IR56B, IR56E, IR56F, IR56G, IR56M: Which Form, When
One page on the Inland Revenue Department's employer forms: what triggers each IR56, the filing deadline, the withholding rule for staff leaving Hong Kong, and the mistakes SMEs make every April.
Every Hong Kong employer has the same set of reporting obligations to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), regardless of size. The forms are simple individually; what trips SMEs up is the timing — three of the five are triggered by staff events, not the calendar. This checklist puts them all on one page.
This article is general information for reference only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Deadlines and thresholds are those published by the IRD for the 2025/26 year of assessment; check the IRD's site for the current year.
The five forms at a glance
| Form | Trigger | Deadline | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIR56A + IR56B | Annual Employer's Return | Within 1 month of the date BIR56A is issued (issued on the first working day of April) | One IR56B per employee; a nil return is still required |
| IR56E | New employee likely to be liable for Salaries Tax | Within 3 months of the start of employment | |
| IR56F | Employee leaving (cessation), staying in Hong Kong | 1 month before the date of termination | |
| IR56G | Employee leaving Hong Kong for good or for a substantial period | 1 month before the expected departure date | Withhold all payments due to the employee for 1 month from filing, or until the IRD's "letter of release" arrives, whichever is earlier |
| IR56M | Payments to local non-employee service providers | Filed with the annual Employer's Return | Consultants / freelancers over HK$25,000 a year; sub-contractors over HK$200,000 a year |
Annual: BIR56A and IR56B
The IRD "will issue Form BIR56A (Employer's Return) to employers on the first working day of April each year". You must file it, together with one IR56B for each employee, "within 1 month from the date of issue".
What SMEs get wrong:
- Assuming no form means no obligation. If you have not received BIR56A by mid-April, the IRD's instruction is to request it (Form IR6163). The clock is not paused because the envelope went missing.
- Skipping the nil return. If there is nothing to report, you still file BIR56A — tick "NO", sign and return it.
- Omitting people below the threshold. For 2025/26 the IRD asks for an IR56B for every single employee with annual income of HK$132,000 or more, and for all married employees, all part-time staff and all directors regardless of amount. "Part-time, small amount, skip it" is a common error.
- Reporting the wrong period. IR56B covers the year of assessment, 1 April to 31 March — not your financial year and not the calendar year.
Joiner: IR56E
File IR56E within three months of employing someone "if the employee is likely to be liable for Salaries Tax". For a monthly-paid hire on a normal salary, assume yes.
The practical failure mode is not the form but the missing information. IR56E needs the employee's identity document number, residential address and the terms of the employment. Collect these on day one as part of onboarding, not in month three when the deadline arrives.
Leaver staying in Hong Kong: IR56F
When an employee resigns or is terminated and remains in Hong Kong, IR56F is due one month before the cessation date. Because notice periods in Hong Kong are frequently one month or shorter, this is effectively "file it the week you know". Filing late is the single most common IR56 slip we see in SMEs, and it is almost always a process problem: the resignation goes to the line manager, and payroll hears about it at cut-off.
Do not confuse IR56F with the final payment calculation itself. IR56F reports what was paid up to cessation; the calculation of untaken annual leave, pro-rata pay and any severance or long service payment is a separate exercise under the Employment Ordinance.
Leaver departing Hong Kong: IR56G and the withholding rule
If an employee is leaving Hong Kong — relocation, end of a work visa, moving home — IR56G is due one month before the expected departure date. The part employers miss is the second obligation: from the date IR56G is filed, you must withhold all moneys payable to the employee — salary, untaken leave, commission, bonus — "for a period of one month from the date of filing the notification or until the IRD issues a 'letter of release', whichever is earlier". On sight of the letter of release, pay out what was withheld.
If the employee does not settle their tax, the IRD can issue a garnishee notice (IR113) requiring you to pay the withheld money to the Commissioner instead; complying with it is a defence against any claim for unpaid wages. The IRD's leaflet is blunt about the other direction: failure by the employer to notify or withhold "may result in penal actions". Tell the employee at the start that the last payment will be released on receipt of the clearance letter, so they start the tax-clearance process early.
Two further details from the IRD's own worked example: anything paid to the employee after departure (a bonus, share-option gains) goes on an additional IR56G, with a fresh one-month withholding period; and a leaver reported on IR56G is not reported again on the following April's IR56B. The notification and withholding requirements do not apply to employees whose job requires them to leave Hong Kong at frequent intervals.
Non-employees: IR56M
Freelancers, consultants and agents you paid more than HK$25,000 in the year, and sub-contractors you paid more than HK$200,000, are reported on IR56M, filed with the annual return. Two traps:
- Reporting a genuine contractor on IR56B "to keep it simple". That mislabels the relationship for both tax and Employment Ordinance purposes.
- Not reporting at all because "they're not staff". They are not staff, but the payment is still reportable.
Record keeping
The IRD expects payroll records to be kept for at least 7 years. That includes the signed IR56 forms, the underlying payroll registers, and any correspondence on tax clearance.
A working calendar for a small payroll team
- Every onboarding: collect HKID / passport, address and the signed contract → diary IR56E for month 3.
- Every resignation or termination notice, the day it lands: decide IR56F or IR56G → file within the week → if IR56G, withhold final payments for one month or until the letter of release.
- First working day of April: BIR56A arrives → reconcile IR56B totals to the payroll register → file by early May.
- If no BIR56A by mid-April: request it.
- Year-round: track payments to freelancers and sub-contractors against the IR56M thresholds.
Source
All deadlines and thresholds above are from the IRD's employer pages — Employer's obligations, Employer's Return of Remuneration and Pensions — and the IRD leaflet You or your employee is going to leave Hong Kong.
If your leaver process still depends on someone remembering to tell payroll, our Payroll Outsourcing service prepares every IR56 in the cycle for you to review and sign, and tracks the deadlines.