Pension fund

Cambodia is set to implement the pension fund scheme beginning this month (October 2022). Under the scheme, employers and employees are required to contribute 50-50 into the fund. With the implementation, two questions have come up:

1. Is the pension fund contributed by employee allowed to be deducted from salary before calculating Tax on Salary (“TOS”)?
2. Will it be subject to Fringe Benefit Tax (“FBT”) if an employer bears the employees’ portion on their behalf?

We are of the view that the pension fund contribution of employee is allowed to be deducted from salary before calculating TOS. On the second question, if an employer would like to cover its employees’ portion of the pension fund contribution, it should not be subject to FBT because Prakas No. 543 on TOS clearly states that amounts paid to the pension fund that do not exceed 10% of an employee’s monthly salary (without adding fringe benefits) is not subject to 20% FBT.

Our understanding is that the GDT shares these same opinions in respect to the above two questions based on confirmations at various seminars and webinars.