How do I run payroll for a small business in Myanmar?

What this looks like in practice

A Myanmar small-business payroll cycle is monthly by default — there is no statutory weekly or fortnightly rule for office staff under the Payment of Wages Law. The cycle covers: collect attendance and OT, calculate gross, apply PIT (Union Tax Law 2025-2026), apply SSB (Social Security Law 2012), pay net by the 7th, issue payslips, and remit statutory amounts by the 15th of the following month.

Step-by-step setup

1. Lock the cut-off date — typically the last day of the calendar month for office staff, the 25th for some factories.
2. Collect attendance, OT and leave from the attendance register and leave register.
3. Calculate gross wage — base salary + allowances + OT (per Factories Act / S&E Act multipliers) − unpaid leave.
4. Apply PIT with the 20% basic relief and the resident bracket table; withhold monthly.
5. Apply SSB — 2% employee, 3% employer on wages capped at MMK 300,000 — max MMK 6,000 + MMK 9,000.
6. Pay net wages by the 7th via bank transfer or cash, and issue payslips.
7. Remit PIT to IRD by the 15th; file the SSB monthly return at the township SSB office by the 15th.

Tools, templates and costs

• Cloud HRMS (PIT + SSB + payslips automated): MMK 50,000–500,000/month depending on size.
• Excel: free, but error-prone past 10 employees and unreadable to IRD format generators.
• Payroll bureau outsource: MMK 30,000–60,000 per employee per month.
• Templates: payslip, IRD PIT return, SSB monthly return, OT authorisation, leave application.

Region notes

Yangon and Mandalay both run the same statutory cycle, but salary norms differ — a 5-person Yangon admin team typically costs MMK 3M/month gross; the same team in Mandalay costs roughly MMK 2M. Naypyidaw and Thilawa SEZ employers may have additional reporting overhead under the Special Economic Zone Law for SEZ-registered entities.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Excel past 10 employees — bracket and SSB-cap mistakes accumulate; IRD-format generation breaks.
• Late wage payment — Payment of Wages Law violation; employee can complain at the township labour office.
• No payslip — fineable, even if net pay is correct.
• Stacking the 20% basic relief monthly — apply once on annual gross, divide by 12.
• Missing the 15th remittance — late PIT and SSB both attract penalty interest.

Related: cheapest way to run payroll, migrate from manual to digital payroll, and outsource payroll in Myanmar.