Every year, Singapore employers must report employee income to IRAS. For most companies, that reporting happens through the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS), not by handing out paper forms. If you employ five or more people, AIS participation is mandatory, and your submission deadline is 1 March.
What is the Auto-Inclusion Scheme
The Auto-Inclusion Scheme is IRAS's electronic filing system for employee income. Under AIS, employers submit employment income details directly to IRAS by 1 March each year. IRAS then auto-includes that information in each employee's tax return, so your staff do not need to manually declare their salary when filing their own taxes.
Form IR8A—the employee earnings statement—is still the underlying document. But AIS employers submit the data electronically through IRAS's myTax Portal or via integrated payroll software with AIS API capability. You do not print and hand out IR8A hardcopies to your employees.
For Year of Assessment 2026, the data you submit covers calendar year 2025 income. That submission must reach IRAS by 1 March 2026, ahead of the tax-filing season that opens in mid-March.
Who must participate in AIS
Participation is compulsory under Section 68(2) of the Income Tax Act if your company:
- Had five or more employees (full-time, part-time, directors, board members) at any point during calendar year 2025, or
- Received a "Notice to File Employment Income of Employees Electronically" from IRAS, or
- Was already registered for AIS on or before 1 March 2026.
Once you are in AIS, you remain in the scheme even if your headcount later drops below five. Companies with fewer than five employees may register voluntarily.
As of February 2026, approximately 123,000 employers are under AIS, covering over two million employees.
What employee income must be reported
You must submit employment income information for every individual who worked for you during the year, regardless of how little they earned or how short their tenure. This includes:
- Full-time and part-time employees
- Company directors (resident and non-resident)
- Board members receiving committee fees
- Non-resident employees who rendered services in Singapore (unless tax clearance via Form IR21 was already filed)
- Former employees who left in 2025 but received income in the year, such as stock-option gains or deferred bonuses
Each employee record must include salary, bonuses, allowances, director's fees, CPF contributions, donations deducted from salary, and benefits-in-kind (use Appendix 8A for accommodation or car benefits, Appendix 8B for stock options). If an employee worked for you only briefly or earned below the $22,000 taxable threshold, you still report them.
Exclude sole proprietors, partners drawing from their own business, and foreign employees for whom you have already sought tax clearance and who had no other Singapore income.
How to submit
You have two submission routes:
Via payroll software integrated with AIS API. If your payroll platform (for example, Xero or another system validated by IRAS) supports the AIS API, the software can transmit data directly to IRAS. This is the most efficient route for companies that run monthly payroll electronically.
Via myTax Portal (online application). Log in to the IRAS myTax Portal, navigate to Employers, and use the "Submit Employment Income Records" function. You can either key in each employee record manually or import them from a spreadsheet template. If you have signed up for the CPF Data Link-up Service, IRAS pre-populates salary data for CPF-contributing employees from the CPF Board; you then verify, adjust, and add information not captured by CPF (for example, director's fees, foreign employees, benefits-in-kind).
The deadline is firm: 1 March. Employers who miss the deadline may be fined up to $5,000 under Section 94 of the Income Tax Act. Company directors or partners can be fined up to $10,000 or imprisoned for up to twelve months if they fail to respond to IRAS notices. In 2025, IRAS prosecuted 1,207 repeat offenders, with penalties exceeding $1 million.
How to prepare clean payroll records
Accurate AIS submissions start with disciplined payroll and HR record-keeping throughout the year. IRAS uses your submitted data to compute each employee's tax bill, so errors cascade into incorrect assessments and delayed refunds for your staff.
Keep records current
Maintain an updated list of all individuals on payroll, including start and end dates. If an employee joins on 15 January 2025 and leaves on 20 August 2025, both dates go into the IR8A record. If someone leaves and rejoins within the same year, consolidate their income into a single record.
Reconcile monthly CPF with year-end totals
Your AIS submission should tie back to the CPF contributions you declared monthly to the CPF Board. The CPF Data Link-up Service helps here, but you must still review and correct any discrepancies, especially for employees who joined or left mid-year.
Classify income correctly
Break down total remuneration into the correct line items: salary, bonus, director's fees, allowances, overtime. Report benefits-in-kind (accommodation, company car) on the correct appendix. If an employee received exempt income (for example, crew income from a Singapore-registered ship plying international waters), flag it in the "Remission / Overseas Posting / Exempt Income" section.
Capture deductions and donations
If your employees contribute to Yayasan Mendaki Fund, Community Chest, SINDA, CDAC, or another approved organisation via salary deduction, report the actual amount deducted. These donations reduce the employee's taxable income, so accuracy matters.
Plan for amendments
If you discover an error after submission, you can file an amendment via myTax Portal or your payroll software. For Year of Assessment 2026, IRAS has extended back-year filing to four years (previously two). Amendments should be minimal if your monthly payroll discipline is sound; aim to get it right the first time.
What business owners should do
- Check whether your company is already registered for AIS; if you had five or more employees in 2025, registration is mandatory.
- Verify that your payroll software is AIS-compatible, or prepare to file via myTax Portal.
- Sign up for the CPF Data Link-up Service to reduce manual data entry.
- Reconcile your 2025 payroll records now—salary, CPF, bonuses, director's fees, benefits-in-kind—before the 1 March deadline.
- Ensure commencement and cessation dates are recorded for any employee who joined or left during 2025.
- File by 1 March; late or inaccurate submissions trigger penalties and disrupt your employees' tax assessments.
If you need support with year-end payroll reconciliation, CPF compliance, or AIS submission, our corporate payroll team can prepare, review, and file your employment income records on time and accurately. We also help companies set up monthly payroll processes that feed cleanly into AIS, so that year-end filing becomes a one-hour review rather than a multi-day scramble. Reach out via our contact page to discuss how we can support your payroll and compliance needs.
Treat AIS as the finish line of your monthly payroll discipline, not a surprise once a year. Keep employee records current, reconcile CPF monthly, classify income correctly, and file by 1 March. Clean payroll data protects both your company and your employees from penalties and delayed tax assessments.