CentreO Blog

Since March 2018, Company Registry imply Guideline on Compliance of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter -Terrorist Financing Requirements for Trust or Company Services Providers.  There has been total of 1800 of TCSP licenses issued within the past 1.5 year.  There has been 1024 TCSP licensed operator being interviewed. Total of 452 warnings given out to licensed holder and 32 firms has been prosecuted.

You may ask what does AML and CTF policies about, what is required by the Company Registry.

We as your licensed service provider of being your firms Company Secretary, we are required to perform:

1. Risk Assessment and Management
2. Customer  Due Diligence (CDD) measures
3. Ongoing Monitoring during servicing period
4. Suspicious Transactions Reporting
5. Record Keeping
6. Identify Ultimate Beneficially Owner and also Local Representative

Centre O do send out CDD forms and request our clients to check/ fill out information about their businesses/ personal details including passport number, date of birth, place of birth, Clients are required to  sign and acknowledge the information are true and correct. These information will be kept internally under Centre O’s CRM system, and only will be shared with Company Registry when CR officer come specifically asking for it.

For more information, please contact josephine@centreo.hk

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan recently set out his budget for 2019-2020.  Due to the uncertainties in the global economic landscape caused a decline in growth and confidence among enterprises. The budget was prepared with the aim of “supporting enterprises, safeguarding jobs, stabilising the economy, strengthening livelihoods.”

Below is the highlight of the budget for SMEs.

Support for Enterprises

• Waiver of business registration fees for 2019-20.
• Convert the Technology Voucher Programme into a regular funding programme and double the maximum amount enterprises can apply for to HK$400,000.
• Injection of HK$1 billion into the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading and Domestic Sales.
• Application deadline extended for special concessionary measures under the SME Financing Guarantee Scheme to end of June 2020.
• Expansion of Economic and Trade Office network to strengthen the promotion of, and to facilitate exploring new business opportunities for Hong Kong enterprises overseas.

Innovation and Technology

• HK$5.5 billion to be set aside for the development of Cyberport 5 to accommodate more technology companies and start-ups.
• Further HK$38 billion to be invested into new I&T initiatives with an emphasis on supporting R&D in local universities.

Profits Tax

• Profits tax for the year of assessment 2018-19 to be reduced by 75% subject to a ceiling of HK$20,000.
• The two-tiered profits tax rate for companies to remain unchanged at 8.25% on first HK$2 million profits and 16.5% standard rate on remaining taxable profits.
• Aim to have the double taxation agreements from 40 to 50 in the next few years.

Still, this is the proposals subject to final approval from the Legislative Council.

The United States and Canada are two members that participate in the APEC program. The American and Canadian APEC cardholders can use expedited immigration when they visit the APEC participating countries. However, they must have a US and Canada visa when they visit these two countries. In the US, the Customs and Border Protection is the government agency that handles the application process for the APEC.

The APEC has the same size as a credit card, and it contains the cardholder’s name, date of birth, sex, home economy/country, expiry date, signature, and passport number. No country or nationality is on the card. Business travelers can also get APEC for 5 years. A person of a third party country can apply for an APEC card, and the costs of applying for the APEC is different from country to country.