Taxes and MPF when you leave

Hong Kong salaries tax on departure, early MPF withdrawal, and German tax residence.

Leaving Hong Kong: salaries tax

If you are an employee and leave Hong Kong for more than one month, your employer must file form IR56G with the Inland Revenue Department at least one month before you leave, and must withhold payments to you for up to one month or until the IRD issues a letter of release (IRD leaflet PAM 46). Settle your tax before departure. Every taxable person must inform the IRD at the latest one month before leaving (PAM 46).

MPF: early withdrawal on permanent departure

• You can claim your MPF early if you make a statutory declaration that you have left or will leave Hong Kong to live elsewhere with no intention of returning for work or to resettle as a permanent resident, and give proof that you may live outside Hong Kong, for example your German visa or residence permit (MPFA).
• This ground can be used only once; later applications on the same ground with a later departure date are not paid.
• Claims go through the eMPF Platform. The declaration can be made in Hong Kong before a Commissioner for Oaths, a Notary Public or a Justice of the Peace, or abroad before a notary.
• A false declaration is a criminal offence (MPFA). Keeping your MPF until 65 is also an option.

Tax in Germany

With a residence or habitual abode in Germany you are taxable on worldwide income (§ 8 Fiscal Code). You receive a tax ID by post after you register your address.

Germany and Hong Kong have no general double taxation agreement; negotiations have run since 2014. Only a shipping agreement of 13 January 2003 (in force 2005) exists, and the Germany–China agreement does not apply to Hong Kong (GTAI, 23 February 2026). If you have income in both places, ask a tax adviser.