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Hong Kong is currently offering the best privacy and secrecy for asset protection. Hong Kong is not a tax haven; it is a world-class financial center. The stigma of using a tax haven is not associated with Hong Kong. The Honk Kong Banks is among the best in the world with assets of a trillion dollars. Read below for more information.
No Need to Travel to Hong Kong – It is a big trip for many people to go to Hong Kong. The cost of the airfare, hotel, meals etc can be substantial. Bank account openings take several days. Take into account the jet lag and missed workdays. Now we can enable you to open a Hong Kong Corporation and Bank Account in one of the top banks in Hong Kong without traveling to Hong Kong. The required time frame is two to three weeks for the formation of the Hong Kong Company (anonymous) and opening the Hong Kong Bank Account. No reference letters are required. Simply a notarized copy of a passport and utility bill is sufficient to open the account.
Hong Kong Banking Secrecy – Hong Kong has banking secrecy laws with serious civil and criminal penalties for violations. At this time (03/2010) Hong Kong has not signed any OECD TIEA agreements. In plain English this means Hong Kong has not signed any Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Tax Information Exchange Agreements. So there are no fishing expeditions for bank information. There are also no requests for information just for tax purposes. Hong Kong now has extremely strained relationships with the USA and her allies. This will work in the favor of those seeking privacy from such governments.
Hong Kong Government Bank Insurance – Due to the current financial crisis the Hong Kong government is insuring bank accounts up to any amount. This is being done on a year-by-year basis during the financial crisis. We expect this to continue for a few more years, in our opinion.
Hong Kong has Anonymous Corporations – Our law firm in Hong Kong sets up Hong Kong Corporations to be anonymous. The owner’s names appear nowhere publicly. Under Hong Kong corporation law the name of at least one shareholder of the corporation must appear in the public registry. What is done is a nominee shareholder is used. There is a trust agreement between you and the nominee shareholder establishing you as the owner and controller of the corporation. This agreement is supplied to the bank in copy form establishing you as the owner of the corporation and thus you are able to be the signatory on the bank account. You get the original of this document to keep you in control. The document also incorporates a power of attorney in it. You will receive the share certificates for your corporation along with the other corporation formation documents and materials. The trustee is the Hong Kong law firm and you are the beneficiary of the Hong Kong trust. The corporation structure used is a limited liability corporation, which severely limits any liability.
Taxes in Hong Kong – There is no capital gains tax. So all bank interest is tax free as well as any stock market trading profits. There is no VAT (Value Added Tax). No withholding taxation. There is no tax on money coming in from outside of Hong Kong. The term is Offshore Derived Income and it is not taxed in Hong Kong. A tax return for the corporation is necessary. It is included in the setup fee. The law firm has an accountant file the corporate tax return. Unless you do business in Hong Kong it will be a “Nil” return in that no taxes are due. This is a simple exercise requiring you to either state you were not yet engaged in business for the tax period in question or provide the totals for gross income stating it was all offshore derived income thus no taxes applicable. If you are engaged in a land-based business inside of Hong Kong with revenue derived from within Hong Kong taxes may be due and the return filing can be more complex. The accountants will file the tax return for you and this is included in the fee
The Hong Kong Bank – We chose to use one of the three largest banks in Hong Kong. It is rated as one of the top 20 banks in the world. The online banking is in English. The online banking let’s you send wires, check balances, history and transfer from one account to another at same bank. Since English is one of the official languages of the country you can expect all the bank personnel to be fluent in English. This bank has over one trillion dollars in assets. You can hold money in any of these ten currencies: Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollar, Pound Sterling, Singapore Dollar, Thai Baht, US Dollar, and Renminbi. The bank has debit cards and VISA/MasterCard cards in USD, Euro and the local Chinese currency.
Hong Kong Stockbroker – The Hong Kong bank has a full stock brokerage operation enabling clients to buy and sell stocks, futures, forex, options, etc around the world. There is no additional charge to open up such a stock brokerage account. After the corporate bank account is open you merely contact the bank and request the stock brokerage account be opened. The bank already has your corporate documents and your ID.
Credit Cards – The Hong Kong bank will issue credit and debit cards. They can be in Euros or US Dollars. There is no loading fee for these cards. The credit cards are secured by a deposit for security, debit cards have no such requirement. Debit cards do not have a visa or MasterCard brand on them. Credit cards will take 7-10 days after the bank account is open and funded.
Online Banking – The online banking is in English. It will open one or two weeks after the bank account is open and funded. The online banking enables one to check balances, send outgoing wire transfers and move money from one bank account to another in different currencies that the account holder has.
Time Frame – The time required to have the Hong Kong Corporation formed and the bank account open is two to three weeks. If you use an existing shelf corporation the time frame is reduced by about one week but you do not get to choose the name of your corporation. The list of shelf corporation is available after one has made the payment. The list can change daily so we do not send lists out until after the payment has been made and then the corporation can be selected and is yours.
Due Diligence Requirements – Hong Kong with us is easy. What is needed is a notarized copy of a passport and a utility bill showing your physical address. Can be a gas bill, a phone bill, a water bill, a cable TV bill, etc.
Cost – The fee is $3995 for the Hong Kong Corporation (anonymous) and the Hong Kong Bank Account opening. The minimum deposit is $1000 for the bank and can be included in the wire transfer or sent later on. After the account is open you can contact the bank to verify that you are the only signatory on the account.
Using Other Corporations in Hong Kong – Yes it is theoretically possible to use a non Hong Kong Corporation to bank with in Hong Kong. We do not do this for several reasons. One being the foreign corporation would need to be registered in Hong Kong and have a corporate registered agent, address and so forth. This process can take one or two months, is costly and will slow done the bank account opening significantly while they find someone at the bank that knows how to conduct the due diligence on this corporation. We see no advantage in using non Hong Kong corporations and just do not do it.
Using Hong Kong Corporations Elsewhere – You can certainly use the Hong Kong Corporation to open bank and stock brokerage accounts in other countries.
Additional Layers – One can add in other structures like trusts and foundations but you are already getting a trust included to own the shares for you as the beneficiary. If you would like additional layers of protection inquire. There are a number of things that can be added on but generally speaking baring extenuating circumstances this structure is fine by itself. |
