Hong Kong trust tax and reporting

Does Hong Kong tax the trust itself?

It can, in some cases. Persons, including trustees, carrying on a trade, profession or business in Hong Kong are chargeable to profits tax on profits arising in or derived from Hong Kong (source: Inland Revenue Department, Profits tax).

Profits from the sale of capital assets are excluded from that charge (same source).

Whether a particular trust carries on a business in Hong Kong, whether any of its profits arise there and whether a gain is capital or trading all turn on its facts.

Your tax adviser and Hong Kong counsel confirm the position for your trust; we do not promise any tax result.

Stamp duty is a separate Hong Kong charge. It can arise when Hong Kong shares or Hong Kong property move into a trust (source: Stamp Duty Ordinance, Cap. 117).

The set-up costs page explains when the law firm checks it.

Residency and what it changes

Residency is the first question, because it decides which rules apply and to whom. Three kinds of residence matter: the trust’s, the trustee’s and each person connected with it.

For automatic exchange of information, the IRD treats an entity as resident in Hong Kong if it is constituted under Hong Kong law.

It does the same if the entity is constituted elsewhere but normally managed or controlled in Hong Kong (source: Inland Revenue Department, AEOI frequently asked questions).

On that test, a trust constituted under Hong Kong law would usually be resident in Hong Kong for automatic exchange purposes; your adviser confirms this for your trust.

For a trust constituted elsewhere, the test is whether it is normally managed or controlled in Hong Kong; your adviser confirms how that test applies to your trust.

Your own residence matters most for your own tax. The country where you, your spouse or your children live usually has its own rules on trusts, on gifts into a trust and on distributions out of it.

Hong Kong rules cannot replace those, which is why we ask for your adviser’s confirmation before signing.

CRS and FATCA reporting

Hong Kong takes part in the Common Reporting Standard, known as CRS (source: Inland Revenue Department, AEOI Ordinance 2026).

Under it, financial institutions report accounts held by individuals and entities that are tax resident in reportable jurisdictions (source: AEOI frequently asked questions).

A trust with a Hong Kong trustee can be a reporting financial institution in its own right, can be reported for by its trustee, or, if it is not a financial institution, can be reported on by the bank that holds its account.

Which applies depends on the trust’s facts, and your adviser confirms it.

A new ordinance tightens the rules (source: IRD, Automatic Exchange of Information Ordinance 2026). It comes into operation on 1 January 2027:

• every reporting financial institution must register in the IRD’s AEOI Portal, even with nothing to report;
• reporting financial institutions that existed before 2027 and are not yet registered must do so by 31 March 2027;
• a trust need not register separately where its trustee registers it and reports its data;
• records must be kept for six years after the return’s due date.

The United States has its own regime, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) (source: US Internal Revenue Service, FATCA).

Whether a trust is treated as a financial institution or as another kind of entity under FATCA depends on how it is structured and managed. We confirm the classification with your adviser at set-up.

What the trustee reports and when

Where the trust or its trustee reports, the trustee files details of the trust’s controlling persons and the financial accounts it maintains. Where the bank reports instead, the trustee gives the bank those details.

For a trust, the IRD lists the people to identify as the settlor, the protector or enforcer, the trustee and the beneficiaries (source: AEOI frequently asked questions, Q37).

Source: AEOI frequently asked questions (Q27 and Q37).

The trustee also keeps the records behind each report. On your request, we tell you what was reported about you and, with your consent, send a copy to your adviser.

Good records make each reporting cycle smoother. It helps to keep the signed deed, the current list of controlling persons and each person’s tax residence details in one place.

Tell the trustee promptly when a residence, an address or a family circumstance changes. A change can affect what the self-certification form should say.

The trustee then updates its file and applies any new details at the next review, which keeps the information in each return in line with the facts.

Your own tax position

Your own tax position is for your advisers, not for us. We do not give tax advice, and nothing on this page tells you what tax you will or will not pay.

What we do is make your adviser’s job easier. We send the draft deed, the asset list, the beneficiary details and the reporting set-up, and we flag points that often need a view:

• tax on transferring assets into the trust where you live;
• how distributions are taxed in each beneficiary’s country;
• whether any company under the trust is treated as resident somewhere else;
• inheritance or estate tax where you or your assets are located.

Hong Kong abolished estate duty for deaths on or after 11 February 2006 (source: Inland Revenue Department, Estate duty). That is a fact about Hong Kong only; it says nothing about the taxes where your family lives.

The overview of Hong Kong trusts explains how the trust works, and the cost guide shows where tax advice sits among the third-party costs.

We update this page when the IRD changes its guidance.

For the steps around reporting at set-up, see the Hong Kong set-up walkthrough, the legal framework page and the questions families ask most.