[CurlyM]

As the holder of the "Working Visa" my wife is my 'dependant.' She wants to work from home free-lancing. How do you set up for this for tax purposes? In other words, be registered for work in HK and not back home which has higher tax rates?

Is this easy???

[carang]

depending on when you got your work visa, she may not be allowed to leagally work in hong kong. if your visa was issued after july 1(i think), 2003, she cannot legally take up any paid OR UNPAID work in hk. if she is allowed to work, then it costs $2600 to register a company. if she registers as a sole proprietor, then she does not have to file a separate tax return here in HK. her profits can be reported on the personal/individual tax return.

as for getting out of paying taxes in your home country, that would depend on what your home country is. if it is the USA, you cannot get out of paying them. they charge tax on world-wide income. if you are formerly of canada, so long as you are not resident in the country, you do not have to pay taxes there. for other countries, i have no idea what their tax systems are, sorry.

[CurlyM]

Thanks! We're aussies and it seems as though the Canadian system is similar. Is the $2600 a one off or is it a yearly price for registering a company?

Guess if she registers one, then the government is going to ask why she's working...

The visa is definately after July 1 2003.

[nivantj]

Originally Posted by carang

if she is allowed to work, then it costs $2600 to register a company.

Not really...
One can set up company in HK regardless of his/her visa type/ status. Out of curiosity, i made an enquiry to ImmD and found the following..

"One may also check with the visa endorsed on his/her passport.
The holder cannot take up employment can set up business withour
the approval of Director of Immigration if it is endorsed with "
Employment is NOT permitted".

[carang]

what i meant was that there wouldn't be much point to set up the company so that she can work, if she is not allowed to work by immig.


the $2600 is a yearly thing. it takes about 5 minutes at revenue tower to do. ask them to photocopy your application. if she wants to open a sole proprietorship bank account, she'll need that (at least at hsbc).