The latest from China & Hong Kong

Setting up a digital asset business in Hong Kong in 2026 means navigating a maturing licensing landscape and solving the banking question early. Here is the practical reality of getting established. A market that has grown up Hong Kong has spent the last few years building one of the more comprehensive regulatory environments for digital assets in Asia. There is a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms, a live stablecoin issuer regime with the first licences no

A Hong Kong company is more than a low headline tax rate. Used well, its growing network of double tax treaties can reduce withholding taxes and the overall tax cost of doing business across borders. Beyond the headline rate Most people know Hong Kong for its low profits tax rate, the absence of tax on capital gains and no withholding tax on dividends paid out. Those features are real and valuable. But for a group operating across borders, some of the most useful planning com

Moving your company to Hong Kong and setting up a subsidiary here are two very different decisions. Confusing them is a common and costly mistake. Here is how to tell which one you actually need. Two doors, one building Since Hong Kong opened its inward re-domiciliation regime, boards have a choice they did not have before. They can move an existing foreign company to Hong Kong and keep its legal identity, or they can incorporate a fresh Hong Kong subsidiary beneath the exis

Hong Kong has enhanced the tax concession for corporate treasury centres. For groups that manage financing and cash centrally, the case for basing that function here has strengthened. A concession worth a second look Hong Kong has long offered a concessionary profits tax rate to qualifying corporate treasury centres, the entities that groups use to manage financing, liquidity and risk across their operations. The regime has now been enhanced as part of a broader action plan t

The global minimum tax has arrived in Hong Kong. For large multinational groups, a 15% floor now applies, and the compliance obligations that come with it are already live. The floor is now in place The global minimum tax, developed under the OECD Pillar Two project, sets a floor of 15% on the effective tax rate paid by large multinational groups. Hong Kong has moved to implement it, together with a Hong Kong minimum top-up tax that ensures any shortfall to the 15% floor is c

Hong Kong offers a concessionary tax rate on income from qualifying intellectual property. If your company earns from patents or other eligible IP, you may be paying more tax than you need to. A lower rate hiding in plain sight Hong Kong already has an attractive profits tax rate. What fewer companies realise is that income from qualifying intellectual property can be taxed at a concessionary rate well below the standard one, under the territory’s patent box regime. For an I

Hong Kong has issued its first stablecoin licences and built a full regulatory regime around them. For founders planning a fintech business here, this changes what is possible, and what is required. From framework to reality Hong Kong passed its Stablecoins Ordinance and brought it into effect in 2025, creating a licensing regime for issuers of fiat-referenced stablecoins overseen by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. In 2026 that framework stopped being theoretical. The firs

The Common Reporting Standard that governs automatic exchange of financial account information is being upgraded. The changes widen what gets reported, and some companies will find themselves newly in scope without realising it. A standard most companies never think about The Common Reporting Standard has quietly shaped how financial information moves between tax authorities since Hong Kong adopted it in 2016. Reporting financial institutions collect account details and pass

Hong Kong is bringing crypto-asset transactions into its automatic tax reporting system. If your company holds, moves or provides services around digital assets, the time to prepare is before the framework takes effect, not after. What is changing Hong Kong has moved to adopt the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, known as CARF, through an amendment bill to the Inland Revenue Ordinance. The framework extends the same automatic exchange of tax information that already app

When Hong Kong opened its inward re-domiciliation regime in May 2025, the expectation in some quarters was a flood of applications. The reality of the first year is more measured, and more instructive. By the middle of 2026 the Companies Registry had received a modest number of formal applications, of which a portion had completed the move, including companies originally incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Luxembourg. That pattern is wo

Every Hong Kong company faces the same annual reckoning: financial statements prepared, audit completed, tax return filed. The obligation is fixed. What is not fixed is how much it costs you, in money and in stress. Directors who ignore their books until year-end discover the true price of that neglect all at once, in a single painful lump sum. Those who maintain their accounts across the year pay less, sleep better, and never get caught out. Why the lump sum hurts so much Wh

If you are a director of a Hong Kong company, the law holds you personally responsible for its financial statements. Not your accountant, not your auditor, not the person who keeps the books. You. This is one of the most misunderstood points in Hong Kong company law, and misunderstanding it is exactly how directors end up exposed. Where the responsibility comes from The Companies Ordinance places the duty to prepare annual financial statements squarely on the directors. Under

In Hong Kong, preparing annual financial statements is not a matter of good practice or investor preference. It is a legal duty written into the Companies Ordinance, and it falls on the company’s directors personally. Many founders treat the accounts as something the auditor produces once a year. The law sees it differently: the accounts are your responsibility, and the auditor merely reports on them. The legal basis: section 379 Under section 379 of the Companies Ordinance (

A Hong Kong company is easy to keep in good standing and surprisingly easy to let slip. The obligations are not onerous, but they are non-negotiable, and they run on a calendar that does not wait for you. Good housekeeping means staying ahead of that calendar rather than reacting to it. Here is what your company needs to keep in order, and how to make it routine. The statutory records you must maintain Every Hong Kong company is required to keep certain records current and av

Incorporating in Hong Kong is fast. The harder part is building a company that runs cleanly from its first invoice. The businesses that avoid problems in year two are the ones that set up the right foundations in week one: a compliant legal structure, a multi-currency account that can send and receive globally, and cloud accounting that keeps the books audit-ready all year. This guide walks through how those three pieces fit together. Step one: incorporate your Hong Kong limi

Wie man ein Unternehmen in Hongkong registriert: Ein ausführlicher Leitfaden

Hong Kong's Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS) has become one of the city's fastest-growing visa routes since its December 2022 launch, with over 90,000 approvals by early 2026. For employers, it changes the hiring calculus: certain candidates can already be in Hong Kong, work-ready, without you sponsoring a General Employment Policy visa. How TTPS differs from the GEP The General Employment Policy requires a sponsoring employer, a confirmed offer and evidence that the role can't

Promotion: We have a Hong Kong Company Registration package which includes Hong Kong Incorporation, Government Incorporation Fees, Government Business Registration Certificate Fees, 1 year Registered Office and Company Secretary services together with a business bank account from Airwallex for HK$4,500. View details. Every company expanding into Hong Kong eventually faces the same fork: hire through an Employer of Record, or set up your own entity and employ directly. The ch

Promotion: We have a Hong Kong Company Registration package which includes Hong Kong Incorporation, Government Incorporation Fees, Government Business Registration Certificate Fees, 1 year Registered Office and Company Secretary services together with a business bank account from Airwallex for HK$4,500. View details. Hong Kong continues to attract record numbers of non-local founders, and the structural reasons are unchanged: 100% foreign ownership is permitted, no local dir

Hong Kong is often the first stop for international companies expanding into Asia — but incorporating a company isn't always the right first move. If you want to test the market, hire a single salesperson, or bring on local talent before committing to a full entity setup, there's a faster route: Employer of Record (EOR). What an Employer of Record actually does An EOR is a licensed local entity that legally employs staff on your behalf in Hong Kong, while the person works exc