For a long time, the answer to "where should the holding company sit" had a fairly standard shape for businesses with Hong Kong operations: BVI or Cayman at the top, a Hong Kong operating company underneath. That structure made sense under one set of conditions — light-touch offshore registries, minimal ongoing obligations, and a banking environment that didn't look too closely at pure holding entities. Those conditions have moved. And since 23 May 2025, there's been a new op

Incorporating a Hong Kong company takes about five to seven working days. Opening the bank account is what founders don't budget for — in time, in preparation, or in patience. In 2021 and 2022, it wasn't unusual for a straightforward application to sit with a major bank for three to five months. In 2026, a well-prepared application from a clean, simple business typically takes 4 to 10 weeks at a traditional bank. That improvement is real. But the gap between a prepared appli

Every week, founders ask us the same question: Hong Kong or Singapore? Both are common law jurisdictions. Both have English as a primary business language. Both have deep professional services ecosystems and no shortage of corporate service firms happy to incorporate you by Tuesday. The question is which one is actually right for your business. The answer isn't "it depends" and leave it there. The answer depends on specific things: where your revenue comes from, who your inv

Hong Kong levies a profits tax. There's no VAT, no GST, no capital gains tax, and no withholding tax on dividends paid to shareholders — resident or non-resident. What you're left with is one corporate tax, applied at two rates: 8.25% on the first HK$2 million of assessable profits, and 16.5% on everything above that. One clarification worth flagging upfront: Hong Kong does levy a withholding tax on royalties paid to non-resident persons. The effective rate is typically 4.95