SDL payment
The Skills Development Levy is a monthly levy paid on every employee, including foreign employees who do not receive CPF contributions.
The Skills Development Levy is a monthly levy paid on every employee, including foreign employees who do not receive CPF contributions. It funds the SkillsFuture national training system and is collected together with your CPF submission, not as a separate filing.
SDL is compulsory even where no CPF is payable for a given employee, so it is easy to assume it does not apply to your Work Permit or S Pass staff. Non-payment accrues alongside any CPF arrears and can trigger the same recovery action from CPF Board.
Who this is for
Every employer with at least one employee, local or foreign.
What you’ll hold
- Monthly SDL contribution records
Watch out for
- Assuming SDL only applies to staff who also receive CPF — it applies to every employee, including Work Permit and S Pass holders.
- Treating SDL as a rounding error to skip because the per-employee amount is small — arrears still accrue interest.
- Forgetting to include part-time or casual staff, who are still liable for SDL even at a few hours a week.
Sources
- CPF Board — Skills Development Levy checked 2026-09-08
See also
This is item 26 of 32 in the free Singapore Compliance Calendar. See the whole list →