This blog was last updated on June 27, 2021
The Legislative Council of Hong Kong has passed a bill that adds 73 countries to its list of CRS Reportable Jurisdictions, bringing the total number to 75 jurisdictions. In enacting this bill, Hong Kong is committing to automatic exchanges of account information with each of its preexisting tax treaty partners that has signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement – in addition to some new countries with which it did not previously have a tax treaty in place.
The first deadline for Financial Institutions to transmit 2017 CRS returns to Inland Revenue will be in May 2018. For British and Japanese account holders, Hong Kong FIs will be required to report account information from January 1, 2017 onward. For all other jurisdictions FIs will be required to report account information from July 1, 2017 onward, with the exception of Korea (which will not begin exchanges with Hong Kong until 2019).