Employer's Returns in Hong Kong: IR56B, IR56E, IR56F and IR56G Explained.

Four forms, one employer's file

Form IR56B is the core of Hong Kong's employer's return: one sheet for each reportable employee or director, filed every spring under a cover return called the BIR56A. Three more forms sit beside it. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) groups all four under an employer's reporting duties: an IR56E when you hire, an IR56F when an employment is about to end, and an IR56G when an employee is about to leave Hong Kong.

The duty starts with your first hire and follows each employee to the end of the job. Along the way you keep payroll records for at least seven years and tell the IRD about changes such as a new address, a change in marital status or a switch to part-time work. Here is how the four forms fit together.

Every one of these forms can also go through the IRD's Employer's Return e-Filing Services, covered below. After filing, the employer gives the person concerned a copy, which helps them complete their own tax return.

IR56B and the annual employer's return

The employer's return, Form BIR56A, is the IRD's annual request for what you paid in the year from 1 April to 31 March. For the year ended 31 March 2026, the IRD issued about 340,000 employer's returns on 1 April 2026, and employers generally have one month from the issue date to file, with an IR56B for each person they have to report. The IRD's IR56 Forms Preparation Tool opens for the annual IR56B data file on 1 March each year, so payroll teams can start before the return arrives.

A handful of rules decide whether an employer files correctly, or at all:

• The year is fixed at 1 April to 31 March. The IRD's employer FAQ is explicit that IR56Bs cannot follow a 31 December accounting date.
• A BIR56A gets filed even with nobody to report. If you had no employees, if the business has not started, or if it has ceased, you tick "No", sign the return and lodge it within the month.
• A missing return does not end the duty. If you had reportable staff but no BIR56A has arrived by mid-April, you ask the IRD to issue one using Form IR6163. The IRD's own example is a new company, such as one that has only just completed company registration in Hong Kong.
• Each employer files its own return. A holding company does not report its subsidiaries' staff. The duty sits with the employer named in each employment contract.
• More time needs a written request. An application for an extension gives the employer's file number, the company name, the year of assessment, the extra time needed and the reasons.

The return is signed by an authorised signer: the proprietor of a sole proprietorship, the precedent partner of a partnership, or a director, company secretary or manager of a company. On paper, the BIR56A and every IR56B carry original signatures from the same person, and each paper IR56B must be the IRD's own form (posted by the IRD, downloaded from its website or sent by its Fax-A-Form service), not a version the employer has laid out itself.

The return matters to your staff as much as to you. Salaries tax in Hong Kong is assessed on the employee, who completes an individual tax return (Form BIR60) and pays after receiving a notice of assessment. Your IR56B is the employer's account of the same income, which is why the employee gets a copy.

Who goes on an IR56B

For the 2025/26 return, the IRD's guide to an employer's tax obligations says you report a person on an IR56B if they are:

• single and paid HK$132,000 or more in the year;
• married, whatever the amount;
• a part-time employee, whatever the amount;
• a director, whatever the amount.

A single employee who worked only part of the year is measured against a proportionately reduced figure, which the IRD's employer seminar material puts at HK$11,000 a month. The same rules apply to private households, so a family employing a driver or a domestic helper reports them on the same terms.

The IRD describes the HK$132,000 figure as the personal allowance for 2025/26, and the basic allowance rises to HK$145,000 from the 2026/27 year of assessment. The notes issued with the April 2027 return will confirm the reporting figure for that year.

Some groups catch employers out:

• Directors. Directors' fees and salaries are reported; dividends paid to shareholders are not. The proprietor or partners of an unincorporated business are not reported on an IR56B at all.
• Staff working outside Hong Kong. The IRD expects an IR56B for every reportable employee, whether they worked in or outside Hong Kong, and it wants the full remuneration even if the employee will later claim an exemption. The exemption claim is the employee's to make, on their own return. Where a non-Hong Kong subsidiary pays part of the salary for work done outside Hong Kong, the IR56B shows the combined total, with the subsidiary's share stated again separately.
• Secondees. Where a foreign parent seconds someone to its Hong Kong company, the Hong Kong company is the employer named on the IR56B.
• Foreign-currency pay. Everything is reported in Hong Kong dollars, and the IRD publishes average exchange rates for salaries tax purposes.
• People who are not employees. Fees paid to local individuals or unincorporated businesses that are not employees, such as freelancers, consultants or sub-contractors, go on a different form, the IR56M, once they pass HK$25,000 a year (HK$200,000 for sub-contractors).

What counts as remuneration on the IR56B

The IR56B asks for the full remuneration accrued in the year, broken into categories, plus the facts the IRD needs to value benefits.

Housing. If you provide a flat, or refund some or all of an employee's rent, the employee is taxed on a notional "rental value" rather than the rent itself: 10% of net income for a residential unit or serviced apartment, 8% for two rooms and 4% for one room in a hotel, hostel or boarding house. The IRD calculates that figure from what you report, so item 12 needs the type of accommodation, the period and the rent paid by each side stated clearly.

Share awards and options. Shares awarded because of the employment are a taxable benefit, including shares in an overseas parent company, and go in item 11(k) of the IR56B or the matching item on an IR56F or IR56G. An option creates no charge when granted; the gain is taxed in the year it is exercised, assigned or released.

Termination payments. Payment in lieu of notice and cash in lieu of untaken leave are taxable and go on the IR56F or IR56G. Severance and long service payments made strictly under the Employment Ordinance are not taxable, but anything paid above the statutory entitlement is reported.

Filing online: Online Mode and Mixed Mode

Paper filing is still accepted. The IRD also runs Employer's Return e-Filing Services on its new tax portals, with two ways to submit.

Points to watch:

• Filing is complete only with the signatures. Under Mixed Mode, the submission counts only once the signed Control List, and for the annual return the signed BIR56A, reaches the IRD.
• One annual submission. Online Mode accepts one annual submission per year of assessment, so the IR56B file needs to be complete before it goes. Later corrections go in as additional, replacement or supplementary forms, or as a written notification of amendment.
• Storage devices are finished. Since 1 April 2024 the IRD has not accepted IR56B records on any storage device.
• A tax representative can upload, but cannot sign. An accountant acting as your tax representative can prepare the data file and upload it through Mixed Mode, but the IRD does not let tax representatives sign an employer's return, so the Control List goes back to an authorised signer.

IR56E: when you hire

An IR56E goes to the IRD within three months of the start date for any new employee you expect to be chargeable to salaries tax. Where you cannot tell, the IRD's examples point towards filing: a married employee whose spouse's income you do not know, or a part-timer who may have another job, should both be reported.

If the person is still on your payroll on 31 March, they then appear on that year's IR56B as well. The IR56E tells the IRD the employment exists; the IR56B reports what it paid.

An employee arriving on one of Hong Kong's work visa routes may not have a Hong Kong identity card number yet when the IR56E is prepared. The form can then carry a passport number and place of issue, and you write to the IRD with the identity card number once it is known.

The IR56E runs on a different clock from MPF. Employers must enrol full-time and part-time employees aged 18 to 64 in an MPF scheme within the first 60 days of employment where the employment lasts 60 days or more, exempt persons aside, and those days are counted as calendar days. Both clocks start on the first day of employment, and MPF compliance providers in Hong Kong can take on the enrolment side.

IR56F: when an employment ends

When an employee resigns, is dismissed, retires or dies, the employer files an IR56F one month before the employment ends. It covers the period from 1 April to the last day of employment, including final salary, bonus, payment in lieu of notice and cash in lieu of leave.

The IRD expects you to ask the employee first whether they are leaving Hong Kong afterwards. If they are, an IR56G replaces the IR56F.

Two rules prevent double counting. Once you have filed an IR56F, you do not file an IR56B for that person for the same year, because filing both can lead to the same income being taxed twice. And if someone leaves early in a new tax year, before you have filed the previous year's return, they need both forms: an IR56B for the year to 31 March and an IR56F for the weeks since. The IRD's employer FAQ works through an employee who resigned on 30 April without notice in exactly this way.

A bonus or commission settled after the employee has gone is still treated as income for the last day of employment, so it is reported for that year, using an additional or supplementary form if the IR56F has already gone in.

Questions about the termination itself, such as notice, statutory severance or long service pay, turn on the employment contract and the Employment Ordinance. An employment lawyer in Hong Kong can check those before the final figures go on the form.

IR56G: when an employee is leaving Hong Kong

The IR56G applies when an employee is leaving Hong Kong for good or for a substantial period. The employer finds out the expected departure date, files the IR56G at least one month before it (two copies on paper, or through Online Mode), and from the filing date holds back every payment due to the employee: salary, commission, bonus, rent or expense reimbursements, and anything else of money's worth.

The hold lasts one month, or until the employee produces a letter of release from the IRD if that comes sooner. The release letter comes out of the employee's side of the process, called tax clearance:

1. The employee contacts the IRD to clear their tax before leaving.
2. The IRD assesses the tax due, and the employee pays it.
3. The IRD issues the letter of release, and the employer pays out what it held back.

Timing depends on how the employee pays. Paying by cash, EPS or cashier order and taking the receipt to the IRD's Collection Office can produce the letter the same day; a cheque normally means the letter arrives by post about 10 days later. An employee who owes no tax still receives a release letter once clearance is complete. If the employee does not pay, the IRD can issue a recovery notice (Form IR113C) requiring the employer to settle the tax from the money withheld.

Some situations restart or stretch the process:

• Money paid after clearance. A bonus that arrives after the employee has cleared their tax needs an additional IR56G and a fresh one-month hold, and the employee goes through clearance again.
• Tax borne by the employer. Employees whose employer pays their Hong Kong tax still have to clear it before departure.
• Unexercised share options. A gain from options granted for Hong Kong employment stays taxable when exercised after the employee has left, and both the employer and the employee report it. The employee can elect to settle the liability on a notional exercise before leaving.

As with the IR56F, no IR56B is filed for that person for the same year once an IR56G has gone in. A departing employee who wants help with the final return and clearance can look at salaries tax services in Hong Kong.

Penalties for late or incorrect employer's returns

The IRD warns that heavy penalties can follow if an employer misses these obligations or files an incorrect return. Its penalty policy sets out the ceilings under the Inland Revenue Ordinance.

Instead of prosecuting, the IRD can compound an offence or, for an incorrect return, assess additional tax of up to three times the tax undercharged. For an employer, the tax at stake is often an employee's: under-reporting a housing benefit or a share award understates someone else's salaries tax. The IRD has also said it will check the accrual date of payments in lieu of notice and consider penalty action where it was reported wrongly.

When an accountant or payroll provider handles it

An employer can hand the IR56 cycle to an accounting firm or payroll provider, and the work suits it: the forms draw on payroll data the provider already holds. The legal duty stays with the employer, though, and a tax representative cannot sign for it, so leave time within the month for the authorised signer to sign the Control List and the BIR56A.

Before engaging anyone, it helps to agree:

• whether the fee covers the IR56E, IR56F and IR56G filings during the year, or only the annual IR56B round;
• who tells the provider about new hires, resignations and departures, and how early;
• who values housing benefits, share awards and pay from overseas group companies;
• whether the same provider runs MPF enrolment and contributions;
• who tells departing employees about tax clearance, and who releases the held pay.

If you are comparing accounting firms in Hong Kong, ask whether payroll and the IR56 forms are part of the engagement or a separate fee. The guide to choosing a certified public accountant in Hong Kong places the employer's return within a company's full yearly calendar. Share plans, cross-border secondments and IRD enquiries are the kind of questions tax advisors in Hong Kong handle.

This guide is general information, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Forms, thresholds and deadlines change; for a specific case, speak with a qualified accountant, tax advisor or lawyer.