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Payroll year-end readiness across Asia: A checklist for regional HR and finance teams

A year-end payroll checklist for regional HR and finance teams: IR8A, Form EA, PND 1 Kor, Sri Lanka’s T10, Maldives EWT, the January 2027 rate changes and the dates that differ.

By Marianne David13 min read

Regional HR and finance team preparing payroll year-end

Year-end payroll is hard in one country. Across six, it is a project. Each country has its own annual returns, its own employee statements and its own deadlines.

In 2027, Singapore and Thailand change the rules on 1 January, and Malaysia’s Budget 2027 proposes changes from the 2027 year of assessment. And neither Sri Lanka’s year of assessment nor Bangladesh’s individual income year ends in December.

This checklist sets out what changes, what is due and when. It also shows where MiHCM Payroll, which runs native statutory payroll in every market covered here, turns each step from a spreadsheet exercise into a standard report.

What changes on 1 January 2027

Start here, because these changes hit the first payroll of the new year.

  • Singapore: Total CPF rates rise to 35.5% for employees aged above 55 to 60 and 26% for those above 60 to 65, for wages earned from 1 January 2027. (CPF Board)
  • Thailand: Collection of Employee Welfare Fund contributions starts on 1 January 2027, after a second postponement; rates and coverage are subject to the applicable implementing regulations. (Bloomberg Law)
  • Malaysia: Budget 2027 proposes revised personal tax reliefs from Year of Assessment 2027. (EY) Update PCB only when LHDN issues its new specification.

Later in the year, Budget 2027 proposes raising Malaysia’s minimum wage from RM1,700 to RM2,000 from June 2027; RM1,700 remains the statutory minimum until a new order takes effect. (Human Resources Online)

Rate changes like these are where manual payroll breaks. MiHCM Payroll is pre-configured for each supported market’s tax laws, employment regulations and statutory rules, which are updated in the system, and it sends in-system notifications about pay dates, tax updates and deadlines. In Singapore, CPF contributions are calculated from each employee’s age, residency status and wage ceilings, so the age band drives the rate. (MiHCM Singapore payroll)

The annual returns, country by country

Country

Annual obligation

Deadline

Singapore

IR8A and appendices, submitted electronically; for YA 2027 mandatory for employers that had five or more employees in 2026, received an IRAS notice, or remained registered for AIS

1 March 2027

Malaysia

Form EA to each employee

28 February 2027

Malaysia

Form E with CP8D to LHDN

31 March 2027

Thailand

Form 50 Tawi to employees; PND 1 Kor to the Revenue Department

Form 50 Tawi by 15 February 2027 (Revenue Code, section 50 bis); PND 1 Kor by 28 February 2027 (section 58(2)); check any e-filing extension

Sri Lanka

T10 certificate to each employee; Annual Statement of Employer (APIT) to the IRD

30 April 2027, for the year of assessment 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027

Maldives

Withholding Tax Reconciliation Return (MIRA 650) to MIRA; monthly MIRA 601 returns by the 15th

Reconciliation deadline pending regulator confirmation; check MIRA’s important-dates calendar

Bangladesh

Timing note only: the individual income year runs 1 July to 30 June

Employer-side obligations not covered in this checklist

Sources: IRAS; LHDN; PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries.

Bangladesh is the outlier. Its income year for individuals runs from 1 July to 30 June, and individual returns are due by 30 November. (PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries) For a regional team, that means Bangladesh’s busy season falls in July to November, not January to March.

Calendar year-end in Bangladesh is still a good moment for a leave, bonus and headcount reconciliation, but it is not a filing deadline. Bangladesh employer withholding, payroll statement and return obligations are outside the scope of this checklist.

The annual forms in MiHCM Payroll

In MiHCM Payroll, each return in the table is a ready-made statutory report, generated from the same payroll data that produced the year’s payslips.

  • Singapore: IR8A, Appendix 8A (benefits in kind), IR8S (CPF contributions) and IR21 tax clearance for foreign employees, alongside monthly CPF reports and CDAC, SINDA and MBMF fund reports. (MiHCM Singapore payroll)
  • Malaysia: the EA Form and Borang E, with CP21, CP22, CP22A, CP39, PCB 2, HRDF and Zakat reports. PCB, EPF, SOCSO, EIS and HRDF are calculated in the payroll run itself. (MiHCM Malaysia payroll)
  • Thailand: 50 Tawi, cover and detail reports for PND 1 and PND 1 Kor, and SPS 1-10 social security reports. (MiHCM Thailand payroll)
  • Sri Lanka: T10, T9 and PAYE Part A and Part B reports, with EPF and ETF detail and page-total reports. (MiHCM Sri Lanka payroll)
  • Bangladesh and the Maldives: both are among the markets MiHCM Payroll supports. In Bangladesh, provident fund, gratuity and bonus contributions are calculated and tax cards generated within payroll. (MiHCM Bangladesh)

Every report draws on one employee record in MiHCM Enterprise. A tax number corrected in December is the one that appears on every February form.

Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Sri Lanka runs on a different clock. Its year of assessment runs from 1 April to 31 March. Employers pay the APIT deducted each month to the Inland Revenue Department by the 15th of the following month, and file the Annual Statement of Employer by 30 April. (IRD notice; The Morning)

Each employee must also receive a T10 certificate of income tax deductions by 30 April, or within 30 days of leaving. (JMC) The IRD revised the T10 format in April 2025, so use its current template. (KPMG)

For a regional team, Sri Lanka’s filing season falls in April, after every other deadline in this checklist. Keep the Sri Lanka payroll team in the plan beyond March.

MiHCM Payroll’s Sri Lanka configuration calculates APIT/PAYE, EPF and ETF in each run and produces the T10 from the same data. April becomes a reporting task, not a reconstruction of twelve months of pay. (MiHCM Sri Lanka payroll)

In the Maldives, employers file the Employee Withholding Tax return (MIRA 601) online through MIRAconnect and pay the tax by the 15th of the following month. Once the first return of the year is due, a return must be filed for every later month of that year, even when no tax is withheld. (MIRA)

The Income Tax Act also requires a withholding tax reconciliation return for every tax year, filed on form MIRA 650. (Income Tax Act; Income Tax Regulation) Published guidance gives conflicting deadlines for that return, so confirm the date on MIRA’s important-dates calendar before relying on it.

The regional year-end checklist

November: prepare

  • ☐ Confirm each entity’s legal registrations, employer numbers and portal access (CPF, IRAS, KWSP, PERKESO, LHDN, SSO, Revenue Department, IRD Sri Lanka, MIRA).
  • ☐ Confirm who holds the authorised user role in each portal, and that they are not on leave in February.
  • ☐ List every employee who changes age band, wage band or residency status on 1 January.
  • ☐ Identify leavers since January with outstanding tax clearance: IR21 in Singapore, CP22A and CP21 in Malaysia. In Sri Lanka, issue each leaver’s T10 within 30 days of termination.

December: reconcile

  • ☐ Reconcile year-to-date gross pay, statutory contributions and tax withheld against amounts actually remitted, for every month.
  • ☐ Check wage ceilings were applied correctly all year: CPF Ordinary and Additional Wage ceilings; SOCSO and EIS at RM6,000; Thai social security at THB 17,500.
  • ☐ Check every non-Malaysian employee in Malaysia has 2% EPF from the October 2025 wage month onwards. (Bernama)
  • ☐ Confirm year-end bonuses are classified correctly, for example as Additional Wages for CPF.
  • ☐ Correct employee master data now: names, ID numbers and tax numbers drive every annual return.
  • ☐ In the Maldives, confirm a MIRA 601 return has been filed for every month since the first return of 2026, including months with no tax withheld.

January: switch over

  • ☐ Load the 2027 CPF senior rates before the first January payroll.
  • ☐ Prepare Employee Welfare Fund deductions for Thai entities, applying the rates, coverage and exemptions in the implementing regulations.
  • ☐ Apply LHDN’s 2027 PCB specification once issued.
  • ☐ Run a parallel test payroll and compare it line by line with December.

February to March: file

  • ☐ Issue Form EA in Malaysia by 28 February.
  • ☐ Issue Form 50 Tawi by 15 February and file PND 1 Kor by 28 February in Thailand.
  • ☐ Submit IR8A data to IRAS by 1 March.
  • ☐ File Form E and CP8D with LHDN by 31 March.
  • ☐ Confirm the Maldives MIRA 650 reconciliation deadline on MIRA’s calendar and diarise it.

April: Sri Lanka

  • ☐ Issue a T10 certificate to every Sri Lankan employee by 30 April, using the IRD’s current template.
  • ☐ File the Annual Statement of Employer (APIT) with the IRD by 30 April.

Where MiHCM takes the work out

  • November: multi-company administration puts every entity and currency on one dashboard, and organisation planning shows headcount, resignations and new joiners by entity. That is the starting list for leavers and band changes.
  • December: the payroll checklist confirms attendance, loans and increments are covered before each run, and shift and overtime rules are applied and approved in Time & Attendance before payroll sees them. Payroll reconciliation is a standard report.
  • January: statutory rules are pre-configured and updated in the system, with notifications on tax updates and deadlines. The formula builder gives payroll teams control over salary definitions and other payroll computations.
  • February to March: year-end tax forms are generated automatically, and GIRO payments and eSubmissions to statutory authorities are built in.
  • April: Sri Lanka’s T10 and PAYE reports come from the same engine as every other market.

The real risk: six calendars, one team

Most regional teams do not miss a deadline because they did not know it. They miss it because the data was in six systems, in six formats, and the reconciliation started too late.

The structural fix is a single regional HR and payroll platform that runs each country’s statutory rules on one data model. Year-end then becomes a set of reports, not a project. MiHCM Enterprise is built on that model.

How MiHCM runs regional year-end

MiHCM Enterprise is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform built for Asia, for organisations of 250 to more than 20,000 people. Its payroll engine runs natively across South and South East Asia, not through a bolted-on local partner. A regional team runs payroll in-house, in every market.

Statutory calculations sit inside the engine. Retirement funds, tax, gratuity and social security are calculated against local rules, and contribution, reconciliation and remittance reports generate in the format each authority expects. Leave types, shift structures and work policies map directly to payroll calculations. (MiHCM Payroll)

Payroll sits on the rest of the platform. Core HR holds one employee record that payroll, attendance and every other process share. Time & Attendance brings biometric and access-control devices from any vendor, geo-fenced mobile check-in and shared kiosks into one attendance record, and applies shift and overtime rules before payroll runs.

Two AI products work around year-end. MiA ONE, MiHCM’s AI-powered personal assistant, gives employees and managers chat and voice self-service on web, iOS and Android for leave, payslips, claims, timesheets and profile changes, with every request tracked to approval. Syntra, MiHCM’s workforce intelligence solution, lets leadership query workforce data in natural language, forecast attrition and burnout risk, and model the impact of a restructure before it happens. Those are the questions that land alongside year-end bonus and headcount decisions.

MiHCM also works alongside what a group already runs. It connects to ERP and finance systems through REST APIs, webhooks and OAuth 2.0, and it can go live module by module or entity by entity. A regional team can move one country before next year-end, without a forced cutover everywhere.

Payroll data is among the most sensitive data a company holds. MiHCM is certified to ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27701:2025 and SOC 2 Type II, with primary hosting in Singapore and disaster recovery in Hong Kong. Detail is on the MiHCM Trust Portal.

See year-end running on your own numbers: explore MiHCM Payroll or book a demo.

Year-end pressure by industry

The forms are the same for every employer in a country. The pressure is not. It depends on how the workforce is paid.

Manufacturing and apparel. Thousands of shift workers, overtime, rest days, and meal and transport allowances, often across several plants and countries. Year-end reconciliation breaks when overtime and allowances were patched outside payroll during the year. MiHCM’s attendance and overtime rules support complex shift patterns, midnight shifts and configurable overtime ceilings and rates. Factory-floor kiosks take badge-tap and facial-recognition check-ins, calculate overtime and allowances per punch, and keep working offline. For apparel, one engine covers local tax, statutory deductions, rest-day calculations and multi-currency pay, with overtime, transport claims and meal subsidies tracked in real time. (Manufacturing; Apparel)

MiHCM Enterprise unified payroll, attendance, talent management and analytics for a global apparel manufacturer with more than 20,000 employees across ten plants in four countries. (A Stitch in Time) At Ocean Lanka, Sri Lanka’s largest weft-knitted fabric manufacturer with a workforce of more than 1,700, attendance had been consolidated by hand across locations and payroll validated line by line before MiHCM brought both onto one platform. (Knitting it all together)

Hospitality. Rotating shifts, seasonal staff and high turnover, often across many properties. Turnover makes leavers the year-end risk: departures can trigger IR21 or CP22A tax clearance, or a T10 within 30 days in Sri Lanka. MiHCM pays shift workers, seasonal staff and salaried teams across multiple properties and currencies from one system, with real-time rostering. Customers include Teardrop Hotels in Sri Lanka. (Hospitality)

Banking, financial services and insurance. Fewer shifts, more scrutiny. Year-end brings the bonus cycle, and classification matters: in Singapore, a year-end bonus is an Additional Wage for CPF. BFSI payroll also has to stand up to audit. MiHCM Payroll keeps complete system audit trails with role-based user management, and its Singapore configuration handles AWS, incentives and commissions alongside Ordinary and Additional Wages. Customers include Bank of Ceylon, Pan Asia Banking Corporation, Bursa Malaysia and AYA Bank. (BFSI)

Telecommunications. A head office on a nine-to-five rhythm and field engineers hours from the nearest office, on the same payroll. Master data has to be right for both before the forms go out. With MiA ONE, field staff check payslips and update profile details from a phone, by chat or voice. Customers include Dialog Axiata in Sri Lanka and Ooredoo Maldives. (Telecommunications)

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the IR8A deadline for 2026 income?
1 March 2027. For YA 2027, electronic submission is mandatory for employers that had five or more employees in 2026, received an IRAS notice, or remained registered for AIS.
When must Malaysian employers issue Form EA?
By the last day of February, which is 28 February in 2027.
What changes in Singapore payroll on 1 January 2027?
CPF rates rise for employees aged above 55 to 65.
When does Thailand’s Employee Welfare Fund start?
Contribution collection starts on 1 January 2027; rates and coverage are subject to the applicable implementing regulations.
Does Bangladesh’s individual income year end in December?
No. The individual income year runs from 1 July to 30 June, with returns due by 30 November.
When must Sri Lankan employers issue T10 certificates?
By 30 April after the year of assessment ends on 31 March, or within 30 days for an employee who leaves. The Annual Statement of Employer is due on the same date.
When is Maldives employee withholding tax due?
The MIRA 601 return and payment are due by the 15th of the following month. Confirm the annual MIRA 650 reconciliation deadline with MIRA.
When should regional teams start year-end preparation?
In November, so that reconciliation is complete before the first January payroll.
Which year-end forms does MiHCM Payroll generate?
Ready-made statutory reports include IR8A, Appendix 8A, IR8S and IR21 in Singapore; the EA Form and Borang E in Malaysia; 50 Tawi and PND 1 Kor in Thailand; and T10 and PAYE reports in Sri Lanka.
Does MiHCM Payroll cover every market in this checklist?
Yes. MiHCM Payroll supports Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives, among other markets in South and South East Asia.
Can MiHCM handle shift-based and multi-site payroll?
Yes. Attendance and overtime rules support complex shift patterns, midnight shifts, configurable overtime ceilings and any-vendor biometric devices, and payroll runs across multiple companies and currencies from one dashboard.
Can we move to MiHCM one country at a time?
Yes. MiHCM can go live module by module or entity by entity, alongside an existing HR or ERP system.

Sources