Should I close my Hong Kong Company, should I go to Singapore or somewhere else?
- Greater Bay Area of South China still the best gateway into mainland China.
Mike : So for Greater Bay Area or GBA, Hong Kong is part of this initiative and you are doing Business with mainland China and you think Hong Kong is better of course over Singapore or other options, what can you say?
Ray : well, yes, the Greater Bay Area included the many cities, and one of the cities is obviously is Hong Kong, so they have more measures and initiatives to have Hong Kong to make businesses in China, well, while Singapore is located in South East Asia so they are more close to ASEAN countries, so if you want to do Business in China, I think Hong Kong definitely is still the better place, because you got more support from the government.
Mike : Okay, but then again, so a pro for the Singapore would be if you’re doing a business in the South East Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, other places that might be a better place for them?
Ray : I think one of the greatest thing about Singapore is they have more double taxation treaties sign with countries.
Mike : okay, the double taxation, true, so that means they wouldn’t have to pay tax twice in their home country and in Singapore.
2. Can get offshore claim even with a local Hong Kong Bank account
Mike : People more like the offshore option in Hong Kong, there is also an offshore in Singapore. Hong Kong is some living to be easy or some living the policy of the offshore claim and Hong Kong vs Singapore, I think you said the banking, and if you’d actually used in Singapore the Bank, you will not be able to use the offshore option claim in Singapore.
Ray : So, for people who want to apply offshore status, something you have to be careful, because if you have a Singapore company and you have a Singapore bank, then your customer pay you in your Singapore bank account, then you’ll make your offshore status being very difficult or even impossible, but in Hong Kong, there is no such a limitation, in Hong Kong Bank or overseas bank it doesn’t really affect your offshore status.
3. Only Need a Company Secretary, No Need to hire or elect Hong Kong Nominee Director.
Mike : In Hong Kong is local secretary requirement where in Singapore is Local Director, and that’s a bit difference in cost and other things, right?
Ray : Right, I think you are talking about in Singapore they require you to have a local director, in company structure and of course you may hear about nominees director share, that means you got somebody in Singapore a local resident to be a director and acting on behalf of your instructions, but of course this cost you money, it’s roughly around 20,000USd in the market, some people do lower price, some people do higher price, but there’s another additional requirement that usually the local resident would requires you to pay them for a deposit, and then the deposit, you may be curious why would they need a deposit, because the director would take care of all the liability, if something goes wrong, then the director maybe to jail or pay the penalty on behalf of the company, this one will be compensated to the local residents.
Mike : so that means like a local Singaporean residents, with a IC card, I think there even limitation, they have a certain amount of company that can be a local director of, in Singapore, I believe, they cannot be a director of a 1 thousand company, I think. The biggest difference is where HK is just a company secretary, so there are liabilities for somebody be in the company secretary, right? In HK.
Ray : Yes, it can be all the local or foreigners, generally speaking, the cost of a setting up a Singapore company is like 3 times higher than setting up a Hong Kong Company. And the maintenance cost is also higher than Hong Kong, so you got to think about this.
4. More investment options in Hong Kong Than Singapore
Mike : a lot of people are getting more investment opportunities or investment products in hong Kong market than in Singapore market?
Ray : we were talking about that some people, some business owners or entrepreneurs, they are considering to move money in Singapore, well, because the political government there is more stable but I think the financial products are not diversified, people move money there but still purchase the Hong Kong stocks to make money, but also in Singapore, I think the real estate
market is not as exciting as Hong Kong, so for those want to invest, it’s a good environment to protect your asset, and if you want something exciting then maybe Hong Kong is actually better.
5. Stability or Flexibility
Mike : I think the last part which is I think the biggest part on people’s today market is Stability. I guess, you have to stay would be safer in Singapore, that’s why people have been talking to us at unipro about maybe re-incorporating in Singapore, of course, there is no vandalism here but, It’s in October 2019, there been a lot of vandalism here and other scary things, but obviously Singapore I guess would win the financial stability, I still think, I have my bank, my money here, Most people keep their money here, people are getting afraid of the financial stability in Hong Kong now, we’re getting towards the 2019, should we all be worried?
Ray : Not to be over worried. But it’s good to do something, but I think, as you can see, people are still enjoying their life everyday, so not over worried, but just to get prepared, for the stability vs flexibility, if you want more stability, maybe Singapore is better option for you, but if you want more flexibility, especially you are doing international trading, I still think that Hong Kong is a good choice.
Mike : I hope you guys enjoyed, we are Global From Asia, official partner of Unipro Hong Kong, and if you are interested, we are mostly focus on Company incorporation in Hong Kong, right?
Ray : Yes, but we are also able to helping set up some Singapore companies, and also we are expanding the jurisdiction.
Mike : Yes, we’ve been busy, as I travelled down southeast Asia, and you’ve been down there on other jurisdiction in Asia, so Uniprohk.com for the website or GlobalFromAsia.com is happy to be partnered with Unipro.