Your payroll platform says it handles Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. It doesn't. Vendors position themselves as 'global' but ship with off-the-shelf tax tables and rigid calculation logic that breaks the moment regional rules interact—or the moment they change mid-year. Employees end up under-contributed to retirement funds, employers face audit exposure, and nobody realizes until the tax office comes asking. The core problem: EPF (Malaysia), CPF (Singapore), and PTKP (Indonesia) have different thresholds, rate structures, and withholding rules. No two are the same. Most payroll platforms handle one region well and approximate the others. Some don't handle them at all. Before your next payroll run, you need to know whether your tool is calculating correctly or whether you need manual adjustment. Here's the playbook. Malaysia EPF: the three-tier trap Malaysia's Employees Provident Fund (EPF) contribution is straightforward until you add the details. Employee contribution: 11% of gross monthly salary (or wages) up to a maximum of RM 15,000. Employer contribution: 12% of the same base. The trap: EPF is calculated on basic salary and allowances, but excludes overtime, bonuses, and certain expense reimbursements. Many platforms default to 'gross salary' and over-contribute. If an employee earns RM 3,000 basic + RM 500 allowance + RM 400 overtime, the EPF base is RM 3,500 (not RM 3,900). That RM 400 overtime should not be included. Additionally, the contribution ceiling is RM 15,000 per month. If an employee earns RM 18,000, you calculate 11% on RM 15,000, not on RM 18,000. Deel, Papaya Global, and most global platforms either over-calculate the base or miss the ceiling entirely. The audit step for Malaysia Pull last month's payroll from your platform. For each employee, recalculate EPF manually: (Basic + Allowances, capped at RM 15,000) × 11%. Compare the platform figure to your manual calculation. If they differ, check whether the platform included bonuses or overtime in the base. If yes, you need a manual adjustment or a switch. Singapore CPF: the age and income two-step Singapore's Central Provident Fund (CPF) is age-dependent and income-capped, which makes it more complex than it looks. For employees aged 35 and under: Employee 7.25%, employer 12.75%, total 20% on the first SGD 6,000 of monthly salary (ceiling SGD 1,200 per person per month). For employees aged 50–55: Employee 8.75%, employer 12.75%, total 21.5%. For employees aged 55+: Employee 5–7.75% (depends on exact age), employer 8.75–11% (again, age-dependent). Additional OA (Ordinary Account) top-up contributions: Up to SGD 7,000 per year for self-employed, different for employees. This is where most tools fail. Voluntary contributions: Employees can make voluntary CPF contributions; if they do, the employer must match up to a limit. Platforms rarely track this. A 32-year-old earning SGD 5,500 should have CPF calculated on SGD 5,500 (under the SGD 6,000 threshold). A 56-year-old earning the same amount has a different employee rate and a different employer contribution. Most global payroll software either uses a fixed rate or requires manual age entry—and then miscalculates the threshold. Furthermore, if an employee reaches the SGD 6,000 ceiling mid-month (e.g., they earn SGD 3,000 per week on a weekly pay run), many platforms do not halt contributions once the ceiling is hit. They continue calculating on each weekly transaction and then over-contribute. The audit step for Singapore List all employees by age band (under 35, 50–55, 55+). For each band, manually calculate the rate percentage and the SGD 6,000 monthly ceiling contribution. If any employee was paid more than once in the month (e.g., weekly or fortnightly), verify that the platform stopped accumulating CPF once the SGD 6,000 limit was hit. If not, you have an over-contribution. Check whether the platform has a field for voluntary contributions. If it does, confirm it's tracking them correctly and matching per policy. If it doesn't, you're missing data. Indonesia PTKP: the deduction and rate maze Indonesia's Personal Income Tax (Pajak Penghasilan, PH) is withheld using the PTKP (Penghasilan Tidak Kena Pajak) framework. PTKP is a non-taxable income threshold that varies by marital and dependent status. Unmarried: IDR 60,000,000 annual non-taxable income. Married: IDR 112,500,000. Married with one dependent: IDR 150,000,000. Married with two dependents: IDR 178,000,000. Married with three dependents: IDR 206,000,000. Once taxable income (gross less PTKP allowance) is determined, the tax rate is progressive: 5% up to IDR 60M, 15% from IDR 60M to IDR 250M, 25% from IDR 250M to IDR 500M, 30% from IDR 500M to IDR 5B, and 35% above IDR 5B. The trap: your platform must first know the employee's marital and dependent status to apply the correct PTKP deduction. Most global payroll tools either don't ask for this information or ask for it but don't apply it correctly to the tax calculation. They