatch is the most common reason an application comes back. If you would rather hand it over, our KWSP (EPF) employer registration service prepares Form KWSP 1 and the i-Akaun activation from your SSM file and returns the employer number ready for the first payroll.

SOCSO and EIS on the ASSIST portal: what PERKESO asks for

PERKESO runs both of its schemes through one online system, the ASSIST portal, and one employer registration enrols the company in both SOCSO (Act 4) and EIS (Act 800). The process has two stages:

1. Portal enrolment. Complete the ASSIST portal enrolment application. PERKESO emails temporary login credentials to the company's contact person.
2. Employer registration. Log in and upload the signed and scanned registration forms and supporting documents. The employer code is issued after PERKESO approves the registration, and contributions are paid through the same portal from then on.

PERKESO's current checklist on the ASSIST portal is the final word, and it is updated from time to time. The list above covers what a normal Sdn Bhd application needs. PERKESO also requires employers to keep a register of employees with names, identity numbers, wages and contributions, and to retain those records for seven years. Our SOCSO employer registration service handles the ASSIST enrolment, Borang 1 and SIP 1 together, so the company receives its SOCSO and EIS employer code in one pass.

Local and foreign staff are registered differently

Registration is the same act for every employee. The contribution stack is not, and a payroll set up for Malaysians will over- or under-deduct for foreign staff. The rates below are the ones in force as at September 2026. The payroll mechanics are covered in our EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB payroll guide.

Two more points about foreign staff. An Employment Pass holder is an employee like any other for these purposes. Employing them through an overseas payroll does not remove the Malaysian company's obligations if the person works for it in Malaysia. And EPF, SOCSO and LHDN all have to know when a foreign employee leaves, which ties into exit clearance. See our Employment Pass guide for the immigration side.

LINDUNG 24 Jam: the 2026 change that confuses payroll

From 1 June 2026 PERKESO started the Non-Occupational Accident Scheme (Skim Kemalangan Bukan Bencana Kerja, SKBBK), branded LINDUNG 24 Jam. It covers accidents outside working hours, at home, while travelling or during leisure activities within Malaysia. The contribution is paid by the employee only: 0.75% of wages in Phase 1, with 1.00% and 1.25% planned for later phases. The employer pays nothing extra but deducts and remits it with SOCSO.

The scheme started as compulsory. On 8 July 2026 the Cabinet made participation voluntary. PERKESO then published a Liability Release Declaration (Perakuan Pelepasan Liabiliti) for employees who want to leave, with a submission window from 13 July to 31 August 2026. Employees who did not submit it stayed in. Contributions already paid for June 2026 are not refunded, and an employee who opted out can rejoin later.

For a company hiring now, the practical points are:

• Treat LINDUNG 24 Jam as on by default for local employees, and deduct 0.75% unless the employee has completed PERKESO's opt-out declaration.
• An opt-out is the employee's decision and has to go through PERKESO's form. An employer cannot opt staff out by leaving the line off the payslip.
• If the company chooses to bear the 0.75% for its staff, show it as a company-paid benefit. Do not simply drop the deduction, or the wage records and PERKESO's records will no longer agree.
• Keep the signed declaration on the employee file for as long as the payroll records (seven years).

LHDN: the employer number, CP22 and PCB

The tax side runs on its own track. The company needs an employer (E) file number from LHDN, applied for through e-Daftar or MyTax. Under section 83 of the Income Tax Act 1967, the employer must then:

• notify LHDN of each new employee who is or may be taxable within 30 days of their start date using Form CP22. Since 1 September 2024 this must be filed as e-CP22 on MyTax;
• deduct monthly tax (PCB / MTD) from each payroll and remit it by the 15th of the following month;
• file Form E for the year by 31 March of the following year, and give each employee an EA form by the end of February;
• notify LHDN when an employee leaves (CP22A, or CP21 for someone leaving Malaysia). For a departing expatriate, the final payment may have to be withheld until tax clearance is issued.

The E number is separate from the company's income tax (C) file and from its e-Invoice TIN. All three are LHDN numbers, but they are three different registrations.

HRD Corp: the registration that depends on headcount

The fifth registration applies only when the company has 10 or more Malaysian employees in a sector covered by the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad Act 2001. Registration is then mandatory with a levy of 1% of monthly wages. Companies with 5–9 Malaysian employees may register voluntarily at 0.5%, but the levy is binding once they do. Headcount counts Malaysian citizens only. Expatriates are not counted and are not levied. Our HRD Corp levy guide explains how the test is counted and how the levy can be claimed back as training.

Deadlines and penalties in one table

The costly part is rarely the registration fine itself. It is the back-dated contributions: an employer that registers late still owes every month's contribution from the first hire, plus late charges and interest on each one.

Six mistakes new employers make

1. Waiting for the first payroll. The EPF deadline is 7 days from the hire, not 7 days before payday.
2. Forgetting the director is an employee. A salaried director makes the company an employer from the first salary month.
3. Registering SOCSO but not EIS. Borang SIP 1 goes in with Borang 1. A company that files only Act 4 forms has EIS arrears.
4. Using the Malaysian stack for foreign staff. Foreign employees pay 2% EPF, are in the Employment Injury Scheme only, and have no EIS.
5. Treating LINDUNG 24 Jam as optional for the employer. It is voluntary for the employee through PERKESO's declaration, not something the employer decides on the payslip.
6. Mixing up the three LHDN numbers. The E number (employer), C number (company tax) and the TIN used on e-Invoices are separate, and PCB has to be remitted under the E number.

Doing it in the right order

For a newly incorporated Sdn Bhd, the order that avoids arrears is: finish the SSM incorporation and open the bank account (see our step-by-step incorporation guide), then register EPF and SOCSO/EIS as soon as the first employment contract is signed. Both registrations can be done in parallel, because neither needs the other's number. The LHDN employer file can be opened at any time. It is easiest to do it together with the company's tax file.

If you are setting up in Malaysia from abroad, or the first hire is a foreign director on an Employment Pass, we can handle the EPF employer registration and the PERKESO SOCSO and EIS registration from your SSM file, so the employer numbers are ready before the first payroll. Talk to us on WhatsApp at +60 12-321 1349.

This article is general information only, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Policies, thresholds and official fees are set by the relevant Malaysian authorities and may change. Talk to our consultants about your specific situation.