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AIS 2027 Year-End Checklist: Prepare Your IR8A Before 1 March
Key Takeaways
- Employers must report 2026 employment income for YA 2027 by 1 March 2027, through the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS) or by giving employees a hardcopy Form IR8A.
- AIS is mandatory for employers with five or more employees in 2026, counting everyone paid during the year, including leavers.
- AIS registration for YA 2027 is open until 1 March 2027 and is now available year-round.
- Most AIS errors start in payroll months earlier: missing employees, wrong bonus years, omitted benefits-in-kind and leavers reported twice.
- Reconciling payroll to your general ledger and CPF submissions before February turns AIS into a short task instead of a scramble.
Every year, Singapore employers rush to file employee income data in the last two weeks of February. The submission itself takes minutes. What takes days is chasing the data behind it: a director’s fee approved at the AGM, a car provided to a manager, an intern who left in June, a bonus nobody can date.
Starting in November changes that. This guide explains what employers must file for YA 2027, who must join AIS, a ten-step preparation checklist and the mistakes that most often trigger amendments.
What Employers Need to File for YA 2027
For YA 2027, employers report the employment income they paid between 1 January and 31 December 2026. The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) requires three core forms under Section 68(2) of the Income Tax Act 1947.
| Form | What it reports | Who needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Form IR8A | Salary, bonuses, director’s fees, allowances and other employment income | Every employee, including part-timers, directors and leavers who received income |
| Appendix 8A | Benefits-in-kind such as housing, cars and club memberships | Employees who received benefits-in-kind |
| Appendix 8B | Gains from employee share option and share ownership plans | Employees with ESOP or ESOW gains |
AIS employers submit this information electronically to IRAS and do not issue hardcopy forms. Non-AIS employers give the hardcopy Form IR8A and appendices to employees by 1 March and do not submit them to IRAS. For a full explanation of the form itself, see IR8A Form: What Singapore Employers Need to Know.
Does Your Company Need to Join AIS?
Yes, if you had five or more employees in 2026. IRAS counts every employee on the payroll during the year, including staff who resigned. A company that grew from three to six people mid-year falls within AIS, even if headcount dropped again later.
Employers with fewer than five employees can join voluntarily, and most should. AIS pre-fills employees’ tax returns, removes paper forms and creates a cleaner audit trail. AIS registration for YA 2027 is open until 1 March 2027, and IRAS now accepts registrations year-round. Register only after you have hired at least one employee.
AIS vs Non-AIS Employers: Quick Comparison
| Obligation | AIS employer | Non-AIS employer |
|---|---|---|
| Who it applies to | Five or more employees (or voluntary) | Fewer than five employees, not registered |
| How income is reported | Electronic submission to IRAS | Hardcopy forms to employees |
| Deadline | 1 March 2027 | 1 March 2027 |
| Hardcopy IR8A to employees | Not required | Required |
| Employee tax returns | Pre-filled by IRAS | Employees enter figures themselves |
Your November to February AIS Checklist
1. Confirm your headcount and AIS status. Count every employee paid in 2026, including leavers, and register for AIS if you reach five.
2. Reconcile payroll to your accounts. Total gross salary in payroll should agree to the salary expense in your general ledger and to the wages you declared for CPF.
3. Separate bonus types. Split contractual from non-contractual bonuses and record the date each was approved and paid.
4. Capture director’s fees correctly. IRAS taxes director’s fees in the year the company approves them, usually at the AGM, not the year they relate to.
5. List all benefits-in-kind. Housing, company cars, club memberships and home leave passages all belong on Appendix 8A.
6. Check share plan events. Exercises, vesting and sales under ESOP or ESOW plans in 2026 need Appendix 8B. Our guide to Employee Share Option Plans in Singapore explains how these plans work.
7. Review leavers. Foreign and Singapore Permanent Resident employees who ceased employment need tax clearance through Form IR21. Do not report the same income again through AIS.
8. Verify employee particulars. Check names, identification numbers and residency status against source records, and limit who can access the file.
9. Confirm your payroll software is ready. Organisations integrating system-to-system with IRAS move to AIS-API 2.0 for YA 2027. Ask your vendor whether your software is ready.
10. Plan for amendments. Decide who reviews the submission and who files any corrections, because IRAS expects amendments as soon as you find an error.
How AIS Connects to the Rest of Your Payroll Year
AIS is the final step of a payroll year that runs on monthly CPF contributions and the Skills Development Levy (SDL). If your monthly CPF submissions used the correct wages, age bands and the S$8,000 Ordinary Wage ceiling that applied from 1 January 2026, your AIS reconciliation becomes a short task. If they did not, AIS exposes every gap at once.
This is also the right moment to look ahead. CPF contribution rates for senior workers change again on 1 January 2027, and your first 2027 pay run should use the new tables. We cover what changes in CPF Contribution Changes 2027: What Employers Must Do. If the terms in this section are unfamiliar, Singapore Payroll Terms: CPF, SDL, IR8A & AIS Guide explains each one.
Special Cases to Check Before You Submit
Employees who changed jobs within your group. Where staff moved between entities because of a restructuring or merger, you may report income separately for each entity or combine it under the new entity.
Overseas postings. For employees whose overseas posting is not incidental to their Singapore employment, AIS employers select the “Income from Overseas Employment” indicator rather than stating the amount.
Directors with no salary. A director who receives only director’s fees still needs an IR8A record for the year the fees were approved.
Departing foreign employees. IR21 tax clearance applies to foreign and Permanent Resident employees who cease employment, leave Singapore for an extended period or are posted overseas. Withhold their final payments until IRAS issues clearance.
What Businesses Get Wrong About IR8A and AIS
Missing employees. Part-timers, interns and directors who received only fees often fall out of the file.
Reporting bonuses in the wrong year. A bonus belongs in the year it was approved or paid under the relevant rule, not the year it relates to.
Omitting benefits. Cars and housing provided informally never reach Appendix 8A.
Double reporting leavers. Income already declared on Form IR21 appears again in AIS.
Registering late. A company crosses five employees but never registers for AIS, then misses the deadline.
In practice, what we see with most SMEs is that AIS errors begin months earlier in payroll, not at the submission screen. Many of the same root causes drive the wider problems we describe in Payroll Errors That Trigger IRAS or MOM Penalties in Singapore. If you find an error after submitting, file an amendment through the relevant IRAS digital service as soon as possible; IRAS can impose penalties or take enforcement action for incorrect or late employer reporting.
How Grof helps you file IR8A and AIS without the hassle
AIS is a data question before it is a filing question. The submission takes minutes; collecting accurate bonuses, benefits, director’s fees and leaver records takes weeks if nobody has kept them in order. Grof runs payroll and year-end reporting together, so AIS becomes a reconciliation, not a reconstruction.
In practice, that looks like:
- Checking your AIS status early. We count your 2026 headcount, including leavers, and register you for AIS if needed.
- Reconciling payroll to your books. Gross pay, CPF and SDL agree to your general ledger before we submit.
- Capturing the tricky items. Director’s fees, bonuses, benefits-in-kind and share plan gains go into the right form and the right year.
- Handling leavers properly. We file IR21 for departing foreign and PR employees and keep their income out of AIS duplicates.
- Filing and amending on time. We submit before 1 March and correct anything that changes afterwards.
If you want your YA 2027 submission done well before the February rush, talk to Grof’s payroll services team.
