Cross-border pay model · Johor ⇄ Singapore

The offer looks bigger. Does it land bigger?

A Singapore salary and a Johor salary are not comparable numbers. Different tax, different retirement deductions, a currency in between, and — if you keep sleeping in Johor — a commute you pay for twice a day. Put all three offers in, and read the answer in ringgit.

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Your three columns

Everything recalculates as you type.

Column 1 — the job you have now (Malaysia)

Monthly gross pay Basic plus fixed allowances, before deductions.

Months paid per year 12, plus any contractual bonus months.

EPF — your share Statutory employee rate.

Other tax reliefs you claim Beyond the automatic RM9,000 personal relief and the RM4,000 EPF relief — life insurance, lifestyle, medical, children, and so on.

Column 2 — a Singapore job, still living in Johor

Monthly gross pay In Singapore dollars.

Months paid per year 12, plus AWS or a contractual bonus if the offer includes one.

Singapore tax reliefs Earned income relief is S$1,000 for most people under 55. Total reliefs are capped at S$80,000.

Commute — one-way fare Rail, bus, or the running cost of driving. In ringgit.

Crossings per working day

Working days per year Roughly 240 after weekends and leave.

Door-to-door, one way Minutes. Not costed — shown so you can see the hours.

Exchange rate used One Singapore dollar, in ringgit.

Also assessed in Malaysia, with credit for the Singapore tax paid Leave this off if the foreign-source exemption applies to you. Tick it to see the case where it does not — see the note below on where you are actually tax resident.

Column 3 — a Johor job inside the JS-SEZ

Monthly gross pay In ringgit. A Johor-based employer, paid in Malaysia.

Months paid per year

I have had no Malaysian employment income in the last 24 months My occupation is on Malaysia's critical occupations list, in a qualifying JS-SEZ sector, for a JS-SEZ approved employer

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Fill in the offers on the left.

The fields start with sample figures. Replace every one of them with the real offer before you read anything into this.

Per year, in ringgit	Now Malaysia	Singapore live in JB	JS-SEZ Johor

The rates this is using, and where they come from

Malaysian resident tax, YA2025. Bands of 0%, 1%, 3%, 6%, 11%, 19%, 25%, 26%, 28% and 30%, with the 30% band starting above RM2,000,000. A RM400 rebate applies where chargeable income is RM35,000 or less. Rates unchanged since YA2023. Source: LHDN rate table, checked August 2026.
Malaysian reliefs. RM9,000 automatic personal relief, plus up to RM4,000 for EPF. Life insurance and takaful is a separate relief of up to RM3,000 — put that, and everything else you claim, in the "other reliefs" field.
EPF. Employee share 11%. Below RM20,000 a month the actual contribution follows the rounded bands in the Third Schedule of the EPF Act 1991, so the real figure can differ from a flat percentage by a few ringgit.
Singapore resident tax, YA2026. Thirteen bands: nothing on the first S$20,000, rising to 24% above S$1,000,000. Unchanged from YA2024. No rebate was announced for YA2026. Total reliefs are capped at S$80,000. Source: IRAS individual income tax rates, checked August 2026.
CPF. Foreigners on an Employment Pass or S Pass neither pay CPF nor receive employer CPF. That is a large part of why a Singapore gross converts so favourably — and it also means no forced retirement saving on that side. Source: CPF Board, checked August 2026.
JS-SEZ knowledge worker rate. A flat 15% personal income tax for up to 10 years, in force from 1 January 2025. Announced conditions include monthly pay above RM20,000, no Malaysian employment income in the preceding 24 months, and an occupation on the critical occupations list within a qualifying sector. Source: Ministry of Finance Malaysia incentive package announcement, checked August 2026.
Foreign-source income. The exemption for foreign-source income received by resident individuals has been extended to 31 December 2036, conditional on the income having been taxed in the country of origin. Source: Budget 2026 measures, checked August 2026.
Exchange rate. S$1 = RM3.168, mid-market, 28 August 2026. It moves; the field above is editable for a reason.
Commute fare. The RTS Link is targeted to open on 1 January 2027, and its fares had not been gazetted as at August 2026 — a proposal was due to both governments in the second half of 2026. Reported estimates put a one-way trip around RM15.50 to RM21.70. The RM18.60 default is the midpoint of that reported range, and it is an estimate, not a published fare.

If you banked the difference instead of spending it

Years

Annual return you assume Left at zero on purpose. Put in your own number.

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This is arithmetic on a rate you chose. It is not a forecast, not a return anyone is offering you, and not investment advice. A higher salary only compounds if the difference is actually saved rather than absorbed by a bigger life.

What this model does not know

A take-home figure is the easy half of the decision. These are the parts the arithmetic cannot settle, and they are usually the parts that decide it.

Where you are actually tax resident

Sleeping in Johor and working in Singapore puts you in the awkward middle. Singapore generally treats a foreigner as tax resident once employment and presence there reach 183 days in a calendar year; Malaysia looks at 182 days of physical presence. A daily commuter can plausibly meet the Singapore test while failing to be clearly resident in Malaysia in the way an ordinary employee is — or can be caught by both systems' rules at once. This model assumes you are taxed as a Singapore resident and that the Malaysian foreign-source exemption covers the income when you bring it home. That assumption is doing a lot of work. Tick the box in column 2 to see the version where it does not hold, and get the position confirmed by someone in practice before you sign anything.

The JS-SEZ 24-month rule is the sharp edge

The 15% rate was designed to draw people back, which is why the announced conditions include having had no Malaysian employment income for the previous two years. If you are employed in Malaysia today, you do not qualify on the day you switch jobs — and this tool falls back to the ordinary resident rates when you say so. That single condition is what turns column 3 from a headline into a plan with a two-year gap in it.

The commute is a cost the payslip never shows

The model charges you the fare. It does not charge you the hours, which it shows separately, or what those hours do to a family, a body, or the energy left for anything else. It also cannot know what happens on a bad morning at the checkpoint. Before the RTS Link opens, the crossing is a road crossing, with all the variance that implies.

Currency runs both ways

Earning in Singapore dollars while your mortgage, your car loan, your parents and your groceries are in ringgit is a genuine advantage while the ringgit is weak, and a genuine exposure if it strengthens. The rate field is editable so you can run the version you are afraid of, not only the one you are hoping for.

And the things with no number at all

No CPF means no forced retirement saving on the Singapore side. Whatever EPF was quietly doing for you, you now have to do deliberately.
Employment protection, notice periods, medical cover and dependant passes differ, and none of it is in the gross.
Housing, childcare and schooling stay on the Johor side in column 2 — which is the whole point of that column, and also the reason its numbers look as good as they do.

A note on what this is

This is a planning model, not tax advice, and it is not a substitute for a professional opinion on your own facts. It rounds, it makes the assumptions listed above, and rates change — the ones here were checked in August 2026 and every one of them is editable so the tool stays useful after they move. Nothing you type is sent anywhere; the whole calculation runs in your browser.