How to Open a Company in Hong Kong as a Foreigner in 2023

The pros of opening a company in Hong Kong

• Hong Kong is, along with Singapore, the most liberal economy in the world. Therefore, opening a limited company is simple, fast, and cheap (the government requires a fee of 1,730 HKD for Company Registration and a fee of 250 HKD for the Business Registration Certificate). You don’t even need to live there, as you can hire a company secretary and get a registered office address for a small annual fee (there are several reputable agencies that offer this service).
• The required registered capital in Hong Kong is much smaller than in the majority of countries (usually only 10,000 HKD).
• You can run your business from any country in the world: If you don’t live in Hong Kong, an agency can provide a secretary and a registered office address in Hong Kong for about 5-6,000 HKD per year.
• Hong Kong is a major banking center and once you have incorporated your company there, you’ll be entitled to open a multi-currency business bank account (with e-Banking) at a globally recognized bank such as DBS or Hang Seng Bank. This is a key feature if you plan to do business worldwide. Note that if you prefer, you can also open a bank account for your company outside Hong Kong, such as in Singapore or Switzerland. In any event, a good agency will give you clear guidelines and connect you with a suitable bank.
• Hong Kong is the best gateway to Mainland China, and the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) provides Hong Kong with additional and exclusive mainland market access benefits. So, if you’re planning to do business with a Chinese partner, having a company in Hong Kong may be your best bet, especially when it comes to receiving money from your Chinese business partner.

• Hong Kong has a very simple taxation system: Starting as of April 1, 2018, your company will pay 8.25% on assessable profits up to 2,000,000 HKD, and 16.5% on any portion of assessable profits over 2,000,000 HKD (before, it was 16.5% for all company profit, but the government decided to cut taxes). Click here to learn more about this topic.

  If the company director(s) doesn’t live in Hong Kong (and other conditions apply), you can apply for “off-shore company” status. In this case, your company will only have to pay taxes on the profits generated in Hong Kong (and no taxes on profits generated elsewhere).

  Be careful, because this doesn’t mean that you, as a shareholder (total or partial) of the business, won’t have to pay taxes in the country where you live. In fact, to access your company’s profits, you’ll have to be paid a salary or annual dividends. It is on that amount that you’ll have to pay personal income tax in the country in which you reside. I repeat: spending your company’s money for personal use without declaring it is a crime in most countries.

  In addition, note that many countries have laws to determine if a foreign company is really run from the country in which one or more of the directors reside (Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC) rules). In this case, the country in which the directors live could require payment of the difference between the tax on company profits in the country in which they reside and Hong Kong. For this reason, it is important to discuss this with an accountant in your country of residence before starting a company in Hong Kong.

• Hong Kong government often grants tax reductions to companies. One of the most common situations is that they will offset HKD 20,000 from your tax bill. However, this might change as it’s decided on a yearly basis.

The cons of opening a company in Hong Kong

• Opening a company in Hong Kong requires quite a bit of paperwork and if you have never done this before, it can be difficult to sort everything out by yourself. Moreover, you’ll have to go there. You can solve this problem by hiring a licensed agency that does all the work on your behalf for around 2,000 HKD (3,000 if you want the agency to help you open a business bank account).
• If you’re planning to live in Mainland China, your Hong Kong company can’t provide a Chinese Visa for you. In this case, you need to open a company in Mainland China, which is more difficult and requires a registered capital of about 250,000 HKD to start with (you can re-invest the capital into your business after you open the company though, so it’s not a deposit).

How to open a company in Hong Kong without living or even going there

In the past, you were allowed to open a Sole Trader Company in Hong Kong without a Hong Kong resident permit. Nowadays, unless you’re planning to stay in Hong Kong, you can only open a Limited Company. As I said, you can go to Hong Kong and open the company by yourself. However, the government requires your company to have an office and a company secretary based in Hong Kong.

The good news is that you don’t need to rent an office or hire a full-time company secretary. There are several agencies that will be happy to provide this service to you for around 5-6,000 HKD per year. They can afford to keep the cost low because the same person can act as a company secretary for a lot of companies. The same goes for the office: the office of a given agency can be used as the registered office address for many different companies.

Furthermore, you can open your company without even traveling to Hong Kong (e-registration and paper registration are both allowed). You’ll discuss the details by email or phone with the agency of your choice, send all the necessary documents (see below for details) by email, pay by PayPal, credit card or bank transfer, receive the final documents at your home and send them back the original signed copies by DHL or another international courier service.

All the documents you need to register a company in Hong Kong and the procedure for opening it

1. Choose a name for your brand-new company: Your licensed agency will then check whether the name is available in Hong Kong or is already taken.
2. Send a copy of your passport, a copy of an official document as proof of residence (for instance, a driver’s license), and a questionnaire with standard questions such as your address, your passport number, and the name of the director and shareholders (if you plan to open the company alone, you can be both director and single shareholder) to Hong Kong.

3. Set up your company by e-registration: For a simple company structure, unless you have special requirements will be enough, your licensed agency will set up your company via e-registration. This way takes less than two hours to get the brand new company’s certificate of incorporation and business registration certificate upon certifying the parties’ passports online, for instance via video conference.

   Alternatively, in the case your proposed company has few layers, you will receive a set of pre-signed documents (the NNC1 Form – Incorporation Form – and the Articles of Association) for the director and shareholder to sign, and you’re required to return the original documents to your licensed agency by international courier.

That’s all! The whole process to register the company should take around five business days.

The total cost of registering and maintaining a company in Hong Kong

Assuming that you decide to hire a licensed agency and that you need a company secretary and an office address, during the first year you’ll need to pay for:

• The incorporation documents and company kit (seal, stamp, and so on): about 2,070 HKD.
• Company registration (government fee): 1,730 HKD.
• The Business Registration Certificate (government fee): 2,150 HKD.
• Provision for the company secretary: 3,500 HKD.
• Provision for the registered office address: 2,000 HKD.
• E-registration handling fee: 300 HKD per officer – this only applies when you need to register the company via e-registration
• Assistance in opening your business bank account (you can actually open the bank account on your own, but it does take time and effort): 1,000 HKD.

Note that these are the fees that I paid to my agency. Also, even if the total is 12,450 HKD, the agency is now offering a discount of 3,000 HKD, so you’ll end up paying 9,450 HKD.

My experience is that most agencies will charge you a larger fee. You can also get a cheaper quotation, but be aware that the only agency that quoted me a better price, later on, tried to scam me (claiming that the quotation was for a sole proprietorship and not for a limited company). I’ll discuss how to assess the honesty and efficiency of an agency in the last section of this article.

Starting from the second year, you’ll need to pay for:

• The Business Registration Certificate (government fee): 2,150 HKD.
• Annual Return (government fee): 105 HKD.
• Provision for the company secretary: 3,500 HKD.
• Provision for the registered office address: 2,000 HKD.

This means that starting from the second year, you’ll pay 7,755 HKD per year to maintain the company.

Note that renewing the business certificate is a straightforward process, as you don’t even need to sign any documents: your agency will collect your fee, handle all the paperwork and send the new business certificate to you.

Furthermore, within 18 months of incorporation (and then every following year), you’ll have to fill out an income tax return. A decent agency will also offer you accounting and auditing services. This doesn’t come for free, and prices may vary as they are based on the number of invoices you produce.

Just to give you an idea, in the first year I had around 55 transactions and I paid 2,800 HKD for the accounting and 6,000 HKD for the auditing.

The process was straightforward: I only had to email my purchases and sales invoices, my Paypal and bank statements (you can download them from your online banking service), and an Excel spreadsheet with the list of transactions to the agency accountant responsible, and they took care of everything else.

This was especially important to me, as I’m not a tax expert, and before opening the company, my biggest fear was screwing up during the tax declaration.

In fact, the process went smoothly and I haven’t had a single problem since I opened the company in 2013.

Finally, on March 1, 2019, the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 came into effect. The Amendment Ordinance requires Hong Kong companies (subject to very limited exceptions) to keep a Significant Controllers Register (the “SCR”) for inspection by law enforcement officers upon demand.

The company is required to appoint a local representative and keep an up-to-date register in Hong Kong.

Note that my agency informed me as soon as the ordinance came into effect, sent me the documents I had to fill out (together with detailed instructions on how to fill them out) and let me use their company secretary as my “local representative.”

I paid 2,100 HKD for this service. However, the price could be different. Thus, I suggest you ask the agency for the details.

Summary of the total cost of opening and maintaining a company in Hong Kong

• Open a company: 9,450 HKD
• Business Renewal: 7,755 HKD per year: For renewing the business license as well as paying for the registered address and the company secretary.
• Accounting and Auditing (starting from the second year): From 8,800 HKD. This expense will vary depending on the number of transactions (the more transactions you have, the more you will pay). The auditing fee is also a function of some secondary factors, such as company turnover and others.

  Here is an estimation of the accounting and auditing fee: around 8,800 HKD per year (if you have no more than 60 transactions); around 12,000 HKD per year (if you have between 60 and 120 transactions); around 17,700 HKD per year (if you have between 120 and 240 transactions). As stated, the final quotation will depend on the complexity of the company’s operations.

How to open a multi-currency business bank account in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the members of the Financial Action Task Force. Therefore, all Hong Kong banks must follow certain regulations in line with international risk management standards. Therefore, before accepting you as a customer, every bank has the obligation to collect certain documents in order to comply with anti-money laundering laws.

From a practical point of view, if you are a new businessperson (that is, you have never had a business before), you’ll need to provide the following documents (in English) as proof of business in order to open a business bank account in Hong Kong:

1. Personal bank reference letter.
2. Previous/existing employment contract.
3. Previous/existing company business card.
4. Working attestation issued by previous company.
5. Professional certificate in the related industry.
6. Personal resume.

On the other hand, if you already run a business, you’ll need to provide the following documents (in English) as proof of business:

1. Certificate of Incorporation.
2. Business Registration Certificate.
3. Business card.
4. Most recently filed annual tax return.
5. Trading history, that’s to say, copies of agreements (both buyers and sellers), purchase orders, sales confirmations, and so on.

Furthermore, you’ll need to write a business plan (your agency should help you prepare it if you don’t have previous experience). In my experience, the business plan doesn’t need to be too detailed, but you do need to provide a direction for your business (what services you intend to offer, in which countries you intend to operate, and so on).

In order to open a bank account, you’ll have to go to the bank’s branch in Hong Kong. There is no other way around this. However, for a small fee (1,000 HKD, which is already included in the incorporation package fee), your agency will provide you with an advising service, and pre-screening service and will set up an appointment on your behalf with the bank you wish to use.

If the bank allows it, an employee of the agency will also accompany you to the bank and follow up with the account opening status. The face-to-face interview shouldn’t take more than one hour.

Just remember to bring your passport and 10,000 HKD in cash (this will be the registered capital of the company and must be deposited into your company bank account on the same day you open the account).

Note that if you’re located in a Chinese designated coast city, such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, or others, you can open a bank account at designated banks without traveling to Hong Kong. However, we still recommended that you visit Hong Kong so that you have more bank options to choose from and get faster approval.

Another option is to open an alternative bank account in Hong Kong using one of the fintech startups that are now offering this service.

Here are some pros and cons of these services:

Pros

• These startups usually an easy and fast onboarding process
• Most likely you will be able to send and receive money in different currencies, not only HKD
• They usually offer integrations with Paypal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, and other merchants, which is a key feature, especially if you plan to sell online
• In this case, you can usually open the account without visiting Hong Kong

Cons

These are not “banks”, and thus you might not expect all the services offered by a bank, such as for example:

• Getting a credit card
• Getting a loan

It’s also possible to open an offshore bank account (for instance in Singapore or Switzerland) without visiting Hong Kong. I recommend that you discuss these details with your agency, as choosing the right bank is extremely important.

How to get a government grant for your small business in Hong Kong

Besides low taxes and an extremely efficient system, the Hong Kong government also offers several grants and funding schemes to small and medium enterprises (SME).

Here are some examples:

• The SME Export Marketing Fund (EMF) provides financial help to advertise your company outside Hong Kong;
• The SME Loan Guarantee Scheme (SGS) helps your company to secure a loan;
• The Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) aims at strengthening technological and innovative enterprises;
• The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund (SIE Fund) offers resources to NGOs and other organizations that work on reducing social exclusion, poverty, and similar issues;
• The Patent Application Grant helps local companies and individuals to protect their own intellectual property via patents registration.

Note that the Hong Kong government defines an SME as a local company that employs less than 50 people in Hong Kong (for a non-manufacturing business) and a local company that employs less than 100 people in Hong Kong (for a manufacturing business).

Note also that every funding scheme has its own criteria for eligibility, and that these criteria might differ greatly, according on the funding scheme.

You can click here to learn more about this topic.

How to choose an honest agency and avoid scammers

If you do a quick Google search, you will find hundreds of agencies that claim they can help you open and manage a company in Hong Kong. While some of them are honest, others are just scammers. My experience is that there are a lot of agencies that operate in a grey zone.

They may not steal your money. However, they may work as an intermediary for a real agency, therefore taking a percentage of your fee and slowing down the whole process. Or worse, they’ll claim services that they aren’t able to offer and once you pay their fee, make you a more expensive counteroffer. These agencies usually look cheaper than honest ones (and for a good reason!).

Want an example? You’ll ask if it’s still possible to open a Sole Trader Company in Hong Kong (it’s cheaper than a Limited Company) even if you don’t plan to live there (it was possible until 2010). You’ll receive an email that states that there are no problems with this and that of course, it’s possible! Then, once you have wired the money, you’ll receive another kind of email that claims something on this line:

“Sorry Mr. Smith, the law changed last month and now you can only open a Limited Company in Hong Kong if you don’t live here. I’m very very sorry. Just send us an additional 5,000 HKD and we’ll be happy to handle it for you! You’ll get your limited company within 12 business days!”

This is quite a common scenario. Would you work with an agency that acts in this way? Good, I wouldn’t work with them either.

If you already know someone that owns a company in Hong Kong, you should ask them what agency they used and if they would recommend it. Or, you can contact us and I’ll suggest an honest agency to you (the one I used to open my own company).

Here, as promised, is some advice for spotting an honest agency:

Step 1: Check the agency’s website

Let’s suppose you did some research on Google.com and you found three to five agencies that offer company incorporation services.

Does their website look professional? Is their English any good? Can you easily understand what the agency is offering you? How old is the website? Would you trust an agency that opened its website two months ago? Good, me neither.

You can also check the age of an internet domain for free on who.is.

Does their website provide a physical address in Hong Kong, a phone number, and an email address? Is there any way to check if the website belongs to a real company?

If they ask you to pay by credit card, are you redirected to a page protected by an SSL certificate (you’ll see a URL that starts with https:// instead of http://) or not?

Note that none of the information I’ve listed will ensure the honesty of the agency. I see them more as necessary but not sufficient conditions for doing business with me.

Step 2: Getting more info on the agency

Let’s suppose that the name of the agency that you’re researching is “HK Companies Incorp Limited” (a random name that I just made up).

Check on Google.com for queries such as “HK Companies Incorp Limited scam,” “HK Companies Incorp Limited problems” and so on. The goal here is to discover if someone else is complaining about the agency in a forum, blog, or website. Of course, if you don’t find any suspect information, you can’t be sure that the agency is honest. But if you do find something, you may reconsider your choice.

Step 3: Contacting the company

Let’s say that HK Companies Incorp Limited is a real company, it has a professional website and you didn’t find any complaints about them. Now it’s time to contact the agency.

If you call them during business hours, does somebody answer the phone? Does he/she speak decent English? It doesn’t have to be perfect, as English isn’t the main language in Hong Kong after all. However, all the documents concerning your future company will be in English, so you do need to deal with somebody that has sufficient language proficiency.

If their English is bad you’re probably dealing with a mainland Chinese person that acts as an intermediary for a real agency, or worse, someone who is just trying to scam you.

Can you pay by PayPal or wire transfer, or do they insist on collecting your money through Western Union? If they only accept Western Union, run away! Why? Because you can’t track the transaction and they can easily run away with your money. This is true for any monetary transaction, not just when opening a company.

If you send an inquiry by email, does somebody answer within 24-48 hours with good English and without pushing you to buy their service as soon as possible? An established agency has a healthy number of customers and doesn’t need to be pushy. But a scammer? They just want you to send them some money and then run away before you realize they don’t know much about incorporating companies.

When you ask for a quotation, do you receive a clear answer to all of your questions and a list of the cost of each service (company incorporation service fee, business bank account opening service fee, Hong Kong government annual fees, and so on)?

I think it’s important not only to spot a potential scammer but also to assess how efficient the agency will be in the future. Remember that if you decide to buy their service, they’ll handle a key part of your business. Therefore, their communication skills are an important piece of the puzzle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are you looking for a licensed agency that can help you set up your Hong Kong company?

If you want the name of an honest agency that can help you register and manage your company, just send us a message with the following form:

Cover Photo Credits: Photo by leungchopan on Depositphotos©