Singapore CPF Payroll Compliance 2026: Rules, PR Rates, and Deadlines

Key Takeaways

• Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions are mandatory for every employee who is a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident (PR) and earns more than S$50 a month. Payroll compliance comes down to four things: the right rate, the right wages, payment by the 14th of the following month, and records the CPF Board can audit.
• PRs start on graduated rates. Under G/G, both shares are graduated: for an employee aged 55 or below, 9% of wages in the first year of PR status and 24% in the second. Under F/G, which needs a joint application, the employer pays full rates while the employee stays graduated. From the third year, every PR moves to full rates, which is 37% for an employee aged 55 or below.
• CPF is due on the last day of each month. The CPF Board takes enforcement action if it is still unpaid by the 14th of the following month, and late payment interest runs at 1.5% a month from the day after the due date, with a S$5 minimum.
• Declare each employee's actual wages, split into Ordinary Wages and Additional Wages, and deduct the employee's share from the same month's pay. If you miss it through your own error, you cannot take it from a later month's wages.
• Overpayments and wrong submissions are corrected through the CPF Board's refund and adjustment service, within one year of the payment date.

Singapore payroll compliance for CPF is a monthly routine. You pay Central Provident Fund contributions for every Citizen and PR employee earning more than S$50 a month, at the rate for their age and PR year, on their actual wages, and you pay by the 14th of the following month.

This guide is the payroll operator's version: who is covered, how PR graduated rates switch from one year to the next, how a submission reaches the CPF Board, what late payment costs, and how to correct a mistake. It ends with an end-of-month checklist you can run against your own payroll.

If you need the rate tables themselves, our 2026 CPF and self-help group rate guide has every age band. If you are budgeting a new hire, our guide to what employer CPF adds on top of salary covers the cost side.

1. Who CPF Covers, and Whether It Is Mandatory

CPF is compulsory. You must pay contributions for every employee who is a Singapore Citizen or a Singapore Permanent Resident and earns total wages of more than S$50 in the month, and the CPF Board treats non-compliance as an offense.

For CPF purposes, an employee is anyone employed in Singapore under a contract of service. That includes full-time, part-time, temporary, and contract staff, whether they are paid by the hour, the day, the month, or the piece.

Three groups are exempt:

• Foreigners, meaning anyone who is not a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident. Employment Pass, S Pass, and Work Permit holders are outside CPF.
• Students who meet the CPF Board's exemption criteria.
• Employees of the United Nations and its agencies located in Singapore.

A foreign employee who becomes a PR moves into CPF from the date PR status is granted. For that first month, CPF is payable on the pro-rated wages from that date. Ask employees to tell you when they become Citizens or PRs, because the date decides which rate table applies.

For an employee aged 55 or below on full rates who earns more than S$750 a month, CPF is 37% of wages, 17% from you and 20% from the employee, on Ordinary Wages up to S$8,000 a month. Above S$50 a month the employer's share is due. The employee's share starts once wages pass S$500 and phases in until wages reach S$750. Our guide to Singapore's payroll contributions has the rates for every age band, the Skills Development Levy (SDL), which still applies to foreign employees, and the self-help group funds.

Sources: CPF Board, who should receive CPF contributions, how much CPF contributions to pay, and enforcement and penalties for non-compliance, all read September 30, 2026.

2. PR Graduated Rates: What G/G and F/G Mean

A PR in the first two years of PR status contributes at lower, graduated rates, so the move to full CPF happens in steps. The CPF Board labels each option with the employer's rate first and the employee's rate second:

• G/G means graduated employer and graduated employee rates. This is the default in the first and second year of PR status, in the CPF Board's Tables 2 and 3.
• F/G means full employer rates and graduated employee rates, in Tables 4 and 5.
• F/F means full rates for both, the same as for a Singapore Citizen, in Table 1.

F/G and F/F are not automatic. You and the employee apply jointly to the CPF Board, and the higher rates apply once the Board approves the application. The option exists only during the first two years of PR status. From the third year, every PR is on full rates.

When the second and third year start

The CPF years do not run from one anniversary to the next. According to the CPF Board, the first year begins on the day of PR conversion, the second year begins on the first day of the month after the first anniversary, and the third year begins on the first day of the month after the second anniversary.

The CPF Board's own example is an employee who became a PR on January 15, 2026:

• First-year rates run from January 15, 2026, to January 31, 2027.
• Second-year rates run from February 1, 2027, to January 31, 2028.
• Full rates apply from February 1, 2028.

What each switch does to a S$5,000 salary

Take that employee, aged 55 or below, on S$5,000 a month in Ordinary Wages. These are the monthly amounts under each option:

Rates for employees aged 55 and below earning more than S$750 a month, from the CPF Board's contribution rate tables from January 1, 2026, Tables 1 to 5, read September 30, 2026. The employer share is the total less the employee share. The dollar amounts are our worked example.

On the default G/G route, the employee's deduction rises from S$250 to S$750 to S$1,000 across the three stages, and your share rises from S$200 to S$450 to S$850. Each change applies from the first day of the month after the anniversary, so the new rate has to be loaded for that month's payroll run.

Age changes work the same way. A new rate applies from the first day of the month after the employee's 55th, 60th, 65th, or 70th birthday. Our 2026 CPF rate tables by age cover every band, including the graduated PR rates above age 55.

The graduated rates have not changed since January 1, 2016, and the CPF Board has confirmed that they stay the same when the rates for employees above 55 to 65 rise on January 1, 2027.

Sources: CPF Board, how much CPF contributions to pay (years of PR status, joint applications, and age changes), CPF for a foreign employee who has become a PR, and CPF contribution changes from January 1, 2027, all read September 30, 2026.

3. The Monthly CPF Cycle: Submission, the 14th, and Late Payment

Before the first payroll run: a CPF Submission Number

Every employer needs a CPF Submission Number (CSN) to pay CPF. It combines your Unique Entity Number (UEN) with a CPF Payment Code that identifies the type of payment, so mandatory contributions and voluntary contributions each need their own CSN. A company applies online using its Corppass access, and once the CSN is approved, it can submit contributions from the next calendar day.

Submitting and paying through CPF EZPay

Submissions go through CPF EZPay. It computes the employer and employee shares for you, and the SDL for Citizen and PR employees. For foreign employees, you enter the SDL yourself. If you pay by Direct Debit and wages rarely change, an Electronic Standing Instruction (ESI) makes the same submission and deduction automatically each month until you amend it. You can also upload a file in the CPF Board's format.

You pay by Direct Debit or PayNow QR. A Direct Debit shows as paid in CPF EZPay after two working days. A PayNow QR code expires at 23:59 on the day of submission. On a corporate account, the maker has to scan the code before it expires, and the approver should approve the payment straight away.

Sources: CPF Board, applying for a CPF Submission Number, submitting CPF contributions via CPF EZPay, payment modes, and Skills Development Levy, all read September 30, 2026.

The deadline, and what late payment costs

CPF for a month is due on the last day of that month. The CPF Board takes enforcement action against employers who have not paid by the 14th of the following month, or the next working day if the 14th falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday.

The 14th also decides how a payment is classified. Ordinary Wages are wages for that month's work that are payable by the 14th of the following month, such as monthly salary. Wages that do not meet both conditions, such as an annual performance bonus, are Additional Wages.

CPF Board, enforcement and penalties for non-compliance and declaring accurate wage information, both read September 30, 2026.

The CPF Board's worked example of late payment interest: S$3,000 of October contributions paid on November 20 is 19 days late, so the interest is S$3,000 x 1.5% x 19/30, or S$28.50, rounded down to S$28.

If the arrears, the interest, and any composition amount are still unpaid by the deadline the CPF Board sets, it prosecutes, and it asks the court to order payment of the outstanding contributions and interest as well.

4. Getting the Amount Right: Wages, Bonuses, Joiners, and Leavers

CPF is calculated on the Total Wages payable in the calendar month, which is Ordinary Wages plus Additional Wages. Each has its own ceiling:

• Ordinary Wage ceiling: S$8,000 a month from January 1, 2026, up from S$7,400 in 2025. Ordinary Wages above the ceiling attract no CPF.
• Additional Wage ceiling: S$102,000 minus the total Ordinary Wages subject to CPF for the year, applied per employee, per employer, and per calendar year. The CPF Board publishes an Additional Wage ceiling calculator for it.

Declare the actual wages, before any ceiling is applied. In the CPF Board's own example, an employee with S$9,000 of Ordinary Wages and S$130,000 of Additional Wages in March 2026 is declared at S$9,000 and S$130,000, even though the ceilings limit how much of that attracts CPF.

Wages cover more than salary. Overtime pay, bonuses, allowances such as meal and transport allowances, commission, and cash incentives all count. Reimbursements of official expenses incurred on the employer's behalf, and benefits in kind such as a commemorative watch, do not.

Joiners, leavers, and part-months

• Joining or leaving mid-month: declare the pro-rated wages for the part of the month the employee was employed.
• No-pay leave or an overseas posting for the whole month: leave the employee out of that month's submission, because no mandatory CPF is due.
• A leaver's unused leave paid out as cash: CPF applies.
• Compensation in lieu of notice, retrenchment pay, and severance pay: no CPF. The CPF Board classes them as termination benefits, which are not payment for work done.

Rounding

Round the total contribution to the nearest dollar, dropping cents below 50 and rounding 50 cents or more up. Drop the cents from the employee's share. The employer's share is whatever remains. Between S$50 and S$500 of monthly wages there is no employee's share at all, but you still pay the employer's share.

Sources: CPF Board, what payments attract CPF contributions, declaring accurate wage information, which allowances and payments attract CPF contributions (last updated January 5, 2026), and the Ordinary Wage ceiling, all read September 30, 2026.

5. Recovering the Employee's Share, Refunds, and Corrections

You pay both shares to the CPF Board, and you are entitled to recover the employee's share from that employee's wages for the same month. January's share comes out of January's pay.

If you fail to recover it through your own error, you cannot take it from later months' wages. If the failure was not your error, you can recover it from later wages only after the contributions have been paid to the CPF Board, with the employee's written consent or the CPF Board's written permission, and within six months of when it should have been recovered. Recovering more than the law allows is a serious offense.

Correcting an overpayment or a wrong submission

• Overpaid for an employee, or paid a whole submission in error: apply for a refund immediately, and no later than one year from the payment date. Refund the employee's share to the employee before you apply, and tell the affected employees.
• Paid above the Additional Wage ceiling: apply promptly for a refund of the excess.
• Wrong contribution month, wrong CSN, or wrong employee: apply for an adjustment within one year of the payment date.
• Paid above the CPF Annual Limit: since February 2024, the CPF Board refunds the excess automatically to your Direct Debit account.
• Declared the wrong wages: tell the CPF Board and submit a request to amend the wage amount.
• Underpaid: pay the shortfall as soon as you find it, because late payment interest runs from the day after the original due date.

Refunds and adjustments both go through the CPF Board's online refund and adjustment service, and both depend on there being enough in the employee's CPF accounts to reverse.

Sources: CPF Board, recovering the employee's share, applying for a refund, and applying for an adjustment, all read September 30, 2026.

6. Records, Audits, and Employees Versus Contractors

The CPF Board finds non-compliance through three channels: a detection system that flags late payers, reports from employees and whistleblowers, and proactive audits of contribution accuracy. Under section 5 of the CPF Act, its inspectors can enter a workplace, interview current and former employees, and require you to produce documents and answer questions.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) sets the record-keeping rule for employees covered by the Employment Act. For current employees, keep employee records and salary records for the latest two years. For ex-employees, keep the last two years of records for one year after they leave. Soft or hard copies both count.

For a CPF inspection, it helps to keep these together:

• Payslips and salary records, including every Ordinary Wage and Additional Wage amount you declared.
• CPF EZPay records of payment. CPF EZPay keeps up to 24 months of electronic records at no charge.
• Employment contracts, and the date each employee became a Citizen or PR.
• The CPF Board's approval of any joint application for higher PR rates.
• Contracts and invoices for anyone you engage as an independent contractor.

Employee or contractor

CPF follows the contract of service. A genuine independent contractor on a contract for service is not your employee, so no employer CPF is due on their fees. Someone engaged as a contractor who is in fact working under a contract of service is an employee, and CPF is owed for them like any other Citizen or PR on the payroll. The CPF Board recovers missed contributions as arrears with late payment interest, and it can add a composition amount or prosecute.

If you do work with independent contractors, our Global Contractor service onboards and pays them.

Sources: CPF Board, enforcement and penalties for non-compliance and submitting CPF contributions via CPF EZPay, and MOM, employment records (last updated March 14, 2024), all read September 30, 2026.

7. An End-of-Month CPF Checklist

1. New joiners. Confirm citizenship or PR status, date of birth, and PR conversion date, and pro-rate the first month's wages.
2. PR anniversaries. Anyone passing a PR anniversary this month moves to the next rate from the first day of next month.
3. Birthdays. Anyone turning 55, 60, 65, or 70 this month moves to a new rate from the first day of next month.
4. Wages. Classify each payment as Ordinary or Additional Wages, declare the actual amounts, and check year-to-date Ordinary Wages against the Additional Wage ceiling before a bonus is paid.
5. Leavers. Pro-rate the final month, apply CPF to leave paid out as cash, and leave compensation in lieu of notice out.
6. Deductions. Take each employee's share from this month's pay, with the cents dropped.
7. Submission. Submit on CPF EZPay under the right CSN, and enter the SDL for foreign employees yourself.
8. Payment. Pay in time to clear by the 14th of next month, allowing two working days for a Direct Debit to show as paid.
9. Corrections. Check last month's record of payment and fix any error well inside the one-year limit.
10. 2027 rates. Before the January 2027 payroll, load the new rates for employees above 55 to 65: 35.5% in total above 55 to 60, and 26% above 60 to 65. The graduated PR rates do not change.

Running Singapore CPF Through Us

An Employer of Record (EOR) or a payroll provider can run CPF for you. Through our Employer of Record service, we become the legal employer of your Singapore hires, so CPF, from the monthly calculation and deduction to submission and payment, sits with us. If you already have a Singapore entity, our Global Payroll service runs the monthly payroll, CPF included.

What that covers for a Singapore hire:

• The employment contract, and adding the new hire to the monthly CPF submission.
• Calculating, deducting, submitting, and paying CPF every month.
• Updating payroll when CPF rates, wage ceilings, or an employee's PR year change.

We support hiring and payroll in 150+ countries and pay in 130+ currencies, so a Singapore team can sit on the same payroll as the rest of your people.

Late CPF costs interest from the day after the due date, and a wrong deduction shows up on the employee's payslip. If you would rather have Singapore payroll run for you, request a demo and we will walk you through how we would handle it for your team.

Singapore CPF Payroll Compliance: Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is CPF mandatory for employers in Singapore?

Yes. You must pay CPF for every employee who is a Singapore Citizen or PR and earns total wages of more than S$50 a month, and the CPF Board treats non-compliance as an offense. Between S$50 and S$500 a month, only the employer's share is due. Foreign employees are exempt.

Q2. Do Employment Pass and S Pass holders get CPF?

No. CPF applies only to Singapore Citizens and PRs, so Employment Pass, S Pass, and Work Permit holders are outside it. You still pay the Skills Development Levy for them, and CPF starts from the date any of them becomes a PR.

Q3. What do G/G and F/G mean for a PR's CPF?

They describe the rates in the first two years of PR status, with the employer's rate first and the employee's second. G/G, the default, means graduated rates for both. F/G means you contribute at full employer rates while the employee stays on graduated rates, and F/F puts both on full rates. F/G and F/F need a joint application from you and the employee, approved by the CPF Board. For an employee aged 55 or below, G/G is 9% of wages in the first year and 24% in the second, against 37% at full rates.

Q4. When do a PR's second-year and third-year CPF rates start?

The first year starts on the day the employee becomes a PR. The second year starts on the first day of the month after the first anniversary, and the third year, when full rates apply, starts on the first day of the month after the second anniversary. An employee who became a PR on January 15, 2026, moves to second-year rates on February 1, 2027, and to full rates on February 1, 2028.

Q5. When is CPF due, and what is the late payment interest?

CPF for each month is due on the last day of that month, and the CPF Board takes enforcement action if it is still unpaid by the 14th of the following month, or the next working day. Late payment interest is 1.5% a month from the day after the due date, with a minimum of S$5, and the Board may also impose a composition amount of up to S$1,000 per offense.

Q6. What counts as Ordinary Wages, and what is the ceiling in 2026?

Ordinary Wages are wages for the month's work that are payable by the 14th of the following month, such as monthly salary. Wages that do not meet both conditions, such as an annual bonus, are Additional Wages. The Ordinary Wage ceiling is S$8,000 a month from January 1, 2026, and the Additional Wage ceiling for the year is S$102,000 minus the Ordinary Wages subject to CPF.

Q7. Is CPF payable on notice pay and on a leaver's final pay?

Wages for days worked during the notice period are wages like any other, so CPF applies, and the final month is pro-rated to the days employed. Unused leave paid out as cash attracts CPF. Compensation in lieu of notice, retrenchment pay, and severance pay do not, because the CPF Board classes them as termination benefits.

Q8. What if we forgot to deduct the employee's share?

If it was your error, you cannot recover it from later months' wages, so that cost stays with you. If it was not your error, you can recover it from later wages within six months, after the contributions have been paid to the CPF Board, and only with the employee's written consent or the CPF Board's written permission.

Q9. How do we submit CPF contributions?

Apply for a CPF Submission Number, then submit each month on CPF EZPay, which calculates both shares and the SDL for Citizen and PR employees. Pay by Direct Debit or PayNow QR. A company applies for its CSN online through Corppass and can submit from the next calendar day after approval.

Q10. Who can manage CPF contributions for us?

You can run CPF in-house on CPF EZPay, use a payroll provider, or employ through an Employer of Record, which becomes the legal employer and handles CPF as part of payroll. We offer both routes: our Global Payroll service runs payroll for your own Singapore entity, and our Employer of Record service employs your Singapore hires for you. To see how it would work for your team, request a demo.