Transfer of employees and their MPF accrued benefits upon change of business ownership or transferred between associated companies
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General rules
An employee may be transferred between companies (employers) due to a change in business ownership, or transferred between associated companies (the 'Transfer between companies'). In these circumstances, employment with the existing employer can be recognised by the new employer as continuous service in determining severance or long-service payments under the Employment Ordinance.
Required documents for the transfer of accrued MPF benefits due to the transfer between associated companies
To arrange for the transfer of accrued MPF benefits for employees due to the transfer between companies, employers must complete and submit the 'Employer's Request for Fund Transfer Form (INPE)', 'Member Transfer Form (INET)' and other relevant MPF forms subject to the type of transfer. Refer to below table for the details of forms required:
| Type |
Member Transfer Form (INET) |
Employer's Request for Fund Transfer From(INPE) | Employee Application Form |
Remittance Statement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Type 1 Member transfers within HSBC MPF scheme |
|
Employee should complete the sections of Contact details, Tax Residency Self-Certification and Investment Option on the Member Transfer Form (INET) or the Employee Application Form |
|
|
Type 2 Transfer from another service provider's MPF scheme to HSBC MPF scheme |
|
|
|
N/A |
Type 3 Transfer from HSBC MPF scheme to another service provider's MPF scheme |
|
|
N/A |
|
| Remarks |
The Member Transfer Form must be completed and signed by employee, the authorised persons of existing and new employers. |
The Employer's Request for Fund Transfer Form must be completed and signed by the authorised person of the new employers. |
The Employee Application Form must be completed and signed by employee and the authorised persons of new employers. |
The Remittance Statement must be completed and signed by the authorised persons of existing and new employers. |
Points to note for the transfer of accrued MPF benefits due to the transfer between companies
'Existing Employer', 'New Employer' and employees concerned are all required to complete and sign the above documents, in order to complete the transfer of accrued MPF benefits due to the transfer between companies. Employers and employees concerned should pay attention to the following:
'Existing Employer'
'Existing Employer' is required to report to HSBC MPF regarding the termination details and pay the last contributions for the employee concerned. You may report the contributions and termination details for the employee concerned via paper or electronic remittance statement. You need to fill in 'GO' under the column of termination code as a representation of the Transfer between companies for the employee concerned.
In general, the deadline for 'Existing Employer' to report the termination details and pay the last contributions for the employee concerned is on or before the 10th day of the calendar month following the employee's last day of previous employment (ie Contribution day). If the contribution day falls on a Saturday, public holiday, or gale or black rainstorm signal day, the contribution day will be postponed to the following working day which is not a Saturday, public holiday, or gale or black rainstorm signal day.
Failure to pay the contributions in full and on time incurs a 5% surcharge on the outstanding mandatory contributions.
'New Employer'
'New Employer' should submit the 'Member Transfer Form' and 'Employer's Request for Fund Transfer Form' to the transferee trustee (ie the trustee of the New Employer's scheme) arranging the transfer within the permitted period, enrol the employee concerned in the new MPF scheme and make contributions.
'New Employer' is required to make the MPF contributions for the employee concerned on time. In general, the '30 days contribution holiday' is not applicable to the employees for the Transfer between companies. That means both the contributions for 'New Employer' and employee will be calculated immediately starting from the effective date of the transfer.
If the employees concerned submit the 'Employee Application Form' in order to enrol into the new MPF scheme, 'New Employer' is required to choose 'Member transfer' and provide the 'First date joined employer group' under item 7 of Part II - Employer Section on the Employee Application Form. The years of service for the calculation of the member's vesting entitlement on the voluntary contributions (if any) will be counted from this date. Please refer to the 'Ways to enrol an employee' section for other points to note on enrolment for employees.
'New Employer' needs to provide a list of employee names together with their HKID/Passport numbers, and the effective date of transfer when filling in the 'Employer's Request For Fund Transfer Form'. In completing the 'Member Transfer Form', the 'Date joined existing employer group' must be filled in order to transfer the years of service from 'Existing Employer' to 'New Employer'.
'Existing Employer', 'New Employer' and employee concerned should read the completed MPF forms carefully, sign and stamp the company chop (applicable to employers) on the form to confirm the correctness of the information.