Information Centre

FAQ

Self Employed Person

Coverage and Enrolment
Making Contributions
Cessation of Self-employment

Coverage and Enrolment

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If your income is derived from production of or trading in goods or services, and you are not an employee, you are most probably a self-employed person. In general, sole proprietors and partners in a partnership business are self-employed persons.

You will have two MPF scheme memberships:

as a self-employed person, you have to enrol yourself in an MPF scheme and make mandatory contributions; and
as an employee, your employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme and make mandatory contributions.

The contributions must be calculated based on individual capacities and cannot be combined.

Yes. Enrolment is mandatory for a self-employed persons aged 18 to 64, regardless of relevant income, unless they are exempt persons. You must enrol yourself in an MPF scheme within 60 days of becoming a self-employed person.

If you have entered into a contract for service but are not an employee of the company, you may be considered a self-employed person. Therefore, you are required to enrol yourself into an MPF scheme make contributions as a self-employed person.

If you have entered into a contract of employment with the company and have been employed as an employee for 60 days, the employer is required to enrol you in an MPF scheme and make contributions for you.

Self-employed persons can choose any registered MPF schemes. The following factors should be considered when choosing a scheme:

types of funds available under the scheme;
fees and charges payable under the scheme; and
quality of customer service offered by the trustee of the scheme.

You can make use of the MPF Fund Platform and the Trustee Service Comparative Platform provided by MPFA to compare the investment objectives, fees, risks and performance of funds under different schemes, and the services offered by trustees.

Trustees* are required to provide you with the following information:

the requirements and information required to apply for scheme membership;
the governing rules of the scheme; and
the details of the scheme, including all the fees and charges payable under the scheme.

* 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 self-certification (ie: 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

Making Contributions

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Relevant Income	Mandatory Contribution Amount
Monthly Average Yearly
Less than $7,100 Less than $85,200	No contributions required
$7,100 - $30,000 $85,200 to $360,000	Relevant income x 5%
More than $30,000 More than $360,000	$1,500 per month or $18,000 per year

Self-employed persons may also make additional voluntary contributions on top of their mandatory contributions.

Your relevant income is the combined income from all your businesses for the period, including profits and losses.

Self-employed persons can determine their relevant income by one of the following ways:

taking the assessable profits stated in their most recent notice of assessment issued by the Inland Revenue Department as their relevant income;
taking the basic allowance as defined under section 28 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance as their relevant income;
making an income declaration to their trustees*; or
taking the maximum relevant income level per year as their relevant income.

Your relevant income for the MPF scheme's financial year should be calculated by making proportional adjustments based on your share of profits of the partnership business for that period.

SEP can opt to make contributions on a monthly or yearly basis. You should notify your trustee* of your choice when you first enrol in an MPF scheme.

If you choose to make contributions on a monthly basis, you should specify the monthly contribution day to your trustee* and make contributions on or before that day each month.

If you choose to make contributions on a yearly basis, you must make contributions to the trustee* on or before the last day of the financial year of the scheme.

If you wish to change your contribution frequency (yearly or monthly), please notify the trustee* at least 30 days before the last day of the financial year of the scheme.

In the above-mentioned event, the contribution day will be extended to the first day after that day that is not a Saturday, a public holiday or a gale / black rainstorm warning day.

You may make a written statement to your trustee* declaring that your business has sustained a net loss and suspend mandatory contributions from the current contribution period until your relevant income is not less than the minimum relevant income level.

Cessation of Self-employment

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You should recalculate your mandatory contribution by pro-rating the amount you have to pay based on the number of days you were self-employed during the contribution period. You are also required to notify your MPF trustee* of your cessation of self-employment status before the next contribution period and make the last contributions.

You may choose to:

transfer your MPF to your contribution account under the MPF scheme of your new employer; or
transfer your MPF to an existing personal account in any schemes (including your original MPF scheme).

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 also submit the form to your new employer. The form can also be obtained from your trustee*.

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