[ployd]

Hello there.
As most of people here i work in HK under a working visa provided by my company.
However i might have some outside incomes coming from china (commissions for bringing business to a local company).
As it will be sent on my HK account, do i have to declare it to the tax department in my annual income? Of course I'd rather not mentionning it cause amounts might be bigger than my salary here. Are there any risks of checking? As this is not money earnt directly in HK... i m wondering.

Cheers!

[DanielandHayley]

if you earnt the money in China, the by rights you should have the right to work in China - relevent visa etc...you would then be required to pay tax on that amount in China. If you earnt the money in Hong Kong, then you should obviously be paying tax here in hk...this may also go against your visa requirements in hk....

[PDLM]

The tax department doesn't have access to your banking records as a matter of course. They would need to instigate a formal legal procedure to get that, which they would only do if they had cause to be suspicious.

People who have investments overseas move large sums of money in and out of HK all the time - for example, far more money has entered my HSBC account here than I have earned while I have been here. So that in itself isn't an issue.

As to whether it should be declared to IRD, I believe the answer is yes. You are running a business which provided a professional service for which you were paid. Strictly I believe you need:
a) to register your business (as a sole proprietorship probably)
b) produce accounts
c) pay profits tax

I believe there is an exemption for casual earnings under HK$25,000 per year, but it sounds like you will be over that.

For ImmD if this service was simply an introduction rather than "employment" then I don't think there would be any issue for them.

In practice, of course, many many people in Hong Kong have casual earnings which are not declared to the tax man.

[ployd]

Thanks for you replies guys,
As i dont intend to earn millions i can avoid to go into complicated procedures, especially because my action in this business is very limited (few phone calls and thats all)

Best might be to cross the border and get it in cash providing the shenzhen border is not givin limit of cash to bring into hk... (so far i ve never heard about it)