Hong Kong To Table Anti-BEPS Law This Year

The Government of Hong Kong has said that it will introduce legislation into the Legislative Council by the end of this year to implement the minimum standards proposed by the OECD as part of its base erosion and profit shifting project.

The BEPS framework, proposed by the OECD at the end of 2015, provided that countries should adopt changes to their international tax rules, to tackle multinational tax avoidance.

The minimum standards, which Hong Kong has committed to transpose into its own laws, aim to tackle harmful tax practices and tax treaty abuse, and would introduce new country-by-country transfer pricing reporting rules and improve dispute resolution mechanisms.

At the end of July, the Government said that it will now develop legislation, having received support from stakeholders in a consultation on the measures. It said a total of 26 written submissions were received. A spokesperson said: “We welcome the general support from the respondents for the proposed implementation strategy, which focuses on the four minimum standards set by the OECD whilst maintaining Hong Kong’s simple and low tax regime. Having regard to the comments received, we will fine-tune certain parameters of the proposals to address stakeholders’ concerns.”