CPF Board to meet Knight Frank over complaint

Contributions on commission-based income queried

(SINGAPORE) The CPF Board is meeting property firm Knight Frank following a complaint from one of its employees about the wrongful deduction of CPF contributions, the agency said yesterday.

BT understands that, in particular, the Board is looking at the payment of CPF contributions for commissions.

'Arising from a complaint by an employee of Knight Frank on wrongful deduction of CPF contributions, the Board will be meeting up with the employer Knight Frank this week to resolve the issue,' the CPF Board said yesterday in response to a query from BT.

Knight Frank managing director Danny Yeo said that the CPF Board contacted the firm recently to ask general questions about how the company pays CPF contributions with regards to commission-based income.

Knight Frank, he said, pays employer CPF contributions on both basic salaries and sales commissions for all of its employees. But associates and brokers who are not technically employees (who don't receive a basic salary from Knight Frank) do not get CPF contributions from the company.

'In the event that we have classified something wrongly, then we will rectify it,' said Mr Yeo. 'But they can't say that we don't pay CPF contributions when we should, because we do.'

The meet-up this week is in order to allow the CPF Board to gather information and is a 'fact finding' meet-up, he said. 'We want to find out exactly what is their (the CPF Board's) concern.'

Industry players told BT that it was market practice for property firms here to pay employer CPF contributions on basic salaries and commissions-based income for their employees.

However, associates (such as some property agents and brokers) are not technically considered employees. Property firms here therefore do not pay employer CPF contributions for them.

Source: Business Times, 7 Oct 2009