Contributions of the Obligatory System

• Under the General Regime of Labour Relations, any Macao SAR resident who works under the authority and direction of an employer on employment contract and in return for remuneration, also includes any Macao SAR resident employed to work for a foreign branch or agency of an enterprise registered in the Macao SAR;
• Public administration staff in any form of appointment, but does not include in-service public administration staff already enrolled in the Retirement and Survivor’s Pensions Scheme.

• To fulfill the obligation to make contribution, all employers, who establish labour relations with others, must complete the employer registration with the Social Security Fund (abbreviated to FSS in Macao) in the contribution month that immediately follows the commencement of such relations. Violators are liable to a fine of 200 to 1,000 patacas for each employee affected by their infractions;
• Registration is required only once and the employer will be assigned a permanent registration number.

• Any employer, who establishes labour relations with an employee for the first time, must enroll the relevant employee and pay contributions for him/her in the contribution month that immediately follows the commencement of such relations. Violators are liable to a fine of 200 to 1,000 patacas for each employee affected by their infractions.
• Enrollment is required only once and the enrolled person will be endowed with the identity of a beneficiary and will also be assigned a lifetime FSS beneficiary number.

As stipulated in the Executive Order, with effect from 1 January 2017, the contribution amounts are as follows:

• Long-term employee:
  90 patacas per month (employer’s contributions: 60 patacas, employee’s contributions: 30 patacas);
• Contributions of fixed-term labour contract (Casual worker):
  90 patacas per month for each casual worker who works 15 days or more in the month (employer’s contributions: 60 patacas, employee’s contributions: 30 patacas);
  45 patacas per month for each casual worker who works less than 15 days in the month (employer’s contributions: 30 patacas, employee’s contributions: 15 patacas).
• In accordance with the provisions of Law 4/2010, the employer can deduct the employee’s portion of contributions from his/her wages.

• Long-Term Employee:
  The contributions of the preceding calendar quarter are payable quarterly in January, April, July and October.
• Contributions of fixed-term labour contract (Casual worker):
  The contributions are paid in the month that immediately follows the working month of the employee. For instance, if an employee works in January, his/her contributions should be paid in February.

• Contributions of Long-Term Employee:
  With the dedicated contribution payment advice, contributions can be paid through the following channels and the payment must be made in patacas:
  1. Electronic channels and counters of designated banks (payment methods);
  2. Designated Public Services Centres and Stations under the Municipal Affairs Bureau, with the unmodified dedicated contribution payment advice, pay through the specified method (payment methods);
  3. All service points of Social Security Fund (payment methods).
• Contributions of Fixed-term Labour Contract (Casual Worker):
  With the dedicated contribution payment advice, contributions can be paid through the specified method of each service point of the Social Security Fund, and the payment must be made in patacas (payment methods).

• Introduction to Electronic Filing Service
  
  Social Security Fund has launched the Electronic Filing Service since November 2016. Employers who have completed employer registration may apply for the service. After the employer obtains the approval for using the service, he/she can log in to the Electronic Filing System using "Macao One Account", report the employment information of his/her local employees who belong to the obligatory system, enroll his/her employees as beneficiaries of the FSS, download the Contribution Payment Advice, view the employment information of employees and the related payment records, apply for designated services and transmit the information and documents to the Social Security Fund in electronic transmission mode. For details, please refer to the contents of the Electronic Filing Service webpage.

Employers are required to pay a late payment interest if the contributions are paid within 60 days after the statutory payment period. The late payment interest is calculated based on a monthly interest rate of 3% of the unpaid contributions, where a fraction of a month shall be counted as a full month, and the minimum late payment interest is 50 patacas. If the contributions remain unpaid after 60 days from the statutory payment period, a fine that is calculated quarterly and not exceeding half of the amount of unpaid contributions will be charged on top of the late payment interest, but the minimum fine is 500 patacas.

• Any employer, who attempts to improperly appropriate all or part of the social security system contributions that he/she deducted according to law from the employee’s wages and fails to remit the money to the FSS within 60 days after the expiration of the statutory payment period, may be subject to three years’ imprisonment or a fine;
• If the offender is a legal person, he/she may be subject to a fine of up to 360 days.