China Regulatory Brief: Hong Kong Tax Relief, Simplified Company Registration Procedures

March 2, 2015 Posted by China Briefing Reading Time: 4 minutes

Guangdong Raises Minimum Wage Levels for 2015

On February 15, the Guangdong Provincial Government released the “Circular on Adjusting Minimum Wage Levels for Employees in Guangdong,” which adjusted monthly and hourly minimum levels starting May 1, 2015. The Guangdong government has divided its cities into four wage classes and set different minimum wage levels accordingly. The monthly minimum wage in Guangdong’s A class city Guangzhou has been adjusted to RMB 1,895, while the hourly minimum wage has been adjusted to RMB 18.3. In its B class cities such as Zhuhai, Foshan and Dongguan, the monthly minimum wage will be raised to RMB 1,510.

China Further Supports the Development of Elderly Care Industry

To further support the development of elderly care industry, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs and nine other departments jointly released the “Opinions on Encouraging Private Enterprises to Invest in Elderly Care Industry.” The Opinions officially implemented certain preferential tax policies for private nursing homes, including:

The transference of land and immovable property resulted from asset reorganization shall be exempt from business tax and value-added tax (VAT);
Eligible small low-profit nursing homes shall enjoy business tax, income tax and VAT incentives; and
Incomes earned by eligible non-profit nursing homes may be exempt from corporate income tax.

Hong Kong Steps Forward Tax Relief

On February 25, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary John C Tsang announced the Hong Kong 2015-16 Annual Budget and released a slew of tax relief policies to boost growth in Hong Kong. Both the individual income and profits tax are included in the proposed tax relief measures. Specifically, the measures include a 75 percent reduction in salaries tax, profits tax and tax under personal assessment for 2014-15, capped at a reduction amount of HK$20,000. Tsang also announced his plan to cut the tax on treasury activities to 50 percent, in a move to attract multinational and mainland enterprises to provide treasury services for companies in Hong Kong.

China Continues to Support Small Enterprises

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang recently announced a plan to further support the development of small and micro enterprises at a State Council meeting held on February 25. According to the existing preferential policy, small enterprises with annual taxable income not exceeding RMB 100,000 can pay corporate income tax based on half of their annual income. The State Council decided to extend the scope to cover small enterprises with annual taxable income not exceeding RMB 200,000. Further, these small enterprises shall be taxed at a reduced tax rate of 20 percent. The decision took effect on January 1, 2015 and will last until December 31, 2017.

Guangdong Free Trade Zone Simplifies Companies Registration Procedures

The Guangdong provincial government recently approved a plan to simplify the companies registration procedures in the Guangdong Free Trade Zone. Specifically, the organization code certificate and tax registration certificate will no longer be issued separately. Instead, the local Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) will issue a special business license to enterprises with both organization code and tax registration code on it. In China, a company needs to obtain the pre-approval, business license, organization code and tax registration certificate with several different departments. The policy will provide investors with substantial time and cost savings.

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Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email china@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com.

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