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Follow on Google News | World Bank Doing Business survey shows Hong Kong retaining its top-five rankingHong Kong retains top-five ranking as one of the world’s best business locations and also keeps fourth-place ranking as one of the most business-friendly tax environments
The latest report, Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency, shows Hong Kong again ranked as the world’s fifth easiest economy in which to do business, with its tax environment ranked fourth in the world. The city tops the survey in terms of the lowest number of payments companies are required to make, with businesses only required to submit returns, on a yearly and monthly basis, for profits tax and labour/mandatory contributions; On which basis, it is all the more surprising that entrepreneurs are having to spend an average of 74 hours on their tax returns, putting the city in only 10th place in terms of the total compliance burden: an issue which does, perhaps, indicate further enhancement in the reporting system is required. As it currently stands, online filing is not available, for example, to businesses with gross turnover above HK$2m (c. €250,000); in respect of taxpayers having to make intellectual property payments to non-residents; James Ngai, Managing Partner, Russell Bedford Hong Kong, commented: “It is gratifying to see Hong Kong retain its position as one of the most business-friendly environments in the world. But anomalous conditions – particularly regarding online tax filing services being available only to small businesses – are perpetuating an unnecessarily high compliance burden for medium and large businesses, and demand urgent and immediate relaxation, as well as rethinking of the process, so that online filing can be rolled out as soon as possible.” ENDS About Russell Bedford Hong Kong Established in 1994, Russell Bedford Hong Kong has since grown to become a full-service professional consulting firm providing tax, accounting, secretarial and business advisory services to clients throughout the Asia-Pacific Region. A dedicated audit practice, Russell Bedford James Ngai CPA Limited, was established in 1999. The firm’s diverse clientele ranges from small private companies to major organisations, including companies listed in Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States. Contact: James Ngai Russell Bedford Hong Kong T: +852 2851 0260 E: jamesngai@russellbedford.com.hk W: www.russellbedford.com.hk About Russell Bedford International Established in 1983, Russell Bedford International is a global network of independent firms of accountants, auditors, tax advisers and business consultants. Ranked amongst the world’s leading accounting and audit networks, Russell Bedford is represented by some 600 partners, 5000 staff and 290 offices in more than 100 countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Russell Bedford International is a member of the IFAC Forum of Firms and a member of EGIAN, the European Group of International Accounting Networks and Associations. About the World Bank Doing Business project The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 189 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. The Doing Business project, launched in 2002, looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle. By gathering and analyzing comprehensive quantitative data to compare business regulation environments across economies and over time, Doing Business encourages economies to compete towards more efficient regulation; offers measurable benchmarks for reform; and serves as a resource for academics, journalists, private sector researchers and others interested in the business climate of each economy. In addition, Doing Business offers detailed subnational reports, which exhaustively cover business regulation and reform in different cities and regions within a nation. These reports provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. Selected cities can compare their business regulations with other cities in the economy or region and with the 189 economies that Doing Business has ranked. The first Doing Business report, published in 2003, covered 5 indicator sets and 133 economies. The new report covers 11 indicator sets and 189 economies. Most indicator sets refer to a case scenario in the largest business city of each economy, except for 11 economies that have a population of more than 100 million as of 2013 (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States) where Doing Business, also collected data for the second largest business city. The data for these 11 economies are a population-weighted average for the two largest business cities. The project has benefited from feedback from governments, academics, practitioners and reviewers. The initial goal remains: to provide an objective basis for understanding and improving the regulatory environment for business around the world. Contact: Kempton Bedell-Harper, Russell Bedford International T: +44 20 7410 0339 E: kempton.bedell- W: www.russellbedford.com End
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