Employer's Return and payroll obligations in Hong Kong

The annual Employer's Return (BIR56A + IR56B)

Each year, at the start of April, the IRD issues the Employer's Return (form BIR56A). You normally have one month to file it, together with a form IR56B for each employee reporting their name, HKID, position and everything you paid them in the year to 31 March: salary, bonuses, commissions, allowances and certain benefits. You file it even for a single employee, and a nil return is still a return: if you receive a BIR56A and employed no one, you file it saying so.

The event-driven IR56 forms

Beyond the annual return, three events trigger their own forms:

• New hire: IR56E, within 3 months of the employment starting.
• Employee leaving the company: IR56F, no later than one month before employment ceases.
• Employee leaving Hong Kong: IR56G, no later than one month before departure, and you must withhold any money due to them until the IRD issues a letter of release.

The IR56G withholding rule surprises many first-time employers: paying out a departing employee's final salary before tax clearance can leave the employer on the hook.

Employees pay their own salaries tax

Hong Kong has no PAYE: employers do not withhold monthly income tax. Employees are assessed on their own returns, at progressive rates capped by a standard rate. Your job as employer is reporting: the IR56 forms above are how the IRD knows what to assess.

MPF in one paragraph

Most employees must be enrolled in an MPF scheme within 60 days of starting. Employer and employee each contribute 5% of relevant income, subject to a monthly relevant-income cap (contributions max out at HK$1,500 each per month at that cap); low-earning employees below the minimum threshold contribute nothing themselves, but the employer still contributes. Contributions are due by the 10th of the following month, and late contributions attract surcharges. Check the MPFA's current thresholds, as they are adjusted from time to time.

The pattern to notice

All of these filings are generated from one thing: a clean payroll record of who was employed, when, and exactly what they were paid. Kept properly through the year, the April filing season is an export; reconstructed in April, it is a scramble.

General information current as of mid-2026. This is not tax, legal or accounting advice. Deadlines and MPF thresholds change; confirm the current position with the IRD, the MPFA or a licensed practitioner.