Under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS) for Employment Income, you must submit employment income information of all your employees to IRAS electronically.

Employers are required to submit the employment income information of all employees including:

  1. Full-time resident employee
  2. Part-time resident employee
  3. Non-resident employee including those who are based overseas and are required to render service in Singapore during the year (exclude details of employment income where clearance has been filed)
  4. Company director (including non-resident director)
  5. Board member receiving Board/ Committee Member Fees
  6. Pensioner
  7. Employee who have left the organisations but were in receipt of income in the reporting year (e.g. stock option gains)

Important information for employers

Employees who have sought tax clearance (Form IR21)

Employers do not need to submit the income information for foreign employees who have ceased employment in the year and whose income has already been assessed via tax clearance. If there are any income that have yet to be assessed for these employees, employer should submit an additional Form IR21 to report the additional income.

Sole proprietors and partners

As sole-proprietors and partners are owners of their own businesses, the salaries drawn from the businesses are taxable as trade income. The income information of these sole-proprietors and partners should be excluded from the AIS submission.

Exception to the rule
If the partner is engaged under an employment contract with the partnership as a salaried partner, the income information of the partner should be submitted as employment income via the AIS. Generally, these partners do not assume the liabilities of the partnership and they do not have a share in the profit/ loss of the partnership. They are considered as employees of the partnership even though they have the title of 'partner'.

Non-resident directors

Employers under AIS must declare the employment income information of all their employees, including non-resident directors.

If Section 45 withholding tax has been paid to IRAS on director’s fees payable to a non-resident director, select ‘Y’ under “Section 45 (applicable to non-resident director)” indicator when reporting via AIS. This indicator is not applicable to resident directors and local employees.

You are not required to submit their information only when the non-resident director solely receives director's fees.

Employees posted overseas

Learn more about how to report income of employees posted overseas (under 'Working outside Singapore').

Employees rehired within a year

If an employee leaves and re-joins the organisation in the same year, consolidate the employment income information and submit as 1 record.

Students on internship or traineeship

Employers must submit the employment income information for students who enter into an employment contract with the employer in Singapore and remuneration is paid for the services rendered.

There is no need for submission of allowance information if there is no employment contract and the students are only given an allowance for defraying the costs of travelling and meals during the training period.

Foreigners or expatriates

Employers must submit employment income information for foreign and expatriate employees, as long as the employee received income for their employment services rendered in Singapore for the year.

Employers are required to use the Foreign Identification Number (FIN) issued to foreign employees by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) or Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) in their AIS submissions. A valid FIN must consist of a prefix 'F'/ 'G'/'M', with seven digits and a check-digit. E.g. F1234567A or G7654321R.

FAQs

Must I report the actual donations made or the tax-deductible donations in the submission for the employee?

You should report only the amount of tax-deductible donation deducted from salary.

Should I include employees who worked for a short period and left the organisation?

You should include all employees who had worked in the organisation regardless the length of employment.

Do I only submit the income information of employees who are taxable?

You are required to prepare and submit the employment income information for all employees regardless of the income amount.

Must I submit fees that are paid to individuals who are not employees of the organisation?

Payments made to individuals who are not employees should not be included in the submission. These individuals should report the fees by themselves.

This is the first year that I am participating in the AIS for Employment Income (e.g. YA 2023). Can I also submit electronically back year’s (e.g. YA 2022) income that are adjusted in this year?

Please prepare and send to your employees the hardcopy Form IR8A for back years adjustments made to employment income information prior to joining the AIS.

Do I have to submit the income information of foreign employees whose income is below $22,000 and tax clearance is not required?

You are required to include these foreign employees' employment income information in the submission.

Can I use the work permit number for foreign employees for the submission as it is currently captured in the payroll software?

Please update your records with their Foreign Identification Number (FIN) before submitting to IRAS. All foreign employees have a FIN issued by Ministry of Manpower (MOM) or Immigration and Checkpoint Authority (ICA).

How do I declare exempt income?

You can declare the exempt income under "Remission / Overseas Posting / Exempt” and select the most appropriate exemption reason on the Form IR8A.

How do I declare the Appendix 8A if an employee has more than 1 place of residence?

Please prepare separate Appendix 8A records for each place of residence. If you are submitting online, you need to prepare Appendix 8A and corresponding Form IR8A for each place of residence.

Can I declare the stock option gains in a foreign currency?

You need to report the foreign stock option gains in Singapore currency for Form IR8A and Appendix 8B.

Actual exchange rates

For the conversion, you should use the actual exchange rate as of the date the employee exercised the stock option.

In-house exchange rates

If you do not have the exchange rate on the date of exercise, you may use your organisation's in-house exchange rate for conversion purpose.

Published exchange rates

If your organisation does not have any in-house exchange rate, you may use the exchange rates published by local banks, locally circulated newspapers and reputable news agencies.

You may use any of the sources of exchange rates listed above. Ensure that you:

  1. Uses the same source for all employees
  2. Apply the same source for all years
  3. Communicates to all employees the source of exchange rate that will be used for the purpose of foreign currency conversion in reporting their stock option gains to IRAS

My business is a partnership which paid salaries to partners. Do I report these salaries?

You need to submit employment income information of partners who are engaged under an employment contract with the partnership (i.e. partners who generally do not assume the liabilities of the business and does not have a share in the profit/loss of the partnership). These partners are considered as employees.

You do not need to submit the remuneration of partners who are self-employed. The precedent partner of the partnership should allocate the income of these partners who have a share in the profit/loss of the partnership and receive remuneration (salary, bonus, CPF, and other benefits) in Form P. The partners should then report their allocated share of profit/loss and remuneration (salary, bonus, CPF, and other benefits) from the partnership in the 'Trade, Business, Profession, or Vocation' section and 'Partnership' sub-section of their personal Income Tax Return.