Information Centre

FAQ

MPF Employee

Coverage
Enrolment
Contribution
Managing Accounts / Transferring MPF
Withdrawal
Account Information
Offsetting of Long Service Payments / Severance Payments

Coverage

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A regular employee is someone aged 18 to 64 who has been employed for a continuous period of 60 days or more. Unless the employee is an exempt person under the MPF System, the employer is required to enrol the regular employee in an MPF scheme and make contributions.

If you are a Hong Kong resident employed by a Hong Kong company, your employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme regardless of where you are deployed to work.

If you have been employed for a continuous period of 60 days or more, your employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme regardless of the number of days and hours you work.

If you are an executive director involved in the daily operation of the company and receive remuneration (e.g. directors' fees), the company is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme. However, if you are a non-executive director and you are not involved in the daily operation of the company, you are not required to join an MPF scheme.

Yes. No matter how many jobs you have at the same time, as long as you have been employed for a continuous period of 60 days or more in that job, the employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme within 60 days of your employment and make contributions based on your relevant income. Contributions for each job are calculated individually, with the monthly contribution for you and your employer capped at 5% of the monthly maximum relevant income level.

If you are a member of retirement scheme of a place outside Hong Kong, or if your employment visa only allows you to remain in Hong Kong for 13 months or less, you are exempt from joining an MPF scheme. If your employment visa is extended to more than 13 months, you will cease to be exempt from the first day after the end of the 13-month period. Your employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme within 60 days.

Enrolment

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You may suggest the idea to your employer but the final decision on which MPF scheme to join rests with your employer.

Your employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme within 60 days of your employment. Your employer will provide you with an enrolment form of the MPF scheme* the employer is participating in. You are required to provide the following information, sign and return the form to your employer for opening an account for you.

• name;
• HKID number;
• date of birth;
• contact information (address, telephone number and electronic mail address (if available));
• choice of funds, if any; and
• tax residency self-certification (i.e. declaration on whether you are a tax resident outside Hong Kong)

* MPF trustees and their schemes will get onboard the eMPF Platform in sequence one by one. When the scheme has got onboard to the Platform, eMPF Company will utilize the eMPF Platform to perform the administration of the scheme, provide scheme administration services to employer, scheme member and self-employed person and handle the service instructions. From then on, employer, scheme member and self-employed person can manage your MPF on the eMPF Platform and should no longer submit service instructions to MPF trustee; the eMPF Platform will provide the relevant information and/or documents to you directly. Please visit eMPF Website (www.empf.org.hk) for the onboarding timeline of MPF scheme(s) and the relevant information.

According to the requirements under Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI), all new MPF account holders are required to provide a tax residency self-certification (i.e. declaration on whether the account holder is a tax resident outside Hong Kong). Without the self-certification, trustees will not be able to complete the account opening procedures.

For details on AEOI, please visit the websites of the Hong Kong Trustee's Association and the Inland Revenue Department.

When you become a member of an MPF scheme, the trustee* will provide you with a notice of participation. The notice will state the name of the scheme, the name and address of the trustee* of the scheme, your name, and the issue date the notice. In addition, the trustee will also provide a general description of the scheme, including:

fees and charges payable under the scheme;
particulars of the funds under the scheme; and
contact information of the trustee for enquiries.

Contribution

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If the director is involved in the daily operation of the company (e.g. executive directors) and receives remuneration as an employee, the director's fee will be considered relevant income.

A director who is not involved in the daily operation or management of the company is an office holder only, not an employee. His director's fee is his remuneration for holding the office of a director and therefore not relevant income.

Bonuses expressed in monetary terms are considered relevant income. If you received the bonus after terminating employment by the due day, your employer should include the bonus in the relevant income for the contribution period in which the bonus is paid, and calculate contributions based on the maximum and minimum relevant income levels.

Yes. The additional contributions are called "voluntary contributions". Voluntary contributions and their withdrawal conditions are not governed by law but are subject to the governing rules of individual MPF schemes.

In addition, you may open a "tax deductible voluntary contribution (TVC) account" and make contributions directly to the account without going through your employer. These contributions are eligible for tax deduction under salaries tax or tax under personal assessment. Scheme members can withdraw TVC when they reach age 65 or under other specific circumstances under the law.

No. Except for the purpose of offsetting the long service payment or severance payment that has been made to you, your employer cannot withhold your MPF derived from mandatory contributions. However, whether MPF derived from voluntary contributions made by your employer will be forfeited is subject to the governing rules of the scheme.

Managing Accounts / Transferring MPF

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You may choose to :

1. transfer your MPF from the contribution account under the original scheme to the contribution account under the scheme of your new employer; or
2. transfer your MPF from the contribution account under the original scheme to a personal account under any other schemes (including the scheme of your previous employer).

You are required to complete the "Scheme Member’s Request for Fund Transfer Form" (MPF(S)-P(M)) and submit the form to the new trustee* for handling. If you choose to transfer your MPF to your new employer's scheme, you may submit the form to your new employer.

You can also obtain the request form from the relevant trustee*.

If the trustee* has not received any instruction from you within three months after receiving notice of termination of employment from your employer, your MPF will be automatically transferred from the contribution account to a personal account under the same scheme and continue to be invested in the same funds you chose in the original contribution account. You may subsequently change your fund choice according to your needs.

You may consider consolidating your personal accounts for easier management. Before doing so, you should consider whether the trustee, MPF scheme and funds meet your personal needs. In addition, please note that consolidating accounts involves redemption and subscription of fund units.

Regardless of how many personal accounts you have, you only need to complete one "Scheme Member's Request for Account Consolidation Form" (MPF(S)-P(C))

and submit it to the trustee* of your choice.

Holders of Hong Kong Identity Cards can apply to become users of e-Enquiry of Personal Account (ePA) online or via the MPFA ePA mobile app. Users of the ePA can check their personal account records through ePA service. For details, please visit the e-PA thematic website.

You can also make enquires about personal accounts by mail or fax.

For details of the enquiry methods and the downloadable enquiry forms, please visit the Enquires about Personal Accounts webpage.

As the transfer of MPF involves redemption and subscription of fund units, there may be a bid-offer spread. Other than this, trustees are generally not allowed to charge any fees or impose financial penalties on MPF funds transfers.

The trustee of the original scheme* is required to complete the transfer process within 30 days of receiving the new trustee's notification about your MPF transfer, and issue a transfer statement to you. The new trustee* will also send you a written confirmation stating the amount received.

Yes. If contributions made by your former employer are received after your MPF has been transferred, the original trustee* must ensure that the funds are transferred to your MPF account within 30 days.

Withdrawal

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You simply have to present your Hong Kong Identity Card to your MPF trustee* and submit a completed "Claim Form for Payment of MPF Accrued Benefits (Benefits) on Grounds of Attaining the Retirement Age of 65 or Early Retirement" (MPF(S)-W(R)) to apply for MPF withdrawal.

You can withdraw your MPF in a lump sum or by instalments. In general, your trustee* should release your MPF within 30 days upon receipt of the required documents.

You can also obtain the form from your trustee*.

If your Hong Kong Identity Card (HKID) only shows the year but not the month and day of your birth, you may submit one of the following documents to your trustee* as a proof of date of attainment of age 65:

• a copy of your travel document showing the month and day of your birth, e.g. passport, Home Visit Permit, etc.; or
• a statutory declaration of your date of birth; or
• a copy of your HKID with the month and day of the issue date circled (i.e. using the month and day of your HKID issue date as the month and day of birth).

If you do not submit any of the above documents, your trustee* will use the last day of the year (i.e. 31 December) as your date of birth.

Scheme members who are under the age of 65 are not allowed to withdraw their MPF. Early withdrawal is only allowed under the following specific circumstances:

early retirement at age 60 or above;
permanent departure from Hong Kong;
total incapacity;
terminal illness;
a small balance of $5,000 or less; or
death.

For more information, please visit Withdrawal of MPF on our website.

Retired scheme members aged 60 to 64 who wish to withdraw their MPF is required to declare that they have ceased all employment and self-employment with no intention to be employed or self-employed again. If they re-join the workforce and meet the definition of "regular employees " or “casual employees”, their employers are required to enrol them in an MPF scheme.

Yes.

Yes. As long as you are aged 18 to 64, not an exempt person, and have been employed for a continuous period of 60 days or more, your employer is still required to enrol you in an MPF scheme.

Scheme members who have previously withdrawn their MPF early on grounds of permanent departure from Hong Kong will not be paid MPF again for all subsequent applications on the same grounds with a later departure date. Scheme member who make false or misleading statements to the trustee for early withdraw of MPF are liable to a maximum fine of $100,000 and imprisonment of one year on the first conviction, and to a fine of $200,000 and imprisonment of two years on each subsequent conviction.

There is no specific list of diseases cover by “terminal illness”. If the doctor is of the opinion that the scheme member has an illness that is likely to reduce the member’s life expectancy to 12 months or less, he/she may issue a medical certificate to the member to facilitate member’s application for early withdrawal of MPF on grounds of "terminal illness".

No. If scheme members continue working after applying for early withdrawal of their MPF benefits on the grounds of “terminal illness”, MPF contributions for each subsequent wage period will continue to be paid into their contribution account under current employment. If they wish to apply for early withdrawal of these contributions, they must submit another application to their trustee.

No, you are not required to do so.

A scheme member who applies for early withdrawal of MPF benefits on grounds of “total incapacity” should have already ceased employment or self-employment in the particular kind of work that the scheme member was last engaged before becoming totally incapacitated, for which a doctor has issued a medical certificate to the member certifying that the member becomes permanently unfit to perform the particular kind of work is required to be provided.

As for the grounds of “terminal illness”, it refers to the fact that a doctor is of the opinion that the scheme member has an illness that is likely to reduce the member’s life expectancy to 12 months or less, for which the doctor has issued a medical certificate to the member. The member who applies for early withdrawal of MPF benefits on this grounds can still be employed or self-employed.

The MPF of the deceased scheme member is part of the member's estate. Therefore, the claim must be lodged by the personal representative of the deceased scheme member. The personal representative is required to submit the following claim forms and documents to each relevant trustee*:

Claim Form for Payment of MPF Accrued Benefits (Benefits) on Grounds of Permanent Departure from Hong Kong / Total Incapacity / Terminal Illness / Small Balance / Death (MPF(S) – W(O))
an identity document of the personal representative (e.g. HKID); and
a Letter of Administration or Probate.

For information about the application procedure for the Letter of Administration or Probate, please contact the Probate Registry (Tel: 2840 1683).

If you are age 65 or above but have not applied for MPF withdrawal from your trustees*, and you are unreachable despite attempts by the trustee* to locate you through different means, your MPF may be classified as "unclaimed benefits". MPFA maintains an Unclaimed Benefits Register for members of the public to check for free (for unclaimed benefits information related to scheme gets onboard to the eMPF Platform, you may also check with the Platform directly).

For enquiries and the downloadable enquiry forms, please visit Enquires about Unclaimed Benefits on our website.

Account Information

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Your trustee* is required to provide you with an annual benefit statement within three months after the end of each of the financial year of the MPF scheme . The statement sets out:

• the total amount of contributions the employer paid for you during the year;
• the opening and closing balances of the MPF account for the year; and
• the gains and losses associated with your MPF during the year.

Trustees* also provide other communication channels (e.g. website and hotline) to help members check their account information.

Trustees Contact Information

eMPF Contact Information

In addition to an annual benefit statement, you will also receive fund fact sheets, which must be issued at least twice per financial year, summarizing key information including the particulars and performance of the relevant funds.

Offsetting of Long Service Payments (LSP) / Severance Payments (SP)

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The offsetting of MPF is the arrangement of offsetting LSP/SP with MPF contributions. Employers can offset the LSP/SP payable to their employees under the Employment Ordinance against the employer’s mandatory and voluntary contributions.

It is the MPF derived from the employer’s contributions (i.e. the amount accumulated after investment).

No. Employers can only withdraw the MPF derived from the employer’s contributions. In addition, the amount withdrawn cannot exceed the amount of SP.

The above arrangement also applies to the offsetting of LSP.

If the MPF derived from the employer’s contributions are more than the amount of LSP/SP, the remaining balance must be retained in the employee’s account.

Yes. MPF derived from employers' contributions, including both mandatory and voluntary contributions, can be used to offset LSP/SP.

No. The maximum amount that the employer can be withdrawn from the employee’s MPF account is the amount of LSP required to be paid under the Employment Ordinance. The amount paid in excess cannot be offset by MPF.

Both ways are in compliance with the legal requirements. If the employer has paid the LSP/SP to the employee in full, and then applies to the trustee* for offset, the trustee may request the employer to provide proof of payment of the LSP/SP paid to the employee.

If the employer has not fully paid the LSP/SP to the employee, the employee may submit a written request to the trustee* for the withdrawal of the MPF derived from the employer’s contributions in the MPF account. The trustee* may request the employee to provide documents to prove that he is entitled to LSP/SP, and that the employer has not paid him. For the relevant offsetting procedures and supporting documents required, please check with the relevant trustee*.

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