A. Update

Starting from 14 August 2022, the Employer’s Return e-Filing Services are enhanced to increase the limit of the number of records to be prepared and the uploading capacity. After the enhancements, the IR56 Forms Preparation Tool is allowed to prepare up to 2,000 sets of IR56B/F forms while the uploading capacity to transmit data file is expanded to 5,000 sets of IR56B/F records for each upload under both the Online Mode and Mixed Mode submission. In addition, employer adopting Mixed Mode submission, after uploading of data file(s), is only required to sign and submit the 1-page (i.e. Cover Page) Control List generated from the enhanced system to replace the prior requirement to sign on each and every page of the Control List.

For Control List generated prior to the enhanced services, employer is still required to sign on each page of the Control List and submit the entire set of the Control List to complete the submission process.

B. Statutory Compliance Release Date: August 14, 2022

C. Effective Date: August 14, 2022

A. Update

Hong Kong Legislative Council has passed the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offsetting Arrangement Amendment Bill 2022 to abolish Hong Kong severance and long service payment offsetting arrangements from 2025. The amount of severance payment and/or long service payment that an employee can receive is capped at HK$390,000.

However, the formulae for calculating Severance Pay and Long Service Pay for the pre-transition portion and the post-transition portion will be amended as follows:

• For the pre-transition portion: 2/3 x [the lesser amount of HK$22,500 or last full month’s wages preceding Transition Date] x years of service preceding Transition Date
• For the post-transition portion: 2/3 x [the lesser amount of HK$22,500 or last full month’s wages preceding the termination of employment] x years of service from Transition Date to the termination of employment

If an employee’s employment commenced before the Transition Date, the employer can continue to use the accrued benefits of the MPF contributions (irrespective of whether the contributions are made before, on or after the Transition Date, and regardless of whether the contributions are mandatory or voluntary) to offset the employee’s Severance Pay/Long Service Pay in respect of the employment before the Transition Date (pre-transition portion of Severance Pay/Long Service Pay).

For employment periods on or after the Transition Date, employers will no longer be permitted to offset Severance Pay and Long Service Pay against employees’ MPF benefits derived from employers’ mandatory MPF contributions. However, employers can still offset Severance Pay and Long Service Pay against employers’ voluntary MPF contributions.

B. Statutory Compliance Release Date: June 15, 2022

C. Effective Date: 2025

A. Update

The Legislative Council passed the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2021. The eMPF Platform will standardize, streamline, and automate the administration processes of MPF schemes and thus increase the operational efficiency of the MPF System, thereby creating further room for fee reduction for the benefit of MPF scheme members. The cost savings arising from standardised, streamlined, and automated administration processes will be “straightly passed on” leading to a corresponding reduction in overall fees and charges of MPF funds, which will continue in the years to come as the eMPF Platform fee further falls in a gradual manner.

With the streamlined MPF scheme administration workflow following the implementation of the eMPF Platform, the regulatory burden on trustees will also be reduced. The project will bring tremendous benefit to various stakeholders of the MPF System including employees, employers, self-employed persons, and the industry.

The MPFA to set up a wholly-owned company, the eMPF Platform Company Limited (the Company), to take forward the eMPF Platform project, the current Bill provides the legal basis for the designation of the eMPF Platform as the common gateway for scheme administration processes in the MPF System; delineates the respective roles, functions, powers and responsibilities of relevant parties; stipulates the “straight pass-on” requirement in respect of cost savings to benefit MPF scheme members directly; and introduces technical amendments to reflect the streamlined MPF scheme administration workflow. It will also lower the out-of-pocket expense cap of the Default Investment Strategy constituent funds from 0.2% to 0.1% of net asset value per annum and enhance the transparency of the MPF funds by requiring further disclosure of estimates on fees and investment return.

The MPFA awarded the contract for the design, build and operation of the eMPF Platform in January 2021 and established the Company in March 2021. The Company and the contractor, with the cooperation of the industry, are pressing ahead at full steam on the development of the eMPF Platform. Subject to the orderly transition by trustees in sequence starting from early 2023 the earliest, the eMPF Platform would come into full operation in early 2025 the earliest.

B. Statutory Compliance Release Date: October 22, 2021

C. Effective Date: Early 2023 / 2025

A. Update

The Employment (Amendment) Bill 2019 has proposed increase of statutory maternity leave from 10 weeks to 14 weeks.

The additional four weeks maternity leave pay is to be calculated at 80% of the employee’s average daily wages, with a capping of HKD 36,822 per employee for the additional four weeks' leave pay. (The current proposal is that statutory maternity leave pay for the additional four weeks will be funded by the Government. The employer will need to pay the employee first on the employee's normal pay day and then seek reimbursement by way of an administrative scheme.)

Shortening the period of pregnancy is the definition of 'miscarriage' from 28 weeks to 24 weeks (which means that a female employee whose child is incapable of survival after being born at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy may be eligible for statutory maternity leave if other conditions are satisfied).

Allowing a certificate of attendance to be accepted as proof in respect of an employee's entitlement for sickness allowance for a day on which the employee attends a medical examination in relation to her pregnancy. The Bill sets out the requirements for a certificate of attendance for a medical examination in relation to a pregnancy and who may issue the certificate.

B. Statutory Compliance Release Date: December 23, 2019

C. Effective Date: July 09, 2020