The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and the Government of Japan have reached consensus on the agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income. Please click here for the details.

The Financial Secretary announced in the 2009-10 Budget to put forward legislative proposal to enable Hong Kong to adopt the latest international standard on exchange of information. Two pieces of legislation, i.e. the Inland Revenue (Amendment) Ordinance 2010 and the Inland Revenue (Disclosure of Information) Rules, were enacted. They commenced on 12 March 2010.

With the commencement of these legislation, Hong Kong can enter into comprehensive agreements on avoidance of double taxation (CDTAs) based on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2004 version of Exchange of Information (EoI) Article. We have concluded new agreements with the following countries in which the latest OECD version of EoI Article are basically adopted: the Republic of Austria, Brunei Darussalam, the French Republic, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Indonesia, Ireland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We are also negotiating with our existing treaty partners to upgrade the EoI Article to the new version.

Today (March 20), the CDTA with Brunei was signed by the Financial Secretary in Brunei. The CDTA with the Netherlands will be signed in Hong Kong on Monday next (March 22) and the one with Indonesia will be signed on March 23 in Indonesia.

The Agreement between the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income ("the Agreement") was formally signed on 16 December 2008.

According to Article 28 of the Agreement, this Agreement shall, upon the written notifications by both Sides of the completion of their respective required approval procedures, enter into force on the date of the later of these notifications.

For the purpose of giving effect to the Agreement, an Order was made by the Chief Executive in Council on 21 April 2009, under section 49 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance. The Order was published in the Gazette as Legal Notice 82 of 2009. On 30 June 2009, Hong Kong sent a notification of the completion of the ratification procedures to Vietnam and received a notification dated 12 August 2009 from Vietnam confirming the completion of its approval procedures. The Agreement has therefore become effective on 12 August 2009 and shall have effect in Hong Kong, according to paragraph 2 of Article 28 of the Agreement, for any year of assessment beginning on or after 1 April 2010.