Thinking of using Hong Kong as an offshore jurisdiction?

This is a jurisdiction that may have a few small features regarding taxation but when it comes to privacy it is most deficient.

One disadvantage of Hong Kong companies is that annual financial statements must be prepared, audited and presented to the Government to prove that the company did no business in Hong Kong and therefore owes no taxes. Such statements must be presented within 18 months of the date of incorporation. This is our opinion is grounds for finding a friendlier jurisdiction.

One has no idea where this information that you file is going to wind up. More trouble follows:

Directors and Shareholders are in both the Government and Public record, note we said shareholders. No privacy here. There is no requirement to report the Beneficial Owner to the Government, if nominees are used but if he or she wants to be a shareholder as one should, then the privacy is gone out the window. No bearer share companies here.

Another negative is that the company must have a Secretary resident in Hong Kong, think more expense unnecessarily.

There are no anonymous bearer share corporations in Hong Kong.

Banking is not encouraging in Hong Kong.

In order to reduce the possibility of money laundering , the Hong Kong Monetary Authority ordered banks to record whether Yuan deposits are made in cash, or via the conversion of other currencies. So they are watching and recording the inflow of foreign currencies, not good.

It also urged the financial institutions to keep track of multiple accounts opened by the same customer, and to ensure that the 20,000 Yuan per day exchange limit is not breached by spreading the transactions across several accounts.

Note this exchange limit is about $2500.00 dollars, fairly small and privacy invading.

Hong Kong is in Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties read one with the USA right here:

http://hongkong.usconsulate.gov/ushk/treaties/1997/0415.pdf

Hong Kong authorities can freely order financial institutions to report customer identities, etc.

The Joint Financial Intelligence Unit can release information to foreign governments freely with the understanding that the information will only be used for investigations not as evidence which would require additional requests for permission. This is just red tape and will be approved. This is not a privacy jurisdiction and we see no advantages to using Hong Kong.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.panamalaw.org
email at: panamalegal@hush.com