MPF for the self-employed

For general enquiries, please contact us using the online form, or email us at pensioncs@hsbc.com.hk. You can also mail us at this address:

MPF:

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

PO Box 73770 Kowloon Central Post Office

You can also contact us about any further enquiries or feedback in online banking. Simply log on and go to the 'Email message' section, then fill in the online form. We'll get back to you shortly.

It will generally take up to 5 business days after you've submitted your paper form to us. Learn more about our processing time for account enrolment.

You can submit your instructions to rebalance or switch funds online, via the mobile app or the Interactive Voice Response System (IRVS).

If you submit them before 4:00pm on a working day, we'll process them within the same day. Otherwise, we'll process them on the next business day.

See how to submit instructions and their processing time.

As a self-employed person, you can make regular contributions directly on your remittance statement. You can also set up or change your regular additional voluntary contributions by submitting a completed Additional voluntary contributions arrangement (INPS) form (PDF).

Remarks

Additional voluntary contributions are accepted at the discretion of the trustee. The trustee reserves the absolute right not to accept any additional voluntary contributions at any time.

With effect from 1 April 2019 onwards, you may enjoy tax relief for the contributions you make to your tax-deductible voluntary contribution (TVC) account. Since the tax assessment year 2019/2020, the maximum tax relief limit is HKD60,000 per tax year. This limit is shared between your TVCs and premiums paid to selected qualifying annuity products. Any tax deduction claims will be applied to TVCs first, before other qualifying annuity premiums.

You should calculate your mandatory contributions based on your relevant income. Your relevant income is defined as the assessable profits per your most recent Notice of Assessment from the Inland Revenue Department.

You'll need to pay these contributions towards your MPF trustee before the end of each contribution period, either once a month, or once a year.

A self-employed person is a sole proprietor or a partner in a business, or someone who works for themselves and is not employed as an employee.

People who legally do not need to enrol in an MPF scheme include:

• Domestic employees
• Self-employed licensed hawkers
• Persons covered by statutory pension or provident fund schemes, such as civil servants and subsidised or grant school teachers
• Members of occupational retirement schemes that have been granted exemption certificates
• Non-permanent residents from overseas who enter Hong Kong SAR for the purposes of employment for less than 13 months, or who are covered by overseas retirement schemes
• Employees of the European Union Office of the European Commission in Hong Kong SAR

If you are self-employed, you must enrol in an MPF scheme regardless of your relevant income or whether a business registration is required.

Once you've enrolled, you must inform the trustee of the following:

• Your relevant income

  You must notify the administrator before 1 June each year of your relevant income for the next financial year of the scheme (ie 1 July to 30 June). The administrator will send you a letter together with a Self-employed Person Relevant Income Declaration Form IN24 [PDF] in April each year.

  If we don't hear from you, it'll be regarded as acknowledgement that your relevant income has not changed from the last financial year.

• Your chosen payment frequency and contributions

  If you want to modify the frequency or payment basis for the next financial year of the scheme, you must also notify the administrator before 1 June each year. You can make annual or monthly contributions and pay for them by direct debit or by cheque.

• Any change to your circumstances or contact details

  If you start to work for someone else, you can elect to transfer your accrued benefits to an HSBC MPF personal account. You can also transfer your accrued benefits to your new employer's MPF scheme or another scheme of your choice.