1、When ‘Permitted period’ or ‘ First-time contribution day’ is a public holiday, how to
handle?
(1) Permitted period
The ‘Permitted period’ for non-casual employees under MPF refers to the time period
within which an employer is required to enrol a new employee into an MPF scheme.
The permitted period is 60 days from the day on which employment commences.
However ,if the last day of a ‘permitted period’(ie the 60th day) is a Saturday ,a public
holiday, a gale warning day or a black rainstorm warning day, then the deadline for
enrolment shall be postponed to the next following day which is not a Saturday, a
public holiday, a gale warning day or a black rainstorm warning day.
(2) First-time contribution day
The ‘First-time contribution day’ for non-casual employees under MPF refers to the
10th day after the last day of the calendar month on which the 60-day permitted
period ends. Employers must make the first contributions for the relevant employee
on or before that day. However, if the contribution day is a Saturday, a public holiday,
a gale warning day or a black rainstorm warning day, then it shall be postponed to
the next following day which is not a Saturday ,a public holiday, a gale warning day
or a black rainstorm warning day.
2、The ‘Permitted period’ and ‘First-time contribution day’ are both related to the 60th day of
an employee’s employment. If the 60th day of an employee’s employment falls on a
Saturday , a public holiday, a gale warning day or a black rainstorm warning day, the
deadline for enrolment can be postponed as explained above, how about the ‘First-time
contribution day’?
Let’s refer to the following example. Assume an employee’s 60th day of the employment
is 31 January 2014. That day is a public holiday, so the deadline for enrolment into an
MPF scheme will be postponed to 4 February 2014 which is not a public holiday ( as 31
January 2014 to 3 February 2014 are public holidays in Hong Kong). In this case, the
correct ‘First –time contribution day’ should be the 10th day after January 2014, ie 10
February 2014, or the 10th day after February 2014,ie 10 March 2014?
The correct answer is 10 February 2014. Although the deadline for enrolment is
postponed to 4 February 2014 due to a public holiday, the deadline for first –time
contribution should still be counted based on the 60th day of the employment of the
employee. That means employer must make the first-time contribution on or before
the 10th day (ie 10 February 2014) of the month following 31 January 2014.
In addition, an employee terminates his/her employment on the 60th day of employment,
ie the cessation date of employment is the 60th day, employers are required to enrol this
employee into an MPF scheme and make the contributions. As explained above, if the
last day of a ‘Permitted period’ is a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale warning day or a
black rainstorm warning day, then the deadline for enrolment shall be postponed to the
next following day which is not a Saturday, a public holiday, a gale warning day or a black
rainstorm warning day.
The consequences of either failing to enrol an employee on time, or failing to pay
contributions in full on time, can be severe.Failure to enrol employees in an MPF scheme
is liable to a financial penalty and even imprisonment, while failure to pay mandatory
contributions in full on time to a MPF service provider incurs a 5% surcharge on the
outstanding mandatory contributions, along with the possibility of a financial penalty and
even imprisonment. You may refer to the ‘Offences and penalties’ at Mandatory Provident
Fund Schemes Authority (‘MPFA’) website at www.mpfa.org.hk.