Hong Kong

You incorporate a private company limited by shares with the Companies Registry, normally online through the e-Registry. Straightforward electronic filings are usually approved in about one working day. Allow three to seven working days end to end once documents are prepared. Mandatory government fees from 1 April 2026 are HKD 1,545 to the Companies Registry, plus a HKD 2,350 one-year Business Registration Certificate. That comes to HKD 3,895 in total. Service-provider packages add roughly HKD 5,000–10,000. Confirm current fees before you rely on them.

Yes. There is no residency requirement for directors or shareholders. A foreign national may own 100% of the company and act as its sole director. The whole process can be completed remotely, with a scanned passport and proof of address. But every company must appoint a company secretary who is a Hong Kong resident, or a licensed local firm, and keep a registered office address in Hong Kong. A service provider can supply both. The sole director cannot also be the secretary.

Profits tax runs on two tiers. A company pays 8.25% on the first HKD 2m of its assessable profits and 16.5% above that (7.5% and 15% for unincorporated businesses). Only one entity per group qualifies for the lower band. There is no VAT or sales tax, no capital gains tax, and no withholding on dividends or interest. Rates are current as of 2026. Confirm before you rely on them.

Not necessarily. Hong Kong taxes only profits arising in or derived from Hong Kong. Income from business genuinely carried on offshore can be exempt. But the exemption is not automatic. You must lodge an offshore claim with the Inland Revenue Department alongside your return. You need to prove, with contracts and evidence of where negotiation, performance and decision-making occurred, that no profit-generating activity took place here. The IRD contests such claims routinely, and the burden of proof is yours.

A local account is not legally required. You may bank anywhere. But most operators want one, and it is usually the hardest step. Banks apply enhanced due diligence and expect to understand your business substance, source of funds and, often, a Hong Kong nexus. Approval can take several weeks and is not guaranteed for a company with no local presence. Digital-first banks and licensed payment firms are a common fallback. Requirements vary by bank and change frequently.

Each year you must renew the Business Registration Certificate (HKD 2,350 for one year from 1 April 2026), file an annual return with the Companies Registry, keep the registered office and company secretary in place, maintain proper accounting records, and file a profits tax return. Active companies must have their accounts audited annually by a Hong Kong CPA. There is no small-company audit exemption. Budget for secretary, accounting and audit fees, which typically dwarf the government charges.

Yes. The New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme relaunched on 1 March 2024, after the original CIES was suspended in January 2015. The entry point is HKD 30m, roughly USD 3.8m. That breaks down into HKD 27m across permissible financial assets, plus a mandatory HKD 3m into the government's CIES Investment Portfolio, which the Hong Kong Investment Corporation manages. Since 17 September 2025, the residential-property transaction-price threshold has fallen from HKD 50m to HKD 30m. From 1 March 2026, investments may be held through a wholly-owned FIHV managed by an Eligible Single Family Office. Anyone still quoting the old HKD 10m figure is working from a decade-old brief.

This is the detail that matters most, and it is rarely explained properly. The Right of Abode at year seven requires seven years of continuous ordinary residence. That means genuinely making Hong Kong your habitual home, and Immigration assesses this substantively. A token address and a few weeks a year will not do it. There is an alternative, though. After seven years of maintaining the HKD 30m investment, an entrant can obtain unconditional stay without meeting the ordinary-residence test. That gives permanent freedom from visa conditions without the Right of Abode. For many families, it is the realistic outcome to plan for from the outset.

You must keep the investment above HKD 30m the whole time. You cannot pull profits below that line, and a drawdown in your portfolio alone can put you in breach. Mark-to-market risk is your compliance risk. The mandatory HKD 3m in the CIES Investment Portfolio is directed capital. You do not control it, and you cannot rely on its returns for support. Residential property, meanwhile, is capped at HKD 10m of qualifying value, even though the property itself must cost at least HKD 30m.

No. The HKSAR passport requires Chinese nationality. A CIES investor who is not a Chinese national gets the Right of Abode and a Hong Kong permanent identity card, but not the passport. Chinese naturalisation exists in principle, but it is rarely granted and requires close ties to China. Chinese citizens must already hold permanent residence in a foreign country to qualify for CIES at all, and nationals of Afghanistan, Cuba and North Korea are excluded.

No, on all three, in the ordinary case. Hong Kong runs on a territorial system. It taxes only profits arising in or derived from Hong Kong. There is no capital gains tax, no wealth tax and no estate duty, which was abolished on 11 February 2006. Salaries tax is capped at a standard rate of 15% on net income up to HKD 5m and 16% above that, from 2024/25. Hong Kong is a full CRS participant and exchanges information with the mainland, so it offers no confidentiality from your home tax authority.

The Top Talent Pass Scheme, launched 28 December 2022, admits high earners and graduates of listed top universities. The eligible list expands to 200 institutions from 1 January 2026. Category A is the standout. If you earned HKD 2.5m or more (about USD 320k) in the year before applying, you get a Hong Kong visa, now three years for first grants, with no job offer, no quota and no investment, for a fee of about USD 150. The income must be evidenced with tax documents from the assessing jurisdiction. The catch is that the first visa is a one-shot deal. Renewal requires that you have secured employment or established a business in Hong Kong.

No, QMAS is open and reformed, not closed. The annual quota was suspended for 2023–2025. Under the enhanced General Points Test there are no annual quotas at all. You simply confirm whether you meet at least six of twelve criteria across six aspects, then you can apply, with no job offer required. But approval remains discretionary and selective even without a quota. Meeting six criteria lets you apply. It does not guarantee you succeed. For most high earners, TTPS Category A is faster and simpler.

The political and legal-autonomy trajectory since 2020 is the risk that no financial modelling captures. Families should think about how a Hong Kong nexus interacts with sanctions exposure, banking access and their home jurisdiction's posture toward China. The tax and cost case is genuinely attractive, a territorial base at a fraction of Singapore's GIP entry price, but the political question is, honestly, the whole question here.