Residency for Tax Purposes and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

Under Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI), financial institutions are obliged to identify financial accounts held by tax residents of reportable jurisdictions or held by passive non-financial entities whose controlling persons are tax residents of reportable jurisdictions.  Account holders or controlling persons may be requested to declare their tax residence and provide their TIN in self-certifications so as to enable the financial institutions to verify their tax residence.

For AEOI purposes, a person meeting the following criteria is regarded as a tax resident of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong):

Individual

1. An individual ordinarily resides in Hong Kong; or
2. An individual stays in Hong Kong for more than 180 days during a year of assessment or for more than 300 days in two consecutive years of assessment one of which is the relevant year of assessment.

Entity

1. (where the entity is a company) the company is incorporated in Hong Kong; or if the company is incorporated outside Hong Kong, being normally managed or controlled in Hong Kong; or
2. (where the entity is not a company) the entity is constituted under the laws of Hong Kong; or if the entity is constituted outside Hong Kong, being normally managed or controlled in Hong Kong.

For AEOI purposes, the following identifiers are equivalent to the TIN of a Hong Kong tax resident:

Individual

Hong Kong Identity Card (HKID) number of the Hong Kong tax resident.  The TIN equivalent for individuals includes all letters and numerals of the HKID number, including the letter or numeral in the bracket (but without bracket).

Please note that the “TIN” shown on the Tax Return-Individuals and related Notice of Assessment is not a TIN equivalent of a Hong Kong tax resident for AEOI purposes.  Such “TIN” is solely used for login onto “eTAX” account provided by the Department.

Entity

Business Registration (BR) number of the Hong Kong tax resident.  The TIN equivalent for entities includes 8 numerals at the front of BR certificate number.

Depending on the residency rule of the respective jurisdiction, an individual or entity may have more than one residency for AEOI purposes.  In such circumstances, all jurisdictions of residence and the corresponding TIN (if applicable) should be reported in the self-certification.

For more information about the tax residency rules and TINs of Hong Kong and other jurisdictions, please visit the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Automatic Exchange Portal at http://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/.