Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Automatic Exchange of Information) Bill 2026 to be gazetted
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As an international financial and trade centre, Hong Kong has been supporting international efforts in enhancing tax transparency and combating cross-border tax evasion. Since 2018, Hong Kong has been conducting automatic exchange of financial account information with partner jurisdictions on an annual basis, in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and on the premise of data confidentiality and security. This enables the relevant tax authorities to conduct assessment on their tax residents, as well as detect and combat tax evasion.
The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, said, "Since 2024, the OECD has been conducting the second round of peer review on Hong Kong's implementation of the AEOI regime. Having taken into consideration the OECD's views, we propose amending the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) to enhance the relevant administrative framework, including requiring reporting financial institutions to register with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) for strengthening identification, enhancing the requirements on keeping due diligence records, and raising the penalties to increase deterrence. The relevant amendments will take effect from January 1, 2027. Addressing the OECD's comments in a timely manner will help Hong Kong maintain a favourable rating in the peer review and safeguard Hong Kong's reputation as an international financial centre.
"The Government conducted a public consultation between December last year and February this year. We are pleased that stakeholders, including professional bodies and the financial sector, generally support the above legislative proposals. We have duly taken into account their views on the implementation details when drafting the Bill."
To assist the industry in adapting to the new requirements and enhance tax certainty, the IRD will issue relevant guidance in due course and provide technical support to the industry and answer enquiries.
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first reading on April 1.
Ends/Wednesday, March 25, 2026
Issued at HKT 15:36
Issued at HKT 15:36
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