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  • 1 Post By jaykay

Liason office

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    169

    Liason office

    My friend intends to start a liason office in HK and shall be using my HK residential address for correspondence. He is not resident in HK but is a frequent visitor to HKG & China. The purpose is not to earn any business income in HK but to display to his clients that he has an office in HK. Is this is the correct way to go about doing this? Or does he need to formally register his company in HK?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    2,446

    Are you saying that he will be using your residential address as his registered business address or purely as a mailing address? It sounds like you will be using it as his business address if he wants an address to claim he has an office in HK? Not sure about HK (sorry!) but certainly in the UK there are all sorts of implications (legal, insurance, etc etc) if you use a residential address as a business address. When I set up my UK company, it was much easier to use my accountant's address as the registered business address and my home address just as a mailing address.

    Maybe this is a bit pedantic but using a friend's address for mail is hardly the same as having an office in HK. I feel a bit sorry for his clients as it sounds like he's planning to dupe them.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Posts
    1,561
    Quote Originally Posted by mangohkd:
    My friend intends to start a liason office in HK and shall be using my HK residential address for correspondence. He is not resident in HK but is a frequent visitor to HKG & China. The purpose is not to earn any business income in HK but to display to his clients that he has an office in HK. Is this is the correct way to go about doing this? Or does he need to formally register his company in HK?
    If his "liason" office is your flat that seems misleading if not outright fraudulent. He would be representing to his customers or business partners that such an office exists when it in fact does not - and that is leaving aside the business registration/ license issues in HK.

    Have a read through here and try to determine if what he is attempting to do needs to be licensed in HK - expect that it does...

    https://www.success.tid.gov.hk/tid/eng/blics/index.jsp

    GovHK: Business & Company Registration

    GovHK: Business & Company Registration

    It is more normal to have an accountant or company secretary act as a registered agent/ address for an entity operating in HK....

  4. #4

    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    4,151

    There are literally 10's of thousands of companies that do the same thing, usually operating from China. Most go down the limited company route and use either accountants addresses or residential addresses. They can use partnerships as well.

    Liason addresses are also quite popularly used between companies as well to give the impression of a presence elsewhere. Just the way it is whether people like it or not.

    bryant.english likes this.