UPDATE: Reporting Your Company’s Business Nature in Hong Kong

As you may or may not already know you have to report your business nature when setting up a Hong Kong company. Because it appears on the Business Registration Certificate, you’re given a limit of 60 characters (including spaces!) to describe what you do. Inevitably it means you have to keep it short and sweet.

In the past, we would have said you could keep it both brief and even vague limiting it to “Holding”, “Trading”, “Consulting” or even “Corp” (indicating corporation). But lately, we’ve noticed a change in the Inland Revenue Department’s (IRD) attitude towards this requirement. The IRD is now looking for more detail in your business nature. It’s not difficult, it just means you need to be a little bit more specific. A good way to do so would be to simply elaborate on which specific area you operate in, for example, if you trade garments, instead of just “Trading” you could report “Trading in Garments” as your business nature, or if you provide consulting for IT providers instead of just “Consulting” you could report “IT Consulting”.

Be aware that we cannot guarantee a certain business nature will be accepted as the final decision is in the hands of the IRD. But, from what we have observed, simply adding a bit more detail should be sufficient to have your business nature approved.

Decided on your business nature and ready to proceed? Just click below.