Hong Kong tax law amendments

Change and development of the HK tax regime since 2009

 

On March 2010 - IRO amended

With the exception for three jurisdictions, all of the DTAs concluded with HK's trader partners shall remove the requirement for domestic tax interests, and extend the scope of EOI to the information held by banks and professional nominees.

 

On March 2013 - IRO amended 

The scope of EOI is extended again. The Chief Executive in Council is empowered to enter into tax information exchange agreement (TIEA), in addition to DTA.

 

On June 30 2016 - IRO amended [Read]

The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No.3) Ordinance is enacted and comes into operation on 30 June 2016. The Amended Ordinance provides a legal framework in Hong Kong for the implementation of the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) on tax matters with participating jurisdictions (the ones that have committed themselves to exchange of tax information in compliance with the CRS). 

Part 8A is added to the IRO that imposes the obligation on the reporting financial institutions (FI's) to identify the financial accounts held by the residents of the participating jurisdictions by conducting customers due diligence, submit the specified information obtained from the CDD to the Inland Revenue Department, which will automatically exchange the relevant information with the partner jurisdictions Hong Kong has entered into a competent authority agreements.

The reporting FI's in Hong Kong should do this on an annual basis, and keep the required information for a specified period for access by the IRD if needed.

See the legal texts of the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No. 3) Ordinance 2016 [Read]

 

On July 1 2017 - IRO amended [Read]

The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (No.3) Ordinance 2017  is enacted and comes into operation on 1st July 2017.  The amendment contains the information of the participating jurisdictions and reportable jurisdictions under the AEOI framework.

 

2018 and after

See amendments to the Inland Revenue Ordinance beginning on and after 2018 [read]

 

 

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FATCA - IGA Model II

As from 1st July 2014, all foreign financial institutions (FFI's) in HK have to file reports to the IRS, and report any non-compliance by US taxpayers under US tax code. IRS can request information from IRD under the TIEA concluded between US and HK.

Sources:

FATCA Archive [FATCA]

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Pages/FATCA-archive.aspx

Peer Review Report, Phase 2, Implementation of the Standard in Practice, Hong Kong

 

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See more for International Tax Aspects for Hong Kong [Read]

 

AEOI Regimes of Hong Kong

 

• Model 2-IGA under the FATCA regimes

 

• EOI under DTA and TIEA in compliance with CRS