Hong Kong

Salary from a foreign employer or fees from foreign clients

Taxed2%–17% progressive, never more than a 15% standard rate (16% on net income above HK$5,000,000)

Salaries tax covers income arising in or derived from Hong Kong from employment, and the law specifically includes all income from services rendered in Hong Kong. The IRD accepts a 'non-Hong Kong employment' when the contract was negotiated, entered into and enforceable outside Hong Kong, with an employer resident abroad, and the pay is made outside Hong Kong. That describes a typical remote employee of a foreign company. Such a person is taxed only on the part of their pay for work physically done in Hong Kong, apportioned by days in Hong Kong over days in the year, with the day of arrival and the day of departure counted together as one day. Leave pay is apportioned in the same way. The catch: if your visits total 61 days or more in a year of assessment (1 April to 31 March), the Hong Kong days are taxed. Under 60 days, they are exempt, but only if your stays are genuine visits; the exemption does not cover the start or end of a long period living in Hong Kong. Your nationality or a foreign tax residence gives no relief. Tax is the lower of two calculations: progressive rates of 2%, 6%, 10% and 14% on successive HK$50,000 bands of net chargeable income and 17% above HK$200,000, after allowances (basic allowance HK$132,000 for 2025/26 and HK$145,000 from 2026/27); or the standard rate on net income before allowances, 15% on the first HK$5,000,000 and 16% above. The 2025/26 bill is reduced by 100%, up to HK$3,000. There is no withholding by a foreign employer, so you must tell the IRD you are chargeable within 4 months after the year of assessment ends if no return was sent to you. Freelancers pay profits tax instead: fees for services are sourced where the services are performed, apportioned if work is done partly abroad. Unincorporated businesses pay 7.5% on the first HK$2,000,000 of assessable profits and 15% above, with 2025/26 profits tax waived up to HK$3,000, and must register with the Business Registration Office within one month of starting. Self-employed people aged 18 to 64 must also join the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) and pay 5% of relevant income between HK$7,100 and HK$30,000 a month (at most HK$18,000 a year). The MPFA guidance does not say whether a foreign employer with no presence in Hong Kong must enrol a remote employee; people who enter Hong Kong for employment for 13 months or less, or who belong to a retirement scheme abroad, are exempt. Hong Kong has comprehensive tax treaties with 54 places, including mainland China, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Canada, but not the United States or Australia.

On the nomad visa

Hong Kong has no digital nomad or remote-work visa. Visitors from the US, the EU and many other countries can stay 90 days visa-free, British citizens 180 days, and others 14 or 30 days or need a visa. Visitors may not take up employment, paid or unpaid, or establish or join any business; the Immigration Department's page does not say whether working remotely for a foreign employer during a visit counts, so check before relying on it. For tax, short visits that total 60 days or less in a year of assessment leave a foreign employee's salary untaxed, but longer stays make the Hong Kong workdays taxable. The usual long-stay routes are the Top Talent Pass Scheme (annual income of HK$2.5 million or more, or a degree from an eligible top university), which gives 36 or 24 months' stay with no job offer needed and no conditions besides the time limit, and the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (net assets of at least HK$30 million and an investment of HK$30 million, including HK$3 million in a government-run portfolio). Holders are taxed like anyone else: on Hong Kong work, not on investment income.

Dividends, interest, gains, rent and pensions from abroad

Not taxed

Hong Kong taxes only three kinds of income: business profits (profits tax), rent from Hong Kong property (property tax) and employment income and pensions (salaries tax). Anything outside those schedules is untaxed, and there is no capital gains tax and no withholding tax on dividends and interest. So an individual pays nothing on dividends, interest, capital gains or rent from property abroad, whether the money comes from Hong Kong or abroad, and whether or not it is brought into Hong Kong. The foreign-sourced income exemption rules introduced in 2023 tax foreign dividends, interest and gains received in Hong Kong only for companies in multinational groups, not for people. The catches: profits from trading (buying and selling as a business, including property dealing) are taxed as business profits, because profits tax excludes only gains on capital assets. Rent from a Hong Kong property pays property tax at 15% of the net assessable value, which is the rent less rates paid by the owner, less a 20% allowance for repairs (about 12% of the rent). Salaries tax covers pensions arising in or derived from Hong Kong, and GovHK says all pensions should be reported. The official pages reviewed do not say how the source of a foreign pension is decided, so check with the IRD before assuming a pension from abroad is untaxed. The official pages reviewed have no specific rule for crypto assets beyond the capital versus trading distinction.

Net wealth and inheritance

No wealth taxNo inheritance tax

Hong Kong has no net wealth tax. Estate duty was abolished for deaths on or after 11 February 2006 (Revenue (Abolition of Estate Duty) Ordinance 2005), and there is no gift tax. Buying Hong Kong property costs ad valorem stamp duty: HK$100 up to HK$4,000,000, then 1.5% to 4.25% by value, and 6.5% on residential property above HK$100,000,000 for instruments from 26 February 2026. Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD), Special Stamp Duty on quick resales (SSD) and the higher flat rate on residential purchases were abolished from 28 February 2024, so every buyer now pays the same scale. Trading Hong Kong shares costs 0.1% stamp duty on each side of the trade, and a gift of Hong Kong shares costs HK$5 plus 0.2% of their value. Hong Kong property also pays rates: 5% of the rateable value, and for homes with a rateable value over HK$550,000, 8% on the next HK$250,000 and 12% above, with a concession of up to HK$500 a quarter for April to September 2026.

Tax resident after

180 days a year

Top income tax rate

17%

When you become tax resident

Hong Kong taxes by source, not by residence: anyone who works in Hong Kong may owe salaries tax whether or not they are resident there. The IRD treats someone as non-resident if they have no home or place of habitual abode in Hong Kong. Residence matters mainly for electing personal assessment and for treaty relief. You qualify if you are ordinarily resident (living in Hong Kong for a settled purpose, such as work or family) or a temporary resident: someone who stays more than 180 days in the year of assessment (1 April to 31 March), or more than 300 days over two consecutive years of assessment. For a nomad, the day count that really matters is different: under salaries tax, work done during visits to Hong Kong that total 60 days or less in a year of assessment is exempt (see remote work). Hong Kong runs its own tax system, separate from mainland China (Basic Law, Article 108), so mainland individual income tax rules do not apply there.

Top income tax rate

Hong Kong (the whole territory, with no local income tax). Salaries tax reaches 17% on net chargeable income above HK$200,000, which is about HK$345,000 of income for a single person in 2026/27 after the HK$145,000 basic allowance and before other deductions. Total tax can never exceed the standard rate on net income before allowances, so above about HK$2,132,500 a year (single, 2026/27; HK$2,022,000 in 2025/26) the marginal rate falls to 15%, and to 16% on net income above HK$5,000,000. The 2025/26 bill is reduced by up to HK$3,000.