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IRAS Filing

In terms of section 68(2) of the Income Tax Act, all employers must prepare and submit to IRAS, by 1 March each year, Form IR8A and Appendices 8A and 8B, where applicable, for every employee.

Employers falling into certain categories are required to submit electronically under the Auto-Inclusion Scheme (AIS). For more information about which employers fall into the AIS, please visit the IRAS website.

AIS for Employment Income

Under the AIS, employers submit their employees’ income information to IRAS electronically and, therefore, do not need to provide employees with hard copies of the above forms. Employees can view their employment income on their payslips, and their auto-included income via the Income, Deductions and Reliefs Statement (IDRS); however, employers may wish to provide employees with a statement of earnings for their records.

As stated above, certain employers are compelled to participate in the AIS. Such employers who have not received any notification from IRAS should contact IRAS immediately via email.

IRAS encourages all employers falling outside the above categories to join the AIS voluntarily. Registration can be done via the IRAS website.

Generating the IR8A and Appendix 8A

Before you start

Finalise payslips

Ensure that all payslips for the relevant tax year have been finalised before generating your filing documents.

You will also need to add any outstanding take-on balances from the relevant employee’s payslip screen as follows:

  1. Go to the employee’s profile.
  2. Click Take-On Balances under Edit Info.

Take-On Balances

Take-On Balances are necessary if payslips were issued to employees before you started using SimplePay.

Generating IR8As

Once you've completed the steps above:

  1. In the left sidebar menu, click Filing.
  2. Click the IRAS Filing (IR8A etc.) tab. You will now see the Tax Certificates screen.
  3. Under the Filing season drop-down, select the relevant end date (e.g. 2026-12-31).
  4. You can view an employee’s IR8A by clicking the PDF icon under View next to their name, or you can view All Tax Certificates.
  5. You can edit certain information, including Bonus declaration date and information applicable to the Director’s Fees, on each IR8A, by clicking the Edit link next to the relevant employee. You can also do so in bulk by clicking the second click here link under the Filing season drop-down, or you can go to Employees > Bulk Actions > Certificate Inputs (under Tax Certificates).

Appendix 8B

SimplePay currently does not generate Appendix 8B. You are able to complete and submit it on the myTax portal.

Excess CPF contribution refunds

If an employee receives a refund of excess CPF contributions, the refunded amount itself isn't a taxable event, so it doesn't appear as a line on Form IR8A. However, any interest earned on that refund is taxable and must be reported under d) 1. Allowances on Form IR8A, in the year the refund is received.

If you have an employee who is set as a foreign director under Basic Info, and the employee received income that is categorised as Director’s Fees, you can also edit their IR8A to state whether Section 45 applies to the employee. The system will automatically add the Director’s Fees pulled from payslips and the Director’s Fees that are entered on this page to determine the total Director’s Fees that must be reported to IRAS.

Exclude from submission

Check the Exclude from submission box if you will not be using SimplePay’s information to submit to IRAS. See the heading below for more info.

Generating Appendix 8As

  1. Follow steps 1–3 as outlined above.
  2. Click the second click here link under the Filing season drop-down to capture Appendix 8A information in bulk.
  3. On the Bulk Input page, use the filters to select a specific pay frequency, pay point, employment status, or a filling season.
  4. Click the drop-down, and select "Appendix 8A".

  5. Check the boxes next to the names of the employees to whom Appendix 8A is applicable, and fill in the relevant information.

    Other Non-monetary Benefits

    The Other Non-monetary Benefits field is not editable. It is automatically populated using the data from custom benefit items that you have added to the system.

  6. Once everything has been completed, click Save.

When you are sure that all the information is correct, you will be able to download a PDF containing IR8A and Appendix 8A information. This can be done from the Tax Certificates screen, mentioned in step 2 above.

Excluding IR8As and Appendix 8As from the Submission

You may need to exclude an employee’s IR8A and Appendix 8A from the AIS submission option if you are using another option to file for that employee. For example, the CPF Data Link-up service can be used to pre-fill information on the myTax portal to submit to IRAS. To exclude these employees from the submission:

  1. Go to the Tax Certificates screen (see step 2 above).
  2. Click the Edit link next to the employee’s name.
  3. Check the Exclude from submission box.
  4. Click Save.

Validating and Submitting through SimplePay’s AIS feature

To ensure that IR8A and Appendix 8A information is generated correctly for AIS Submissions, go to Settings > Employer Filing Details, and check the In the Auto Inclusion Scheme? box.

  1. In the left sidebar menu, click Filing.
  2. Click the IRAS Filing (IR8A etc.) tab.
  3. Under the Filing season drop-down, select the relevant end date (e.g. "2026-12-31").

  4. Click the first Click here link under the Filing season drop-down. This opens a pre-validation pop-up that checks your data and flags any potential filing errors. Correct any warnings shown, and close the pop-up.

    Monitoring pre-validation progress

    Clicking a hyperlinked error or warning (e.g. a tax certificate label, employee name, or Company Validation Warnings) opens a new tab where you can correct the data. The pre-validation pop-up stays open in its original tab, and you can refresh it to see how many more errors or warnings you have to address.

  5. If there are no errors, click the Details link in the IRAS e-Submission box to view a summary of your submission details. Otherwise, you should resolve all validation errors before proceeding to this step.

    Appendix 8A information

    The Details pop-up will include any Appendix 8A information that will form part of the direct submission to IRAS.

  6. When you are sure that all the information is correct, check the I have reviewed the above and am ready to submit box. This will enable the Submit button.

  7. Enter the submitter’s Login details, and select the Login Type.

  8. Check the Tax Agent? box if you are submitting in your capacity as a tax agent.

    Tax Agent? checkbox

    Please check this box only if you are a tax agent (i.e. a third-party company accessing IRAS e-services and submitting on behalf of clients).

  9. Click Submit.

  10. Follow the prompts to authenticate your account. Once you have done that, you will be redirected back to SimplePay.

You’ll then be able to see the status of the submission, as well as additional details, under Submission History in the IRAS e-Submission section. However, employers can also log in to the myTax Portal to view the status of the submissions, and PAT users can check the status with CrimsonLogic.

Downloading a Reconciliation Report

To verify the information found in the IR8A certificate and Appendix 8A, you can download a report that includes the IR8A Category, Taxable / Non-Taxable, CPF Type fields, Employees, and their respective Totals (total remuneration for the tax year). Follow these steps to download the report:

  1. In the left sidebar menu, click Filing.
  2. Click the IRAS Filing (IR8A etc.) tab.
  3. Click the Excel link under Reconciliation Report.