🇸🇬CPF in Singapore: Who Contributes, the 2026 Rates, and What Happens When You Leave

For a relocating professional in Singapore, the Central Provident Fund starts with a single fact: a holder of an Employment Pass, S Pass or Work Permit does not receive CPF contributions. Neither the employee nor the employer contributes until the employee becomes a Permanent Resident. From that day payroll changes, but CPF savings remain subject to the rules on approved uses, retirement withdrawals and account closure; departure alone does not make the full balance withdrawable.

The rates, ceilings and sums below follow CPF Board guidance for employers and IRAS guidance. The figures are revised annually, and 2026 is not the end point: a further increase for senior workers has already been announced for 1 January 2027.

Concept

CPF is a compulsory savings system in which the contribution is split between employer and employee and allocated across three accounts belonging to one person: the Ordinary Account funds housing, the Special Account (or Retirement Account from age 55) funds retirement, and MediSave funds healthcare. CPF savings are invested in non-tradable Special Singapore Government Securities issued and guaranteed by the Government. The scheme is built around the life cycle of a citizen or permanent resident, with employee contributions depending on eligible employment and citizenship or PR status, and separate rules for using savings and closing accounts.

Key parameters of the system:

Who is inside the system and who is outside

The employer's obligation arises for Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents with total wages above S$50 a month. Foreigners are expressly listed among those exempt from receiving contributions, alongside qualifying students and staff of United Nations bodies. Where wages exceed S$50 but do not exceed S$500, no employee share is deducted, while the employer share remains payable.

For hiring, CPF creates a cost difference before SDL and other employment costs. At full CPF rates, a local employee aged 40 on a S$8,000 salary accounts for S$9,360 in salary plus employer CPF; a holder of an Employment Pass or One Pass on the same salary accounts for S$8,000 before SDL and other costs. SDL applies to both groups: at this salary, S$11.25 per employee before rounding the employer's aggregate SDL down to whole dollars. The expatriate has no CPF interest or MediSave account through this employment, but can arrange retirement savings outside CPF, including SRS in Singapore if eligible. Before PR, a spouse's work authorisation is a separate question covered in the Dependant's Pass regime. After PR, no work pass is required; CPF contributions depend on eligible employment.

2026 rates and the wage ceilings

These full rates apply to monthly wages above S$750 for Singapore citizens, PRs in their third year or later, and first- and second-year PRs with an approved full-rate election. The rate for a new age band applies from the first day of the month following the relevant birthday. The table below follows the CPF Board contribution rate table from 1 January 2026.

There are two ceilings. Ordinary Wages — wages for employment in that month that are payable by the 14th of the following month — attract contributions up to S$8,000 a month, a ceiling in force from 1 January 2026. That ceiling sets the monthly maximum for each age band.

Additional Wages, meaning bonuses and other wages that are not Ordinary Wages, are subject to a ceiling computed as S$102,000 less the total Ordinary Wage subject to CPF for the year, applied per employee, per employer, per calendar year.

The first two years of PR

The cost step is softened by a transitional schedule. The following default graduated rates illustrate an employee aged 55 and below earning more than S$750 a month; full rates normally apply from the third SPR year, unless an approved higher-rate election takes effect earlier.

The first year runs from the day the status is granted, and the second and third from the first day of the month after the respective anniversary. Employer and employee may jointly apply to move to full rates early, or to a mixed arrangement with a full employer share. For someone weighing a PR application, that is two years of soft landing.

Accounts, returns and the age-55 line

CPF interest is government-backed and differs by account; the 2.5% statutory minimum and the separately extended 4% floor are distinct.

The Ordinary Account rate is the legislated minimum of 2.5%: the market-linked rate, reviewed every quarter, remains below this floor. For the Special, MediSave and Retirement Accounts the formula takes the 12-month average yield on ten-year government securities plus 1%, subject to a 4% floor that has been extended to 31 December 2027. Extra interest applies only to the first S$60,000 of combined balances, including no more than S$20,000 from OA: +1% below age 55; from age 55, +2% on the first S$30,000 and +1% on the next S$30,000. Thus eligible savings can earn up to 5% or 6%, not the entire balance.

On the 55th birthday a Retirement Account is created, and Special Account savings followed by Ordinary Account savings are transferred into it up to the Full Retirement Sum; the Special Account is then closed and any remainder moves to the Ordinary Account. Savings above the FRS can be withdrawn from the Ordinary Account, and a member who has not met the FRS may still withdraw up to S$5,000. An owner of Singapore property on a lease running to at least age 95 may meet up to half the FRS with the property and the rest in cash — the mechanism that ties the retirement calculation to buying a home.

Retirement sums and CPF LIFE

The BRS and FRS are fixed by the year in which a member turns 55 and do not change for that member afterwards; the ERS is raised annually, and a member aged 55 and above may top up to the current ERS regardless of the year in which he turned 55.

The ERS is double the Full Retirement Sum of the year and is the ceiling on voluntary top-ups to the Retirement Account. The first two columns read by cohort; the third is the figure in force for that year. CPF LIFE takes over from there — a national annuity paying a monthly income for life, with automatic inclusion for members born in 1958 or later who hold at least S$60,000 in the Retirement Account when payouts begin. How this compares with funded pensions elsewhere is set out in the survey of pension rights on relocation.

Where the money goes during working life

The Ordinary Account is the main channel for housing: it pays the down payment and the monthly mortgage instalments, and CPF Board warns that the more of the Ordinary Account goes into housing, the less remains for retirement. At full employee/employer CPF rates, the MediSave allocation is approximately 8% to 10.5% of wages subject to CPF, depending on age; graduated PR rates result in lower amounts. MediSave is capped by the Basic Healthcare Sum, adjusted annually until age 65 and fixed thereafter; subject to approved uses and withdrawal limits, it helps pay for selected outpatient treatment, hospitalisation and day surgery for the member and for a spouse, children and parents of any nationality.

The tax layer and SRS

For eligible tax-resident employees, compulsory employee contributions reduce taxable income through CPF Relief, within the overall S$80,000 personal relief cap; general voluntary CPF contributions above the compulsory amount do not qualify for this employee relief; qualifying MediSave contributions and cash top-ups have separate relief conditions. All of it sits in the income tax layer and never touches GST, which is not charged on wages.

SRS

The voluntary layer above CPF is the Supplementary Retirement Scheme. Citizens, permanent residents and foreigners aged at least 18 may open one SRS account with DBS, OCBC or UOB if they satisfy IRAS eligibility conditions: no undischarged bankruptcy, the prescribed mental-capacity conditions, no existing or suspended SRS account or pending application elsewhere, and no previous SRS account fully withdrawn either on medical grounds or on or after reaching the statutory retirement age prevailing at the time of its first contribution. The annual contribution cap is S$35,700 for a foreigner against S$15,300 for a citizen or PR. The foreigner's contribution cap is more than double, but a tax deduction is not automatic: SRS relief requires tax residence for the following Year of Assessment and counts towards the S$80,000 overall personal relief cap. No relief is given on contributions withdrawn in the same year or where the account is suspended at year-end. In the year PR is granted, the operator recomputes the cap pro rata.

Departure, renunciation and closing the account

This is where half-measures end: a member who is no longer either a Singapore citizen or a permanent resident must close his CPF accounts. On renunciation from 1 April 2024 onwards, the member may apply to close the account and transfer savings to a bank account once renunciation is complete; the transfer is subject to CPF processing; if no application is made, the account is closed automatically the following month and the balance stops earning the prevailing CPF interest rate. As a concession, such balances earn interest at commercial bank levels until 31 March 2027.

Processing takes about twelve weeks on average. For non-Singapore citizens and non-PRs other than Malaysian citizens, an applicant abroad without Singpass applies with the documents certified at a Singapore Overseas Mission — or, in an Apostille Convention country, notarised and apostilled — while an applicant with Singpass applies online. Malaysian citizens with their CPF account number have a separate online application route.

The tax fate of the withdrawn sum is settled in the country of new residence: the new jurisdiction may treat it as a distribution from a foreign pension plan with its own regime. That question is worth answering before the application is filed.

Where CPF breaks the calculation — four typical mistakes.

• Taking PR without recomputing net pay. For an employee aged 55 and below earning more than S$750 a month, the default employee rate reaches 20% from the third PR year, within CPF wage ceilings. OA, SA and MediSave exist before 55 and have approved uses; age 55 introduces the Retirement Account and retirement withdrawal rules.
• Budgeting headcount off the salary line. For a local employee up to 17% is added on top, and a change in the employee's status raises the cost without any change to the offer.
• Planning to close CPF and take the entire balance on departure while keeping PR. Departure alone does not permit full account closure; the person must no longer be a citizen or PR. Ordinary permitted uses and age-based withdrawals remain separate and do not require renouncing PR.
• Forgetting the Additional Wage ceiling. The annual formula limits the portion of a bonus subject to CPF; it does not reduce the bonus itself. A calculation using only the monthly ceiling misses this separate limit.

CPF contributions depend on eligible employment and citizenship or PR status. Work pass holders do not contribute; eligible foreigners can use voluntary SRS with a S$35,700 annual cap, subject to its own tax-relief rules. At full rates, combined employee and employer CPF can reach 37% of wages subject to the OW and AW ceilings; first- and second-year PRs normally use graduated rates. Interest can reach 6% only on limited qualifying balances from age 55. CPF LIFE can provide lifelong payouts starting between 65 and 70. Full closure after loss of citizenship and PR is separate from ordinary permitted uses and retirement withdrawals. Where CPF sits in the wider picture of a move to Singapore is set out in the jurisdiction overview.