Calculating FWL Contributions

FWL is a levy paid by foreign workers. While they are not required to pay CPF contributions for foreign workers, employers are liable to pay monthly levies to hire employees who hold Work Permits or S Passes.

Foreign workers on the Foreign Worker Levy Scheme who are granted Singapore Permanent Resident status are placed on the CPF scheme from the date Permanent Resident status is granted.

The generation control CPF GC FWL uses formula CPF FM FWL GC, to determine if the employee is either a foreign worker, an S Pass holder, or a foreign worker who has become a permanent resident (PR) during the current month. It is set to Include the employee if the formula is true.

If variable CPF VR CITIZENSHIP (which stores the citizenship status of the payee) is 6 — foreign worker, or 9 — S Pass holder and the S Pass holding date is in the current month (based on month from period end date), the levy is paid.

Note:

If CPF VR CITIZENSHIP is 9 — S Pass holder, no FWL will be paid.

The variable CPF VR FWL ST DT is used to enter the start date of the FWL. The Date Value must be entered, as it is the exact begin date of calculation of the FWL. If it is not entered, the hire date is used instead. You can override it at the payee level. When a foreign worker is hired, FWL does not necessarily start from the hire date. It may actually be payable before that - either from the time the work permit is issued, or when the employee enters the country.

The variable CPF VR FWL TO DATE is used to override the end date of FWL. The Date Value must be entered, as it is the exact end date of calculation FWL. For CPF VR CITIZENSHIP is 6 — foreign worker, worker type is S Pass holder (percentage), the variable CPF VR SP DATE is used to override the start date of FWL and Date Value must be entered as above.

The variable CPF VR FWL TO DATE is used to calculate the period end date while calculating FWL in the current month. You can override this at the payee level. Even though a foreign worker may be terminated, FWL is payable as long as the work permit is not cancelled. It is payable until the cancellation date.

Calculating the FWL Amount

The formula CPF FM FWL CALC calculates the amount of FWL to be paid for an employee in the pay period. The amount of FWL to be paid depends on the worker type of the payee. The rate applicable to each worker type is held in bracket CPF BR FWL RATES. For a full month, the amount is simply the return values of the CPF BR FWL RATES from bracket CPF BR FWL RATES for each CPF VR WORKER TYPE. For a partial month, it is calculated using the values of CPF VR FWL DAILY *FWL applicable calendar day.

Bracket CPF BR FWL RATES returns the daily and monthly FWL rates based on the payee's worker type (variable CPF VR WORKER TYPE). FWL will normally start from the hire date, but the FWL start date variable CPF VR FWL ST DT enables you to override that in case you want it to start earlier. If it started in the previous month, but wasn't calculated (because they were too late), last months FWL is calculated first. The FWL MTD accumulator uses a specified date and is maintained for 1 month so that you can check last months balance.