Employer’s return in Hong Kong

Your tax duties as an employer start with the first hire. TheInland Revenue Department’s employer pageis the baseline. A payroll firm exists to run those forms. It does not set the deadlines.

Keep the payroll file

On hiring, the IRD wants a record of that person’s name, address, identity-card or passport number with place of issue, marital status, whether they are full-time or part-time, the capacity they work in, cash remuneration (any currency, including pay made outside Hong Kong), non-cash and fringe benefits, MPF contributions on both sides, the contract and any later changes, and the period of employment.

You also have to tell the IRD when personal particulars or terms of employment change, and when you learn the Hong Kong Identity Card number of someone you first reported by passport. Business owners keep business accounting records, including payroll, for at least seven years.

BIR56A — even if nobody is on the books

When the Employer’s Return (BIR56A) arrives, complete it and lodge it within one month even if you do not hire any employee (tick “NO”), the business has not commenced, or the business has ceased. If you employed people who meet the notes on BIR56A for 2025/26 and no return has arrived by mid-April 2026, ask the IRD to issue one.

Give the employee a copy of each completed IR56B, IR56E, IR56F or IR56G so they can finish their own tax return.

Who goes on IR56B for 2025/26

Report the person on BIR56A and IR56B if they are single and paid an annual income of HK$132,000 or more, or if they are married, a part-time staff member, or a director — those last three regardless of amount.

If an employee does not yet have a Hong Kong Identity Card, the IRD lets you put the passport number and place of issue on the return, then write in as soon as the identity-card number is known.

New hire, leaving, or leaving Hong Kong

File one copy of IR56E, or file electronically, within three months of employing a person if you anticipate they are likely to be chargeable to salaries tax. That clock starts on the start date — the IRD’s example of a 3 April 2025 hire wants IR56E by 3 July 2025.

On termination of service, or death, file one copy of IR56F one month before the termination date. If the person is leaving Hong Kong for good or for a substantial period, file two copies of IR56G one month before the expected departure, and from the date you file until they produce an IRD “letter of release”, withhold all amounts due to them — salaries, commission, bonus, rent or expense reimbursements, money or money’s worth.

After IR56F or IR56G, do not also file IR56B for that person for the same year of assessment. The IRD says two IR56s on the same income can charge tax twice.

MPF enrolment and the monthly 5% plus 5% sit on a different office —MPF for Hong Kong employersand the shorterpayroll overview. If the hire needs a visa, ImmD still decides —GEPis the employment-as-professionals route.

Nothing here is tax advice. If the form matters, use the IRD page or someone who will sign their name to the return. If you want a firm to run the monthly work, start withthe payroll listings.