Hello everyone,
I am a licensed tour guide in Romania, and I run private tours in Romania and Bulgaria.
I have been thinking for a while now to open a company in Hong Kong and accept the payments through it.
From what I have been reading, Hong Kong is not exactly off shore, but I think this is better, since they are cooking some anti - offshore laws over here, and besides, the profit tax is also zero there.
Now, I have a few questions regarding the whole thing:
- it seems that if the activity generating the income happens outside Hong Kong, the tax rate is zero. However, since I also plan to have a bank account in Hong Kong, isn't the transaction coming in also an income generating activity? When it comes to running my tours, I can easily prove that they do not happen in Hong Kong (when I file the annual tax reports), but how are they looking into the transactions coming in?
- once the whole thing gets going, I will have debit cards attached to my HK accounts. Is there any limit to the type of expenses I can write off as a business expense? From what I have been reading, there isn't, but I just want to make sure.
- what would be a good company to contact in order to have the HK company set up? And if they also open the bank accounts, how do I make sure they don't have access to them from that point on?
- the last (and probably most important question) is how can I accept payments through the HK company? I have contacted a few banks there to ask if I could process credit cards through them, the answers were all negative. Would Pay Pal/Moneybookers work (even if I have to give them a proof of address of the company)? Needless to say, if I am not able to charge clients using the HK company, it will not make much sense to start the whole thing at all.
Thanks a lot to all the ones who will read this.
I am a licensed tour guide in Romania, and I run private tours in Romania and Bulgaria.
I have been thinking for a while now to open a company in Hong Kong and accept the payments through it.
From what I have been reading, Hong Kong is not exactly off shore, but I think this is better, since they are cooking some anti - offshore laws over here, and besides, the profit tax is also zero there.
Now, I have a few questions regarding the whole thing:
- it seems that if the activity generating the income happens outside Hong Kong, the tax rate is zero. However, since I also plan to have a bank account in Hong Kong, isn't the transaction coming in also an income generating activity? When it comes to running my tours, I can easily prove that they do not happen in Hong Kong (when I file the annual tax reports), but how are they looking into the transactions coming in?
- once the whole thing gets going, I will have debit cards attached to my HK accounts. Is there any limit to the type of expenses I can write off as a business expense? From what I have been reading, there isn't, but I just want to make sure.
- what would be a good company to contact in order to have the HK company set up? And if they also open the bank accounts, how do I make sure they don't have access to them from that point on?
- the last (and probably most important question) is how can I accept payments through the HK company? I have contacted a few banks there to ask if I could process credit cards through them, the answers were all negative. Would Pay Pal/Moneybookers work (even if I have to give them a proof of address of the company)? Needless to say, if I am not able to charge clients using the HK company, it will not make much sense to start the whole thing at all.
Thanks a lot to all the ones who will read this.
