Annual Compliance Requirements
Company secretary and registered office
Every Hong Kong company is required by company law to have a secretary residential in Hong Kong to maintain all the statutory records of the company. These records must also be retained at the registered address for periodic inspections by officers from the Companies Registry. The company is also required to have a registered address in Hong Kong that is the same as the one reported in the Company Registry for purposes of delivering important information and papers by the Hong Kong authorities.
Our annual packages include the basic Hong Kong resident secretary service for a registered address to receive government correspondance.
All Hong Kong companies is required by the law to file Annual Return (Form NAR1) at the Companies Registry on the anniversary of its incorporation. The Annual Return (Form NAR1) holds all the corporate structure of the company including details of shareholders, directors and the company secretary.
The Annual Return (Form NAR1) will be prepared by us on our client’s behalf and the cost of the documentation is included as part of our annual packages.
Annual Return (Form NAR1)
The renewal of a Hong Kong business registration
All Hong Kong companies is required to renew its business registration on annually on the anniversary of its respective incorporation date. This is done by paying a registration fee to the Hong Kong government.
By the Hong Kong law every Hong Kong company have to maintain accounting records, preparing of annual accounts within the Hong Kong accounting standards and arrange the accounts to be audited by a Hong Kong registered auditor.
All companies are allowed to set its own accounting year end date. The only stipulation is that the first accounting period cannot exceed 18 months from the date of first incorporation. Thereafter, the company need to produce its accounts every 12 months using the same year end date.
The Hong Kong tax year end is March 31, so therefore we recommend you to select the same date for ease of tax computation.
Accounting and auditing
Tax filing
An annual Profits Tax Return is required by the company. The same rule applies even if there is no business activity in Hong Kong and/or no tax is payable.
The first Profits Tax Return is typically issued to the company around 18 months from the date of incorporation. This must also be filed with the Hong Kong tax authorities together with the first audited accounts not later then 3 months after the issuance. This will be issued on March 31 in all the subsequent years.
All the Hong Kong companies are required to submit a return to the Hong Kong tax authorities before April 30th each year. This includes full details on employee compensation during the year to 31 of March. If the company did not pay any employee salary or commissions, a return still needs to be submitted, stating that there has been no payment to any employees for the period.