Hong Kong Extended the List of Reportable Jurisdictions for AEOI Purposes

Under the AEOI standart a financial institutions in Hong Kong are required to identify and report to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) the financial accounts held by tax residents of overseas reportable jurisdictions in accordance with due diligence procedures on annual basis. The first reporting of information to the IRD will be due in May 2018. Since Hong Kong is not a sovereign jurisdiction, it cannot be direct signatory to the OECD multilateral agreement. In order to exchange financial account information with jurisdiction, Hong Kong needs to have or enter into a Double Taxation Agreements or Tax Information Exchange Agreements and to conclude a Competent Authority Agreement with that jurisdiction.

16 of March Hong Kong signed a Competent Authority Agreements with 6 countries – Belgium, Canada, Guernsey, Italy, Mexico and the Netherlands for conducting automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters. These countries join United Kingdom, Japan and Korea as reportable jurisdiction under the IRD Ordinance which came into effect on June 30, 2016.

For further information, please contact Alina at alinam@zetland.biz.