Business owners are always concerned about how to incorporate a company and the logistics around running one. However, one aspect of running a business that many business owners fail to recognize is the deregister of a company. Deregistration is not a situation to expect but is always good to prepare for.
When to make a Deregistration decision?
Once your company in Hong Kong has come to standstill for more than a year. Or your company has not conducted business or generate any revenue for a long period of time. That is the situation telling you to deregister your business. Sad to tell this is part of an entrepreneur’s journey.
How long does the Deregistration process take?
Deregister of a company takes around 10 months or more to close down a company in Hong Kong. You are now thinking: “THAT’S LONG, HOW COME?” It is a thorough process, and I will explain you now the different steps!
What are the Steps:
Inform your company secretary that you are needing to close down the company
You will need to confirm the Date of Cessation and also needing to arrange the last accounting and auditing or not.
Your company secretary will prepare resolutions and documents to inform the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and Company Registry (CR) of decision of deregister of your company.
Deregister Filing to IRD
When all details are confirmed and signing the original applications, your company secretary will first file to IRD.
IRD will take around 3 months to check through all tax departments. IRD can reject on issuing Notice of No Objection to the client and Company Registry, when companies has outstandings including:
- There is outstanding tax, court fee, penalty etc.
- There are outstanding matters concerning Profit Tax, Property Tax, Stamp Duty or Business Registration.
All related issues are cleared, IRD will send a Notice of No Objection to the registered office address.
Deregister Filing to Company Registry
Withe the IRD letter, we will then be able to file CR form along. Again Company Registry will go thought their internal process if there are outstanding of Company Registry fees, Annual Returns or related matters.
CR will post out a Government Gazette publicly if anyone objects this company to close down. To avoid companies that have not settled bills to their suppliers to run away. This post will be up for 3 months.
When there is no objection from the public between the 3 months of Gazette posting, CR will send a confirmation to the registered office an acknowledge receipt of the Application for Deregistration.
At this stage, all companies undergoing deregistration must still file any outstanding Annual Returns, and to follow their duties as per the Companies Ordinance until the company has been dissolved prior to submitting the deregistration application. For instance, besides ensuring the delivery of their Annual Returns, a company must also provide notifications on the change of address of their registered office, any changes in the company secretary and director and so on. It’s still required to keep company in good shape during the deregistration process.
Confirmation of Deregistration
It takes another 3 months from the acknowledge receipt issues, CR will send the Confirmation of Deregistration, confirming the whole deregistration process is completed and the company is officially closed down.
For further information, please contact us.
You may want to read: OPTIONS OF CLOSING BUSINESS IN HONG KONG- WINDING-UP OR DEREGISTRATION