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• Before BVI company incorporation, the directors’ and shareholders’ original passports and residential proofs must be provided. If not, the certified true copies or notarized copies of the documents must be provided.
• Note that not all companies or organizations are willing to do business with BVI companies. Before forming a BVI company, you may want to ask your suppliers or clients whether they are willing to do business with a BVI company.
• A BVI company can hold properties in Hong Kong without being registered as a non-Hong Kong company.
• A BVI company by itself cannot conduct business or lease property in Hong Kong. By itself, it cannot subscribe to any services in Hong Kong (such as subscribing mobile phone service or courier service.) However, it can be registered in Hong Kong as a non-Hong Kong company. Once it has been registered, it can be operated as if it were a Hong Kong company, and a Hong Kong business registration will be issued to the BVI company. However, the company will need to file Annual Return and yearly audited financial report to the Hong Kong government, and pay tax in Hong Kong if there is any profit generated here.
• A BVI company can open a bank account in Hong Kong. The following documents are required for the account opening:
  • the directors’ and shareholders’ original passports and residential proofs. If not, the certified true copies or notarized copies of the documents;
  • Certificate of Incumbency;
  • Certificate of Incorporation;
  • Memorandum and Articles of Association.
• To obtain a commercial credit card for the BVI company, the commercial credit card will be required to link to a personal bank account in the same bank of the director or shareholder.
• The BVI company will come with a registered office address in BVI, however, the address cannot be used for mailing purpose. There is no need to use our address as the Corresponding Address of the company unless you want us to receive mails for it. You may use a non-Hong Kong / non-BVI address as the Corresponding Address of the company.
• The cost of legalizing the documents of a BVI company will be much higher than that of a Hong Kong company.
• Directors or shareholders of a BVI company who are U.S. citizens or residents will be required to sign a form declaring that all incomes of the company is legal and that they will fulfill their tax filing obligation.
• BVI companies can open investment bank accounts in Hong Kong to trade stocks. However, as profit may arise in Hong Kong, the BVI companies may be required to be registered as a non-Hong Kong company. Therefore, it is recommended to use a personal bank account to trade stocks in Hong Kong. The banks in Hong Kong are unlikely to open investment accounts to the companies in which U.S. or Canadian citizens or residents are shareholders or directors of the companies.
• Our BVI Incorporation Pricing

The steps of using a Hong Kong limited company to set up a Travel Agency are as follow:

1. The authorized capital should be set to at least HKD $500,000, so there will be an extra governmental fee of HKD $500 or more for the company registration;
2. All the shares must be assigned, ie, paid-up capital should be at least HKD $500,000. The company will then have at least HKD $500,000 of asset at the time of incorporation;
3. A letter issued by a Hong Kong CPA / lawyer certifying that HKD $500,000 has been deposited into the company’s bank account. Note that the money can be withdrawn after the TIC membership approval;
4. If possible, check the company name with the Travel Agents Registry before company registration: +852 2807 1199;
5. Leasing of an actual office in Hong Kong. While the company can do any business, the office can only operate the travel agency;
6. If none of the directors have work permits to work in Hong Kong, the company must hire someone who can work legally here;
7. Read the FAQs here:
   1. http://www.tar.gov.hk/eng/frequently/index.html
   2. http://www.tichk.org/public/website/en/member_service/membership/application/html
   3. http://www.tichk.org/public/website/en/forms/membership/application_info_english.pdf

Chinese New Year Holidays:

• 2010/2/13 (Saturday) -2010/2/17 (Wednesday): closed

Regular Hours:

Monday - Friday, 10:00am - 6:00pm

For emergency, please email us at info@jinetic.com, or SMS at +852 66128714

Thanks.

Updated on 2009/6/25

The Hong Kong government is going to waive the business registration fee for one year. From 2009/8/1 to 2010/7/31, the Business Registration fee will be reduced by HKD $2,000. Accordingly, we will also reduce our Hong Kong company registration service fees. For the period between 2009/8/1 - 2010/7/31, the fee for package A will be HKD $3,380, for package B will be HKD $4,280.

Note that those who pay the regular $2,450 Business Registration fee before August will receive the discounted rate next year when the Business Registration is renewed. For example, if the Business Registration is issued on June 25, 2009, the fee is HKD $2,450. When the Business Registration is renewed next year on June 25, 2010, the fee will be HKD $450.

Source: http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/pdf/br_fee_table.pdf

How to obtain apostilles for Hong Kong company incorporation documents?

You need to know precisely which documents you need to obtain the apostilles for because they are quite expensive (HKD $125 each page charged by the court. Also we need to obtain certified copies from the government). It will be cheaper if you just want the apostilles for the Certificate of Incorporation, and Business Registration.

The total cost for obtaining the apostille is HKD $1,000 (service fee) + court fee + governmental fee

For example, to obtain the apostilles for a complete set of Hong Kong incorporation documents (for a brand new company, not a shelf company), the cost will be (in HKD):

Form NC1 = $170 (certified copy) + 6*$125 (apostille fee, assuming there are 6 pages) = $920
Memorandum and Articles of Association = $170 + 8*$125 (apostille fee, assuming there are 8 pages) = $1,170
Certificate of Incorporation = $170 + $125 = $295
Business Registration = $50 + $125 = $175
Government and Court fees subtotal = $2,560

Our service fee = $1,000

Total: HKD $3,560 or USD $462

***(2009/6/25) - The information in this post is outdated. Please refer to this link about the 2009/8/1-2010/7/31 Business Registration fee: http://www.jinetic.com/blog/?p=81

According to the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department web site, the Business Registration fee of year 2009 - 2010 will return to HKD $2,000: http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/pdf/br_fee_table.pdf

Consequently, our Hong Kong incorporation fees for both Package A and Package B will increase by HKD $2,000 for the companies incorporated on or after April 1st, 2009. The new cost for Package A is HKD $5,380 (up from $3,380), for Package B is HKD $6,280 (up from $4,280). The cost for the pre-formed shelf companies incorporated on or after April 1st, 2009 will also increase by HKD $2,000 to HKD $6,500 (up from $4,500).

If the incorporation order is made before March 31st, 2009, but the company is formed after the date, an additional fee of HKD $2,000 will be requested before obtaining the Business Registration.

As the Hong Kong government is finding ways to boost the economy, please stay tuned for the latest fee information.

As the company secretary of our companies, we can handle share and debenture tranfers, and will keep the records of the companies including the records of the members, debenture holders, charges, and directors and secretaries, and can deliver documents and file the Registrar including the annual return, return of allotments, and return of directors and company secretaries. However, there are individual fees for the services.

Documents required for share transfer for company in business:

1. Instrument of Transfer
2. Bought Note / Sold Note
3. Memorandum and Articles of Association
4. Annual Return
5. Certificate of Incorporation
6. Management Account, certified by the director
7. Profit and Loss Account, certified by the director
8. Audited Account of the previous two years, certified by the director

We have been asked a few times about whether a Hong Kong company needs to pay profit tax if its income is not derived in Hong Kong.

Legally, a Hong Kong company does not have to pay tax for the profit derived outside of Hong Kong. However, it can only claim the “offshore status” after its book being audited. In addition, the director of the company will need to answer pages of questions presented by the Inland Revenue Department. Therefore, we do not advise anyone to count on the “offshore status”. One should consider to form a BVI company instead of a Hong Kong company if he wants to avoid tax. However, BVI companies are less reputable and acceptable than Hong Kong companies are. In fact, we have heard that someone who already had a BVI company eventually formed a Hong Kong company because the United Nations does not do business with BVI companies.

However, if a Hong Kong company does not conduct business, that is, if it does not sign contract or issue invoice, and if it only receives and makes payments, it may not need to do accounting, auditing and pay tax. Some of our mainland Chinese clients who already own other Chinese companies. They form Hong Kong companies simply because they want to use the companies as holding companies, ie, to make and receive payments only. They usually claim the companies as “not in commerce” on the tax forms and skip the accounting and auditing. While many people are doing that, however, such practice falls in the gray area of the law.

References:

1. http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/paf/bus_pft_tsp.htm
2. Section 14, the Inland Revenue Ordinance: http://www.legislation.gov.hk/eng/home.htm
3. http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/ppr/advance34.htm
4. http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/ppr/advance35.htm
5. http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/tax/stc.htm

From now on until 2010/8/31, our incorporation Package A also comes with a set of company chops (including a signature chop, an invoice chop, and a metal common seal). Instruction:

1. Select our Package A to incorporate a company;
2. Follow our incorporation workflow to submit information to us;
3. Make your payment before application submission to the government or 2010/8/31. Payment Methods
4. Postage cost:
   1. Pick up at our office: $0;
   2. to Hong Kong and Mainland China: $100;
   3. to other international address: $300