Frequently asked questions
Common questions from companies in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and other Chinese-speaking markets about Hong Kong companies, company secretary services, tax, payment collection and overseas market growth.
Company and secretary
Hong Kong company and secretary.
If a company needs to face overseas clients, platforms, contracts and payment collection, a Hong Kong company can often serve as an international operating node. Whether it is suitable still depends on the business model, target markets, shareholding and tax situation.
Yes. The Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) requires every Hong Kong limited company to appoint a company secretary, who must be a Hong Kong resident or a body corporate registered in Hong Kong. Company-secretarial work and statutory record-keeping are an essential part of ongoing compliance.
Incorporation involves a company-name search, preparing the incorporation form (NNC1) and the articles of association, submitting to the Companies Registry, and receiving the Certificate of Incorporation (CI) and Business Registration Certificate (BR). Electronic submissions are generally issued within one working day; paper submissions generally take about four working days.
The Significant Controllers Register (SCR) is one of the statutory registers and must be kept at the registered office or a specified location for inspection by law-enforcement officers. A company must also maintain a register of members and a register of directors.
Tax and payments
Tax and payments.
Hong Kong profits tax is two-tiered: for corporations, 8.25% on the first HKD 2 million of assessable profits and 16.5% thereafter. Actual filing and tax treatment depend on the business, the documentation and professional advice.
It should not be oversimplified. Whether offshore-sourced income is taxable is assessed case by case under the source principle, the foreign-sourced income exemption (FSIE) rules and the supporting documentation.
They generally review the business-model description, website, contracts, invoices, supply-chain documents, source of funds, and director/shareholder background as part of KYC. The more consistent the documents, the stronger the basis for the conversation.
A payment service provider can serve as part of a payment-collection or platform-settlement channel, but whether it can replace a bank arrangement depends on platform rules, transaction amounts, customer payment habits and compliance requirements. Companies usually need to clarify their payment chain first, then compare channels.
Market growth
Overseas market growth.
Not necessarily. If your most pressing issue right now is content, SEO, social media or lead generation, you can plan market growth first; if platforms, payment collection and contracts are involved, assess the Hong Kong company structure in parallel.
Yes — a daily writing-and-publishing process can be planned, running SEO topic clusters in fully translated Traditional Chinese and English to gradually build search visibility.
SEO is medium-to-long-term, compounding work affected by the website's foundation, competition, content quality, technical condition and external trust. The advisory service improves results gradually through topic clusters, internal links, a content calendar and monthly reviews.
If a company faces both Chinese-speaking decision-makers and overseas clients, Traditional Chinese and English content usually helps with search, brand understanding and sales communication. Whether full bilingual production is needed still depends on the target markets, customer language and service complexity.