Annual employment compliance calendar for Peru

For a CFO or regional HR lead overseeing a Peruvian subsidiary from abroad, the difficulty is rarely understanding any single obligation. It is keeping track of when each one falls due, alongside a monthly payroll cycle and a stream of event-driven deadlines. Peru has a handful of fixed dates that every employer shares, several annual obligations that the law requires without pinning them to a specific month, and a set of deadlines triggered by hiring, contracting and termination.

This calendar is built for that reader. It lists only fixed dates that are well established in Peruvian law, and it clearly separates them from the internal control windows we recommend for obligations that have no single statutory date. Where a date depends on another authority’s schedule, we say so. The calendar is part of our wider guide to employment risk in Peru, because missed deadlines are one of the most common, and most avoidable, sources of liability.

The calendar at a glance

The middle column contains statutory deadlines. The right-hand column contains recommended internal controls, which are good practice rather than legal deadlines.

Profit sharing is deliberately not placed in a fixed month: it falls within 30 calendar days after the annual income tax return deadline, which SUNAT, Peru’s tax authority, sets each year.

What each fixed obligation involves

CTS deposits (May and November)

CTS (compensación por tiempo de servicios) is a severance fund: rather than paying severance at the end of employment, the employer deposits it twice a year into a bank account chosen by the employee. Deposits are due within the first 15 calendar days of May and of November, covering the November–April and May–October periods; if the last day is not a business day, the deadline moves to the next business day. Each deposit equals one-twelfth of computable pay per full month worked in the period, with days counted in thirtieths, and computable pay includes one-sixth of the gratificación received in that half-year. Within five business days of the deposit, the employer must give each employee a statement of the deposit.

CTS applies to employees who work, on average, at least four hours a day. Law 32322 temporarily allows employees to withdraw 100% of their CTS balances until December 31, 2026; from January 1, 2027 the general restrictions return. The employer’s duty to deposit is not affected. Our article on CTS in Peru explains the calculation.

Gratificaciones (July and December)

Gratificaciones are two statutory bonuses, each equal to one month’s pay for a full half-year worked (January–June for July, July–December for December), payable in the first half of July and of December. Employees who worked only part of the half-year receive one-sixth per full calendar month worked. Employees who leave before the payment date are entitled to a proportional amount if they worked at least one full month in the half-year.

Gratificaciones are exempt from EsSalud (the public health insurance system funded by an employer contribution) and pension contributions. Instead, the employer pays the employee an extraordinary bonus equal to the EsSalud contribution it would have made: 9%, or 6.75% if the employee is covered by a private health provider. The gratificación itself remains subject to employee income tax withholding. See Peru’s July and December bonuses.

Profit sharing (month set by the tax calendar)

Companies that generate business income and have more than 20 employees must share a percentage of their annual pre-tax income with employees: 10% for fishing, telecommunications and industrial companies, 8% for mining, wholesale and retail trade and restaurants, and 5% for other activities. Half is distributed by days worked and half by pay, with an individual cap of 18 monthly salaries. Payment is due within 30 calendar days after the deadline for filing the annual income tax return.

Obligations that run every month

Beneath the fixed dates sits the monthly payroll cycle:

• Payslips. Delivered no later than the third business day after payment; electronic delivery with a digital or electronic signature is allowed.
• Electronic payroll. Peru’s planilla electrónica has two parts: the T-Registro worker register and the monthly PLAME filing submitted through SUNAT. The filing deadlines follow SUNAT’s monthly schedule, which should be loaded into the calendar at the start of each year.
• Contributions and withholdings. The employer contributes 9% of pay to EsSalud and withholds the employee’s pension contribution, either to the public system or to a private pension fund.

Where payroll is run by a provider such as Lynch Payroll, the calendar should still sit with the company: the provider executes, but the employer remains responsible for each deadline.

Event-driven deadlines

Some deadlines are triggered by events rather than by the calendar. They are easy to miss because they do not recur on a fixed date.

• New hires. Registration in T-Registro no later than the first day of work; life insurance under the Seguro Vida Ley from the first day of employment.
• Fixed-term and part-time contracts. Filing with the labor authority within 15 calendar days of signing.
• Foreign employees. Contracts in writing, for a fixed term, submitted to the labor authority before work begins, with an appropriate immigration status.
• Terminations. The certificate of termination that allows the employee to withdraw CTS is due within 48 hours of termination; the final settlement of accrued benefits should be prepared in parallel.
• Accidents. Fatal accidents and dangerous incidents must be reported to the Ministry of Labor within 24 hours.

Annual obligations without a single fixed date

Several obligations must be met every year, but the law does not fix a month. Assigning them to specific months is what turns them into controls.

• Health and safety. At least four training sessions a year; a risk assessment reviewed at least annually or when conditions change; periodic occupational medical examinations, generally every two years; and, for employers with 20 or more workers, an active joint safety committee. Our article on occupational health and safety obligations covers the detail.
• Sexual harassment prevention. An annual assessment of harassment risks, training at the start of employment, annual specialized training for those who handle complaints (not required for registered micro and small enterprises), and, for workplaces with 20 or more workers, an intervention committee.
• Annual leave. Each employee is entitled to 30 calendar days per year of service. Leave not taken within the year after it accrues triggers an additional indemnity of one month’s pay, so balances should be monitored employee by employee, not only at year end.
• Collective bargaining. Where a collective agreement exists, the union’s list of demands is typically presented between 60 and 30 days before the current agreement expires; this date is specific to each company.

Values that change during the year

Two reference values affect the calendar. The UIT, the tax reference unit used to calculate fines and thresholds, is set each year by supreme decree (S/ 5,500 in 2026). The minimum wage is S/ 1,130; an increase has been announced but still requires a supreme decree, so the calendar should include a checkpoint to update pay floors and derived amounts, such as the family allowance, as soon as it is published.

Putting the calendar to work

A calendar is only as good as its ownership. Assign each line to a person, attach evidence of completion, and review it monthly as part of a broader employment compliance program. For subsidiaries without in-house employment counsel, an outsourced employment counsel arrangement can maintain the calendar, flag regulatory changes and confirm each deadline before it falls due.