What is MPF, and who has to enrol?

The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) is Hong Kong's compulsory retirement savings scheme. With very limited exceptions, every employer in Hong Kong must enrol eligible employees in an MPF scheme — it doesn't matter whether the company is a one-person startup or a 200-person operation, and it doesn't matter whether the director is a Hong Kong resident or not.

An employee is generally eligible once they've been employed for 60 days continuously — full-time or part-time — and are aged 18 to 64. Casual employees in a handful of specified industries (construction, catering) have a different same-day enrolment rule, but for a typical office, retail, or professional-services hire, the 60-day continuous-employment threshold is the one that matters.

⚠️ The window that trips up new companies

Employers must enrol a new employee in an MPF scheme within the first 60 days of employment. Many first-time employers assume MPF only becomes relevant once someone has "passed probation" — it doesn't. The 60-day rule runs from day one of employment, and missing it is a common — and entirely avoidable — first compliance mistake for a new HK company.

The 60-day enrolment window, step by step

For a brand-new company hiring its first employee, the practical sequence looks like this:

1

Choose an MPF scheme (or transition to eMPF)

Pick a registered MPF trustee/scheme, or use the government's eMPF Platform (see below), which is becoming the default enrolment channel as trustees migrate their schemes across.

2

Enrol the employee within 60 days

Submit the enrolment form for each eligible employee within 60 days of their first day of employment. This is a hard deadline, not a target.

3

Calculate relevant income and contributions

Work out each employee's "relevant income" for the contribution period (see the income-level rules below) and calculate the 5% employer and 5% employee contributions.

4

Deduct, remit, and keep records

Deduct the employee's share from their pay, add the employer's share, and remit both to the trustee by the deadline — the 10th day of the following month for the first contribution, and monthly thereafter.

Mandatory contributions: the 5% + 5% rule

Both employer and employee are each required to contribute 5% of the employee's relevant income per contribution period, subject to the income thresholds below. The employer pays its own 5% on top of salary; the employee's 5% is deducted from their pay — the employer does not absorb the employee's share.

Monthly relevant income Employer contribution Employee contribution
Below HK$7,100 5% of relevant income Not required (voluntary only)
HK$7,100 – HK$30,000 5% of relevant income 5% of relevant income
Above HK$30,000 5% of HK$30,000 (capped at HK$1,500) 5% of HK$30,000 (capped at HK$1,500)
💡 Reading the income bands correctly

The HK$7,100 minimum relevant income level means employees earning below this amount are not required to make the employee contribution — but the employer must still contribute its 5% share. The HK$30,000 maximum relevant income level caps how much of an employee's income is subject to mandatory contributions: once monthly income exceeds HK$30,000, both employer and employee contributions are capped at HK$1,500 each (5% of HK$30,000), even if the employee earns significantly more.

💰
Below HK$7,100/month
Employer contributes 5% of relevant income. Employee contribution is not mandatory (though the employee may still elect to contribute voluntarily).
⚖️
HK$7,100 – HK$30,000/month
Standard case: both employer and employee each contribute 5% of the employee's actual relevant income for the period.
🧢
Above HK$30,000/month
Contributions are capped at HK$1,500 each (employer and employee), calculated as 5% of the HK$30,000 ceiling — not 5% of actual salary.

What counts as "relevant income"

Relevant income generally includes wages, salary, leave pay, commission, and bonuses — essentially all monetary payments an employer pays or is liable to pay an employee, before deducting the employee's own MPF contribution. It excludes items such as severance payments, long service payments, and certain non-cash benefits. When calculating contributions for a contribution period, employers should base the figure on the employee's actual relevant income for that specific period, not an annualised average — this matters for employees with variable pay such as commission-based sales roles.

Remittance: the 10th-of-the-month rule

Contributions are due to the trustee by the 10th day of the calendar month following the contribution period they relate to. For a company paying salaries monthly, this typically means: calculate contributions for the month, deduct the employee's share from that month's pay, and remit both employer and employee contributions to the trustee no later than the 10th of the following month.

⚠️ Late contributions are not a minor administrative slip

Late remittance triggers a surcharge and can result in a report to the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA), which has statutory powers to pursue outstanding contributions and penalties. For a new company still building its finance operating rhythm, the safest approach is to set the MPF remittance date as a fixed recurring calendar item — not something calculated fresh each month.

eMPF: the platform transition employers should know about

The eMPF Platform is a government-led initiative to consolidate the administration of MPF schemes — enrolment, contributions, and record-keeping — onto a single electronic platform, replacing the previously fragmented trustee-by-trustee paper and portal processes. Trustees are migrating their schemes onto eMPF in phases rather than all at once.

For a new company enrolling employees for the first time, the practical implication is: check whether your chosen trustee's scheme has already migrated to eMPF, since the enrolment and submission process differs depending on migration status. Over time, eMPF is intended to become the standard channel for employers to manage enrolment, contribution submissions, and record updates online, reducing the paperwork burden that has historically made MPF administration a headache for small employers.

Employer duties checklist

Beyond enrolment and remittance, employers carry a set of ongoing statutory duties under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance:

✅ The habit that actually prevents problems

Companies that stay clean on MPF almost always do one thing: they treat enrolment and remittance as calendar-triggered, not memory-triggered. A new hire's 60-day enrolment deadline and the monthly 10th-of-the-month remittance date go straight into a compliance calendar the moment they're known — not into a mental to-do list that competes with the rest of running a young company.

CompanyForge's compliance support

MPF is one of several recurring statutory obligations that catch new Hong Kong companies off guard alongside the Annual Return (NAR1), Business Registration renewal, and profits tax filing — each with its own deadline logic. Getting the first enrolment and remittance cycle right matters, because the MPFA does not treat "we didn't know" as a defence.

📋

ForgeOps Compliance — deadlines tracked, filings handled

CompanyForge's ForgeOps package tracks the statutory calendar for your Hong Kong company — MPF enrolment windows, remittance dates, NAR1, BR renewal, and tax filing deadlines — and coordinates with licensed partners to keep filings on time, so a young company's first year isn't spent relearning compliance deadlines the hard way.

HK$3,800 + / year, bundled

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to enrol myself as a director in MPF?＋
If you are both a director and an employee of the company (i.e., you draw a salary), you generally need to be enrolled the same as any other employee. Directors who are not employees and do not draw a salary from the company may fall outside mandatory enrolment — but this depends on your specific arrangement, so it's worth confirming with your trustee or a compliance advisor rather than assuming either way.
What if my company has zero employees for the first few months?＋
If there are no employees, there is no MPF enrolment obligation yet — the duty is triggered by employment, not by incorporation. The moment you make your first hire (including yourself, if you become a salaried employee-director), the 60-day clock starts for that person.
Are part-time and contract staff included?＋
Part-time employees who meet the general eligibility criteria (aged 18–64, employed continuously for 60 days) are covered the same as full-time staff. Genuine independent contractors engaged under a contract for services rather than a contract of employment are generally not covered by MPF — but misclassifying an employee as a "contractor" to avoid MPF is a compliance risk, not a shortcut.
What happens if I miss the 60-day enrolment deadline?＋
Failure to enrol an eligible employee within the required period is an offence under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance and can result in penalties. The fix is straightforward and urgent: enrol the employee immediately, calculate and remit any outstanding contributions for the missed period, and keep clear records showing the correction — the sooner an oversight is corrected, the better the outcome if the MPFA ever asks.
Can I choose any MPF trustee, or does the government assign one?＋
Employers choose their own MPF trustee/scheme from the registered providers in the market — there is no government-assigned default. Once you've registered as a participating employer with a trustee (or via eMPF), the same scheme is generally used to enrol subsequent employees, though employees have some rights around fund choice within the scheme.
Does eMPF change how much I need to contribute?＋
No. eMPF is an administrative platform change — it consolidates how enrolment, contributions, and records are submitted and managed. The underlying contribution rates, the HK$7,100 and HK$30,000 relevant-income levels, and the HK$1,500 cap are unchanged by the platform migration.