The Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS) requires employers to submit their employees' annual employment income directly to IRAS, electronically, so it is pre-filled into employees' tax returns. The deadline is 1 March each year — for 2025 income, you submit between 1 February and 1 March 2026. AIS is mandatory for employers with 5 or more employees.
This guide explains who must participate, the forms involved, and how to submit.
What is the Auto-Inclusion Scheme?
Under AIS, you send each employee's yearly income to IRAS in a defined electronic format. IRAS pre-fills that data into the employee's tax return, supporting the No-Filing Service and Direct Notice of Assessment. For Year of Assessment 2026, more than 123,000 AIS employers pre-fill the returns of over 2 million employees.
For employers, the benefit is that employees no longer manually declare the income you have already reported — which reduces queries and amendment requests.
Who must participate
AIS is mandatory if:
- you have 5 or more employees at any time during the year; or
- you are already an AIS employer, regardless of your current headcount.
Employers that newly cross the five-employee threshold are notified by IRAS, typically in January, with their obligations for that filing season. You can confirm your status on the IRAS AIS page.
The forms: IR8A, Appendix 8A, Appendix 8B and IR21
| Form | What it reports | When |
|---|---|---|
| IR8A | Salary, bonus, allowances and other employment income | Every employee, annually |
| Appendix 8A | Benefits-in-kind (e.g. accommodation, car) | When such benefits are provided |
| Appendix 8B | Gains from employee share options / share ownership plans | When applicable |
| IR21 | Tax clearance for a foreign employee | Separately, when they cease employment or leave Singapore |
IR8A is the core return; the appendices attach to it where relevant. IR21 is a different process with its own timing — file it at least one month before a foreign employee's last day.
The deadline
For income earned in 2025, the AIS submission window is 1 February to 1 March 2026. Submitting early in February leaves room to spot and correct errors before the 1 March cut-off.
How to submit to IRAS
- Confirm your AIS registration with IRAS (mandatory employers are auto-registered once notified).
- Prepare the income records for each employee for the year.
- Submit electronically — through payroll software that supports the IRAS AIS file format, or via IRAS's own submission channels, authenticated with Corppass.
- Check the acknowledgement and correct any rejected records before 1 March.
How AimmPayroll handles AIS
AimmPayroll builds the IRAS AIS file — IR8A, Appendix 8A and IR21 — from the same payroll figures you have already reviewed during the year, with whole-dollar rounding applied as IRAS expects. Income, CPF and benefits flow through from your monthly runs, so the annual filing is a review-and-submit step rather than a re-entry exercise. See how this fits the end-to-end payroll cycle, or start free.