Hong Kong company requirements & formation procedures

Requirements

A company secretary is required to execute the following:

• preparing minutes of a board meeting convening an annual general meeting;
• preparing a notice of an annual general meeting;
• preparing minutes of an annual general meeting;
• preparing an annual return and submitting the same to the Companies Registry; and
• ensuring that the requirements of the Companies Ordinance are properly complied with based on the information provided by the directors.

Further, a HK company is required to submit audited accounts to the Inland Revenue Department every year, except for the first audited accounts, which can be submitted within eighteen months. Its financial year-end date can be fixed at any date in a year. The commonly used year end dates in Hong Kong are 31 March and 31 December.

Nominee Director’s & Shareholders services

We may act as the registered shareholders and directors of our clients’ companies holding the companies’ shares on trust of our clients. Therefore none, except the HK Inland Revenue Department (IRD), can find out that the companies are actually owned by our clients, and the IRD have a statutory duty not to disclose any information to any one.

Our clients’ interest in the companies is protected by documents called “Declaration of Trust”, which are duly signed by us and stamped by the IRD.

Procedures

Key corporate features

Taxation

• Corporate tax rate – 16,5%
• Ordinary tax – Base Hong Kong source income only
• Tax exemptions – Yes
• Double taxation treaties – China: Corporate and Personal Income Tax. Other Countries: for shipping and aviation
• Value added tax rate – None

Disclosure and reporting requirements

• Disclosure of beneficial owner – Yes
• Government register of directors – Yes
• Government register of shareholders/members – Yes
• Annual return – Yes
• Submission of accounts – Yes
• Audit required? – Yes