“Independence Day (Filipino: Araw ng Kasarinlan; also Araw ng Kalayaan, lit. “Day of Freedom”) is an annual national holiday in the Philippines observed on June 12, commemorating the Philippine Declaration of Independence from Spain on June 12, 1898. It is the country’s National Day.”*wikipedia
As part of a new series on this blog we will be profiling certified PayrollHero users to learn more about them, their business, where they go to learn and best practices.
First up is Clare Matchett, General Manager for ServiceSeeking Manila.
1. How would you describe your business?
ServiceSeeking Manila is the Manila arm of ServiceSeeking.com.au, Australia’s best way to get free quotes from local businesses. Our team handles customer service, sales, data analysis, web development, SEO and a whole lot more.
Much of the software is intuitive and just “makes sense”, but payroll in the Philippines is notoriously complicated. We’ve been able to transition to using PayrollHero without adding any new team members and this is mostly because of the great communication with the PayrollHero staff. Discrepancy checks were particularly helpful in letting us know where we’re at with the transition and how to set up loans, advances, bonuses, allowances and government contributions correctly.
PayrollHero has a deliberate onboarding process that is designed to understand every customer’s unique needs so that we can quickly and effectively transition your business onto PayrollHero. Reach out today for a free, 30 min. one on one conversation about how PayrollHero can work within your organization.
As a restaurant owner or retail owner, you have a number of things to consider; one of them is making sure your internet connection is reliable and fast so that your operations run smoothly. While we have talked about the need for you to upgrade your technology, this post is some practical advice on what internet plans are available to you.
We picked out fibre broadband plans, catered towards multiple stores across the island. Aside from bandwidth, contract terms and installation costs, we have also put together information on discounts for multiple store locations, how their customer service team performed and waiting time for installation. Do note, all options available have the symmetric download and upload speeds. Based on where you are in the island, speeds are different.
We looked at the top 3 internet service providers in Singapore: Singtel, Starhub an M1. We tried contacting other service providers in order to give you a broad set of options, but their customer service lines were facing high volume. So here we are:
Fibre Broadband Bandwidth: Winner – Singtel
Singtel: 100-500 Mbps
Starhub: Upto 250Mbps
M1: 10-200 Mbps
Singtel wins hands down in the bandwidth that they provide. Their BizWifi Enterprise package is catered towards businesses (they mentioned cafes) that want to provide internet services to their customers while also using it for operations.
Price Plans: Winner – Tie between Starhub and M1
Singtel: $250 – 552/month
Starhub: $209/month
M1: $200/month
Starhub and M1 rank equally in terms of competitive pricing.
Installation costs: Winner – Starhub
Singtel: $535 for the 2 year contract, free for 3 year contract
Starhub: Free
M1: $300 for a 2 year contract, but the fee is waived if they install for multiple stores
Starhub clearly wins. Singtel installation costs are pretty heavy if you take the 2 year contract.
Contract Limit: Winner – It’s a tie
Singtel: 2 or 3 year contract
Starhub: 2 year contract
M1: 2 year contract
Waiting Time: Winner – It’s a tie
Singtel: 4-8 weeks based on survey of the establishment
Starhub: 6-8 weeks
M1: 6-8 weeks
This is pretty standard. All three companies survey your establishment to figure out how the connection should be installed.
Customer Service: Winner – M1
Singtel: Good. Very high volume on their corporate line. But they were helpful and polite when they finally received the call.
Starhub: Very good!
M1: Awesome. They suggested emailing a proposal immediately.
MyReupublic: Well, we tried calling them but we were on hold for around 20 minutes
Discount for multiple stores: Winner – M1
Singtel: No
Starhub: No
M1: Yes!
Phone Numbers:
Singtel: 1688
Starhub: 1606
M1: 1622
While the competition is close, it depends on what you are looking for. In terms of bandwidth, Singtel wins. But for everything else, especially pricing, M1 stands out as a winner. For your reference, here are the websites for Singtel, Starhub and M1
We will update this list as we hear from other operators. Like we said, we tried to contact MyRepublic but they were unavailable. Do let us know if you have suggestions!
Southeast Asia is a hot market for business. There is untapped potential, both in terms of consumer demand and labour markets. With all eyes on Asia, it is important to focus your capital and team where you generate the greatest return on your investment. Which means getting into the details of every country’s laws: ease of setting up a business, access to credit, construction permits, registering property, taxation laws. This can be daunting, not to mention time consuming. Which is why we have come up with a few metrics that will give you a head-start on some high level knowledge on a few chosen countries in SEA.
The countries we have chosen are: Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The metrics we have chosen are from the ease of doing business rankings published by the World Bank Group. They are: overall ease of doing business, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, paying taxes, enforcing contracts, USD equivalent of a worker in retail/restaurants. For a thorough understanding on how the World Bank Group creates these rankings, you can read the explanation here.The data for rankings and number of procedures has been taken from World Bank Group’s Doing Business publication.
| Ease of doing business | |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Malaysia | 18 |
| Thailand | 26 |
| Vietnam | 78 |
| The Philippines | 95 |
| Indonesia | 114 |
Singapore ranks first on the ease of doing business. This is not surprising. Since its independence, Singapore has positioned itself as a leader in doing business in SEA. By reducing bureaucratic procedures and taking the entire process online, Singapore has lived up to its top position for many years now.
| Starting a Business | |
| Singapore | 6 |
| Malaysia | 13 |
| Thailand | 75 |
| Vietnam | 125 |
| Indonesia | 155 |
| The Philippines | 161 |
This metric is considered by measuring the number of days it takes to start a business. According to the World Bank Group, it takes 3 days to start a business in Singapore while in the Philippines, it takes 34, which gives you a good idea as to why the rankings look like the above. In the Philippines, much of the time is wasted moving from one department to another. It takes 16 independent procedures to start a business.
| Dealing with Construction Permits | |
| Singapore | 2 |
| Thailand | 6 |
| Vietnam | 22 |
| Malaysia | 28 |
| The Philippines | 124 |
| Indonesia | 153 |
Indonesia ranks the lowest. It takes 17 procedures to obtain a construction permit in Indonesia while Singapore requires you to complete 10 procedures.
| Getting Electricity | |
| Singapore | 11 |
| Thailand | 12 |
| The Philippines | 16 |
| Malaysia | 27 |
| Indonesia | 78 |
| Vietnam | 135 |
Vietnam has an average of 10 procedures taking 34 days while Singapore has 4 taking 31 days.
| Registering Property | |
| Singapore | 24 |
| Thailand | 28 |
| Vietnam | 33 |
| Malaysia | 75 |
| The Philippines | 108 |
| Indonesia | 117 |
On average, Indonesia has 5 procedures, taking 25 days, while Singapore has 4 procedures, taking 4.5 days.
| Getting Credit | |
| Singapore | 17 |
| Thailand | 89 |
| Vietnam | 36 |
| Malaysia | 23 |
| The Philippines | 104 |
| Indonesia | 71 |
| Paying Taxes | |
| Singapore | 5 |
| Malaysia | 32 |
| Thailand | 62 |
| The Philippines | 127 |
| Indonesia | 160 |
| Vietnam | 173 |
This statistic is by far the most extreme. The total number of tax payments in Singapore is 5 per year which takes about 82 hours in the year whereas Vietnam has 32 payments per year which takes about 872 hours.
To understand more about taxation laws on some countries in the APAC region, you can read about it here for Singapore and for the Philippines.
| Enforcing Contracts | |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Thailand | 25 |
| Malaysia | 29 |
| Vietnam | 47 |
| The Philippines | 124 |
| Indonesia | 172 |
In Singapore there are 21 procedures for enforcing contracts which takes about 150 days whereas Indonesia has 40 procedures, taking about 451 days.
| Corruption Perception Index | |
| Singapore | 84 |
| Malaysia | 52 |
| Thailand | 38 |
| The Philippines | 38 |
| Indonesia | 34 |
| Vietnam | 31 |
The corruption perception index is a measure of how people within the country view the public sector. The index is relative to every other country on the list. It ranges from 0 (weakest perception) to 100 (cleanest perception).
Considering the countries we have chosen, it is pretty obvious why Singapore stands out. It is one of the most mature markets in SEA. The other countries are still in a developing stage. Singapore stands more as a reference point on these lists. Many of the SEA nations are held back by the large number of bureaucratic procedures and rampant corruption.
In addition to these factors, we should also consider the cost of doing business, in terms of labour, land and capital costs. There is a trade-off between cost and efficiency which we have avoided considering in order to bring out the basic metric of ease of doing business in SEA.
Hope this was helpful and relevant for your business! Watch out for more posts on rankings in SEA.
If you are in need of a payroll solution for your business, check out our Southeast Asia offerings here – PayrollHero.Asia
– – Related Posts – –
Employer contributions in Singapore are collected by the Central Provident Fund (CPF). The deductions and levies contribute towards savings for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs) for retirement, insurance and building their homes. There are also certain levies that go towards different ethnic funds. We will go through all these deductions and levies.
CPF
CPF contributions are done by the employee and employer. The contributions ar
e restricted to Singaporeans and PRs only. There are 4 major accounts that CPF contributions go into: Ordinary Account (for retirement, housing finance, investment, education), Special Account (for old age and special contingencies), Medisave Account (for hospital bills) and Retirement Account (this account is opened once the employee turns 55). Check out these links to find out contributions rates and deadlines.
Foreign Workers Levy
The levy is imposed on employers who employ foreign workers with Work Permits or S Passes. Levies do not need to be paid for employees with Employment Passes. The levy is calculated based on the ratio of Singaporeans to foreign employees that your business employs. Here is a link on how the foreign levy is calculated. The levy is paid on the first of every month. More details on the FWL here.
Skills Development Levy
The SDL goes to the Skills Development Fund, which provides grants for training programmes and workforce upgrading programmes. The levy must be paid for Singpaorean, PR and foreign workers. The rates are linked here.
Ethnic Fund
There are 4 Self Help Group (SGH) Funds that collect levies based on the ethnicity of your employees. The four funds are:
The levy is paid out of employees’ salaries. Employees may choose to opt out of the levy by signing the relevant forms. The levy must be paid every month. Here are the rates.
If you are looking for a Singapore cloud based payroll platform – look no further. PayrollHero’s end to end solution includes time, attendance, scheduling, HRIS and Singapore payroll. Plus, amazing business intelligence. Let us know if you want a one on one demo.
For more information on CPF contributions, make sure to read this link. If you want to know more about employer contribution in the Philippine, check out Payroll in APAC: the Philippines.. Hope this helps!
Disclaimer: As always, consult your lawyer or accountant for advice! We are here to help, but your specific situation should be reviewed by a professional with complete knowledge of your situation.
The Payroll in APAC blog posts are (as you might have guessed), a series of blog posts on tax and employer contribution laws in APAC nations. This gives payroll and human resource administrators a high level understanding on what you should know in these countries. Our first post is on the Philippines.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is the Philippine equivalent of the IRS in the United States. Companies are required to withhold taxes from employees who are subject to income tax. They are then required to remit these taxes to the BIR.
There are two broad classifications of withholding taxes: Creditable withholding taxes and final withholding taxes. Creditable withholding taxes apply for certain income payments and are creditable against income tax. On the other hand, Final Withholding Taxes are not creditable against withholding taxes. Unlike the former, final withholding taxes are prescribed on royalties and interest incomes.
Social Security Service (SSS)
The SSS is the social security net for Filipinos. It covers a list of contingencies: from disabilities to maternity. All private companies are required to register with the SSS and deduct contributions for their employees. Around 70% of the contribution comes from the employer and 30% from the employee.
Deductions are made from the employee’s salary and remitted to the SSS. Payments are done monthly or quarterly, based on the type of employee. The summary on benefits and schedule on payments is posted here.
PhilHealth
The health insurance institution in the Philippines is called PhilHealth. All private and government institutions are required to register and deduct contributions from their employees’ salaries. PhilHealth covers a number of benefits. The share of the contribution is split between the employer and the employee. The payment dates and contribution schedule are available here.
Pag-IBIG – Home Development Mutual Fund
The final contribution that employers need to be aware of is Pag-IBIG. This institution provides housing finance for Filipinos. Contributions by the employer are equal to 2% of the employee’s salary. The dates for payment are in this link.
These are the 4 major tax and employer contribution laws that Payroll and Human Resource administrators should be aware of. At PayrollHero, we deduct the required contributions and generate payroll for our clients. Here are examples of how we compute BIR taxes, SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG contributions.
For more information on BIR, SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG with respect to what forms need to be filled and filing deadlines, make sure to click on the links!
Disclaimer: As always, consult your lawyer or accountant for advice! We are here to help, but your specific situation should be reviewed by a professional with complete knowledge of your situation.
If you are in need of a payroll provider in the Philippines that can provide an end to end solution, then let us know. PayrollHero’s Philippine cloud based payroll platform incorporates, time, attendance, scheduling, HRIS, business intelligence and Philippine payroll in one, easy to use solution.
This is the final iteration of the ‘Employer Contributions in the Philippines’ set of blog posts. So far, we have given you an overview of the BIR, the SSS and PhilHealth. We will now talk about the Home Development Mutual Fund – popularly known as Pag-IBIG Fund. The fund is the biggest source of housing finance in the Philippines. Along with the SSS and PhilHealth, employers also need to register to Pag-IBIG.
Requirements: Before you register your business with Pag-IBIG, you will need the following:
You need to fill these forms and take them to the nearest Pag-IBIG service center. After the documents are processed, you will receive the Pag-IBIG Employer ID.
The following is the contribution that is required by the employer and employee
The Pag-IBIG registration process can be done online as well. After deductions, payment to the fund can be done online or through one of the accredited banks.
| Employee Share | Employer Share | |
| PHP 1,500.00 and below | 1% | 2% |
| Over PHP 1,500.00 | 2% | 2% |
Finally, here we have an example on how PayrollHero calculates Pag-IBIG deductions.
This marks the end of our 3 part blogpost on Employer Contributions in the Philippines. For details on BIR, SSS and PhilHealth, click on the links. To see how PayrollHero calculates deductions on BIR, SSS and PhilHealth, make sure to click on the links.
Here is a helpful video from our friends at ZipMatch.com about Pag-IBIG
Disclaimer: As always, consult your lawyer or accountant for advice! We are here to help, but your specific situation should be reviewed by a professional with complete knowledge of your situation.
If you are interested in learning more about PayrollHero for your Philippine business, check out our website at PayrollHero.ph. We would be pleased to chat further about your needs.
Our previous post was an introduction to employer contributions in the Philippines with a closer look on BIR and the SSS. In this post, we’ll give you an idea about how health insurance works in the Philippines. PhilHealth is the health insurance institution that all private and government companies are required to register their new employees to. Here is a list of benefits that PhilHealth covers. Unlike the SSS, the employer’s share towards insurance is equal to the employee’s share towards insurance. The contribution schedule is available here.
Step 1: Employers need to first register their business through the Philippines Business Directory.
Step 2: All employees must submit the PhilHealth Member Registration Form (PMRF) to the HR department. Once that is done, you need to register your employees by filling out Employee Data Record (ER1) Form and submit the ER1 Form with the PMRF for each employee.
Step 3: After the forms are processed, companies will be given the following:
The Certificate of Registration is required to be displayed clearly in your business’s offices.
Step 4: After deducting employer and employee contributions from the basic monthly salary, payment must be made to PhilHealth or via Accredited Collecting Agents. The payment should be made on or before the due date. The table below is from the PhilHealth website:
| Employers with PENs ending in 0-4 | Every 11th-15th day of the month following the applicable period |
| Employers with PENs ending in 5-9 | Every 16th-20th day of the month following the applicable period |
Step 5: Once the payment is done, you will have to report it within 5 days with the revised RF-1 Form. Alternatively, you can report it online using the Electronic Premium Reporting System
Additional Info:
For new employees in the company, you will have to file the ER2 form to ensure that they are covered by PhilHealth too. Make sure to ask them if the have their PIN so that you can add it to the ER2 form. The form should be submitted to PhilHealth within 30 days of the new employees coming into office. For separated employees, Form RF1 must be filled and submitted within 30 days of the employee leaving. To amend employer data, ER3 form must be filed along with supporting documents.
This is it for PhilHealth. For reference, here is how PayrollHero calculates PhilHealth deductions. Check out Part III of our posts on employee contributions. We give you a crash course on Pag-IBIG deductions.
Disclaimer: As always, consult your lawyer or accountant for advice! We are here to help, but your specific situation should be reviewed by a professional with complete knowledge of your situation.
If you are interested in learning more about PayrollHero for your Philippine business, check out our website at PayrollHero.ph or contact us at sales@payrollhero.com. We would be pleased to chat further about your needs!
As an HR admin or payroll admin, it is important to understand how employee contributions work for the social security nets that are in place for Filipinos. There are 4 institutions that you should know about for employee contributions:
We will be talking about each of these over the next few blog posts. Let’s start with the first:
Bureau of Internal Revenue
When you are employing someone in the Philippines, the first requirement is to have a Tax Identification Number (TIN) that is registered in the same Revenue District Office (RDO) as your business. The TIN is essential in order to process employee contributions.
Here are all the BIR forms for your convenience.
Social Security Service
All employees in private companies across the country are required to be SSS members. The social security net covers a range of contingencies such as disability, sickness, retirement. Here is a summary of contingencies that the SSS covers. Around 70% of the contribution towards the SSS is made by the employer while 30% is made by the employee. Here is a schedule of contributions based on monthly salary.
First, you need to register your company as an employer in the nearest SSS office by filing Form R1. Along with this, you need to submit a list of employees with their SSS numbers. Note that private companies can only hire employees with SSS numbers. The form that needs to be files is Form R1A. The last form that needs to be submitted is the Specimen Signature Card SS Form L501. With these 3 forms, you will have to submit a sketch of your business address.
You will also have to pay a fee of PHP 160 for an Employer Registration Plate at the SSS or any SSS accredited bank. The list of accredited banks are here (at the bottom of the document). Along with the payment, you need to submit validated Miscellaneous Payment Return – SS Form R6 along with a Special Bank Receipt with this form.
You need to submit Form R1A – the Employment Report – every time a new employee joins. It must be filed within thirty days of the employee receiving the benefits of the coverage. The form must be submitted with the Specimen Signature Card and the 13 digit ER number and business address.
If there are changes to business operations, you need to file an Employer Data Change Request. This way, you will be billed correctly by the SSS.
Now that you know what these institutions are and what forms need to be filled, here is our example on how SSS contributions are calculated using PayrollHero software. As a bonus, we also have an example on how BIR taxes are computed.
That’s it for now! Check out our next few posts on Philhealth and Home Development Mutual Fund to find out everything you need to know about employer contributions.
Disclaimer: As always, consult your lawyer or accountant for advice! We are here to help, but your specific situation should be reviewed by a professional with complete knowledge of your situation.
If you are interested in learning more about PayrollHero for your Philippine business, check out our website at PayrollHero.ph. We would be pleased to chat further about your needs.
The story of the very successful Filipino, Dado Banatao was captured by another successful Filipino Kai Elmer Sotto. Take a moment to learn more about Dado’s amazing story.
