5 January 2021

Incorporating a business – which one is best between Hong Kong & Singapore

By Nico W. inCorporate Services Tag agreement, bank account, tax free

Both Hong Kong and Singapore belongs to the best financial centres in the world alongside the New York and London Stock Exchanges. These countries have the most advance banking system, sound legal systems, and a stable economy. This is the major reasons why most international companies and entrepreneurs would prefer incorporating a business and investing their capital on these countries.

This is not a battle between the two (2) countries to know who is the best, but rather which one is the best that suits your needs.

Take a look at some of the difference on these countries in the aspects of banking, tax, compliance, immigration, and other important facts.

Banking

Both countries are superbly advance in their banking practices as well as their innate capability to deal and process international type of needs in terms of banking itself, considering that most of the biggest companies in the world has a foot in the door on these countries one way of the other.
Due to their advance banking technologies, opening a bank account in these jurisdictions will be a challenge if you are not accompanied with firms like us to guide you and introduce to you the best bank possible to accommodate your business. On top of that, banks in these countries would require a personally appearance of the controlling persons, directors including the signatories of the company who would want to open an account in any of their banks. If you are interested to know more about this aspect, contact us now.

Although these countries have gathered unnecessary hear says that both has strict policies on bank onboarding, we have however, been able to gather our own direct and actual experience in dealing with banks in both countries and we can guarantee a bank account opening in these jurisdictions with no hassle at all. Sounds perfect? Contact us and we’ll let you know how.

Incorporation Policies

In Hong Kong, they would normally allow foreign nationals to be designated as directors of the company on top of the requirement of having a HK resident as a Company Secretary to handle its affairs internally and transactions with the HK government.

Both countries would allow up to 100% foreign ownership, provided that the company meets the requirements attached to this privilege.

Singapore is very strict in its policy that 100% foreign owned companies should appoint atleast one (1) Singaporean resident as director and also one (1) Singaporean resident company secretary.

No paid-up capital is required in Hong Kong, while at least $1 is mandatory in Singapore.

Hong Kong has an advantage in this scenario since having a local director acting on behalf of a 100% foreign company can come with great risks if not planned well.

Corporate taxes

Singapore (17%) and Hong Kong (16.5%) has the lowest tax rates in the APAC region, perhaps even the world to that matter.

Hong Kong only imposes tax obligations on profits generated within the confines of its country and does not oblige payment or coverage of taxation to those income or revenues that are generated outside of the country. Meanwhile in Singapore, the country imposes taxes to revenues that are emanating within the country, while income generated outside of the country is going to be taxed if meets certain criteria, particularly on its receipt and remittance to Singapore.

Global companies and entrepreneurs in fact would be excited to know that both HK and SG has existing Double Tax Agreements (DTA’s) with other countries, which would include China, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and other countries. Further, both countries has 0% tax on capital gains and tax dividends, which is very attractive considering that these are cornerstones of businesses in a global scale.

Free trade agreements

Both countries have existing Free Trade Agreements with other countries. Moreover, Hong Kong has FTA’s with New Zealand, EFTA member states, Chile, and other major countries. Singapore on the other hand, has FTA’s with countries like Australia, India, Japan, the US, China and other countries.

Our thoughts

Although very unique at their own rights as independent countries with unique and separate approach in managing their respective economic activities. Both Hong Kong and Singapore is by far the two (2) best countries in the world to do business at.

If you are interested in incorporating a company, opening a bank account, and ensuring that you have a 100% tax/regulatory compliant business in Hong Kong and Singapore, then contact us now, our team of experts can help you incorporate that company, open that bank account and handle your tax and regulatory matters in both Singapore and Hong Kong.

24 November 2020

e-Commerce company in Hong Kong – Part 2/2

By Nico W. inBank Introduction, Corporate Services Tag accounting, bank account, compliance

After choosing the right e-commerce for you, it’s time to register your e-commerce company in Hong Kong. You will have a few options to choose from in terms of what type of e-commerce company and business will you be interested to put up to support your e-commerce business. Commonly, business entities in Hong Kong can be either be sole proprietorship, partnership, foreign company office or a limited liability company. Of all these selections, the most popular one is a private limited liability company when it comes to an e-commerce business.

Time to choose the right trade name for your e-commerce company

This trade name should not necessarily be the same as your company name. It is also equally important to ensure that your e-commerce niche, product lineage and brand would readily fit the description of your trade name since product recall is very important. When you have decided already, you would need to acquire the necessary business license to ensure that you are 100% compliant.

Next step: opening a bank account in Hong Kong

This process would differ from bank to bank since these banks have certain requirements that has to be met before you are allowed and approved to open an account with any bank. What you need to do is to collate all the company documents you have when you registered your e-commerce company such as your Certificate of Incorporation, registered address, shareholder / controlling person’s data, and your Business Registration Certificate, as well as a business plan.

The process of acquiring a bank account in Hong Kong is a specialized field that requires a qualified and expert bank introductory intermediary. We at Accoplus, can help you in the whole process of establishing your e-commerce company in Hong Kong and facilitate the opening of the company bank account. The application process would depend upon your personal and business circumstances since there are a lot of factors to consider, but we can do the work for you.

Contact Us right now so we can help you open your Hong Kong bank account.

When you already have a registered company and a bank account in Hong Kong, your bookkeeping and accounting compliance is key to ensure that your business will remain afloat in the regulatory laws of the country. You would need to file your first Profits Tax Return to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), this step would require you to properly prepare your yearly accounting report and ensure that the report should be audited first before deciding to submit your tax return. One way to assure that your compliance is hassle free is to keep the transaction records of your e-commerce business in an organized manner.

Although the process is very difficult since it’s a thorough compliance process. We at Accoplus, can prepare as well as render our accounting and auditing practices to ensure that your company records are done in a manner that is acceptable with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) without having to worry about inconsistencies. If you are interested to outsource this from us, Contact Us Now.

Tax Compliance

Considerably, this part is one of the most important aspect of your business. In actual, tax compliance in Hong Kong is smooth if you know what you are doing and you are familiar with the regulatory requirements.

Hong Kong has a two-tier taxation scheme wherein your first HKD 2,000,000 will have a profit tax of 8.2%. As a registered company in HK, you are required to complete and to file your profits tax return (BIR 51) with the IRD within 1 month from the date of issuance. Newly incorporated businesses in Hong Kong occasionally receives its first profits tax return around 12 to 18 months from the date of its start of its business activity or incorporation date.

You may be interested to know that we also offer Tax Compliance Services to our clients. If you are interested about this, Contact Us Now and we will teach you how to keep your business compliant in Hong Kong.

22 October 2020

How to choose the best offshore bank

By Nico W. inNon classé Tag bank account, CRS, jurisdiction

Your needs have to match your best offshore bank. This is the point that you must understand before choosing the right jurisdiction for you, since offshore banking has always been the cornerstone of international companies and entrepreneurs to secure their wealth and provide a blanket protection of offshore banking institutions.

The hanging question now is where do you start? And how do you choose, well we have laid down some of the most important advice that we can give you so you can select the best offshore bank to secure your wealth and assets at.

Start with a stable offshore country

This is the main basis in choosing the right jurisdiction to setup your offshore banking. First thing to ensure is that the jurisdiction must be economically welcoming, has a stable political environment, and a reputable image in the global offshore scene. All these factors will affect the banking sector of these countries, regardless of the situation or suitability in their banking practices.

Banking laws and regulations must be proper

Whether you like it or not, banking laws and regulations are the foundation of a secured banking system for any offshore jurisdiction. This is very important since these protocols must be suitable and appropriate to your existing needs and requirements. Laws on banking privacy and anonymity is also key in making sure that you are in the right jurisdiction. There are various global banking practices that is not suitable for personal and company needs, and this would include the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), wherein some offshore jurisdiction has a bilateral agreement with some countries to report any companies or individuals holding and maintaining bank accounts in their offshore jurisdiction. In other words, if you choose the wrong offshore jurisdiction, and that offshore location has an existing CRS agreement with your country of origin where you hold your tax residence, then they are required to report all your banking activities in their offshore banks.

Select a superior bank

Oftentimes, entrepreneurs and companies would make a mistake in choosing an offshore bank where they would get a 100% approval. However, this would backfire in case that bank is not a stable institution and has loopholes in their system wherein they will not be able to cater to you pre-existing needs. Based your selection and vetting process in the reputation of the bank. Once you are able to determine that bank then do a little due diligence on their background in order to dig out any information on their banking practices. Good thing most of these kinds of information are readily available online with just a click away in google search. Another approach is to get as much information in the offshore community so you could make an informed decision. However, the best way in this scenario is to acquire a specialized offshore banking financial intermediary just like us to give you all the banking insights that you will never get from anybody else, and who could help you navigate in the offshore banking without being problematic.

Check tax rates

Double check on tax practices and regulations in the country since this would affect you directly as a bank account holder in their jurisdiction. As much as possible, try looking for jurisdictions that imposes zero rated corporate taxes on companies and business.

Presence of double taxation agreements

Most offshore jurisdictions have an existing DTA with other countries. In case your country of tax and residency has a DTA arrangement with your offshore banking preference, then you will benefit further from this arrangement since DTA’s are bilateral treaties to avoid being double taxed from corporate profits and other source of revenues.

Aside from what are have been mentioned, costs in running an offshore banking activity should also enter your mind, as well as the registration process in applying for an offshore bank account, since you need to comply with pre-existing regulations and protocols in the on-boarding process of these offshore banks.

If you need an expert advice so you can choose the right offshore bank for you, we can help you in this direction. In fact, we can even provide a specialized service to help you open your offshore bank account under our supervision and guidance.

Contact us now and know more about how we can help you!

27 August 2020

Open a bank account for a foreign company

By Raphael inBank Introduction Tag bank account, company formation

When addressing the subject to open a bank account for a foreign company the following should be taken into account.

The bank compliance teams are trained to open accounts for companies registered in multiples jurisdictions, the perceived quality of the jurisdiction will first have to be determined.

A company registered in BVI or in Belize will face difficulties, less to say, to open a bank account in Asia.

Contrarily Seychelles companies and Samoa companies are well perceived, and regularly used as part of a structuration, with Singapore and Hong Kong banks.

The concept is to present to the potential bank a company from a jurisdiction they know and accept well. A bank could be very comfortable to open for a UK company and reluctant to do the same for a Seychelles company or vice versa.

Targeting the right bank is the work of Corporate Services Providers, preparing the compliance report and aligning interests is a job requiring up-to-date information about the risk appetite of Financial Institutions.

Why opening a foreign bank account for a company?

Whatever the jurisdictions of either the company or the bank the business logic is the most important.

There are multiples reasons to open a bank account for a foreign company:

Accessing particular currency, i.e RMB is required when working with the People’s Republic of China
Allowing the company to invest in stocks and financial investments locally
Risks diversification, as under the current economic environment having all your eggs in one basket is dangerous.
Easing payments and reducing transfer delays

Considerations by the banks

The banks in Hong Kong will consider the following factors prior to open a bank account for a foreign company:

the nationality of the beneficial owner
the country of residence of the beneficial owner
the locations of the clients
the locations of the suppliers
the expected turnover

Working with a well-known Corporate Services Provider presenting the compliance report to the bank is crucial. To open a bank account in Asia, it should be handled by professionals.