Freelancing From Hong Kong as an Expat

[HowardCoombs]

Oh, I've read about "off the shelf" companies... do you think that provides any workaround or just delaying the inevitable (work visa, sponsor, etc etc)

Off the shelf or custom named - its just a company. The rest of the process is not going to change.

[thatandyrose]

@howardcoombs, gotcha, thought so. Cool, thanks for all the info. May just have to incorporate in the UK and get f&^%*& by the taxes...

[HowardCoombs]

@howardcoombs, gotcha, thought so. Cool, thanks for all the info. May just have to incorporate in the UK and get f&^%*& by the taxes...

ummm, hang on - what does that have to do with anything?

Incorporating in the UK wont help you one bit with your visa situation.
If you are going to separate the 2 issues (billing vs work visa), then you may as well incorporate somewhere that has zero tax.

[thatandyrose]

Oh, sorry. I'm pretty ignorant with this stuff. I've always been employed so this is new to me.

So I 'm thinking, there's only one place where I can work legally and that's the UK right? Because that's where I'm a citizen. So I'm thinking that's the only place I can set up a company to freelance from?

And then I'm assuming that because my company is british, I'll have to adhere to all the UK tax, right?

So I though I'd keep living in hong kong, but technically be invoicing from my UK company?

Have I got it all wrong?

[hullexile]

Oh, sorry. I'm pretty ignorant with this stuff. I've always been employed so this is new to me.

So I 'm thinking, there's only one place where I can work legally and that's the UK right? Because that's where I'm a citizen. So I'm thinking that's the only place I can set up a company to freelance from?

And then I'm assuming that because my company is british, I'll have to adhere to all the UK tax, right?

So I though I'd keep living in hong kong, but technically be invoicing from my UK company?

Have I got it all wrong?

How long would you intend to live in HK

[emx]

So I though I'd keep living in hong kong, but technically be invoicing from my UK company?

Have I got it all wrong?

Yes.

You need a visa to live in Hong Kong, plain and not really that simple.

[HowardCoombs]

You are mixing things up

Residing in Hong Kong without an appropriate visa is a no no.

The above has nothing to do with how you bill another company for your work, and where the billing company is incorporated. Having this other company in UK makes no sense whatsoever and wont help your HKG situation in any way.

[scrambler]

if u can open a bank account u might be ok... doesnt have to be a business account... I dont think tax dep from diff countries really hook up... so if the money is leaving Aus legally,, ie they have an invoice and on that invoice is an account to pay into with a name... then you are set - whether its a personal account here...

I have a french customer - aside from moaning alot about nothing - he did pay into my personal account on several occasions ( due to dum ass HSBC rejecting transfers into my biz account for some pedantic reason ) ... all he cared about was the invoice had a matchin bank account number that he could prove he paid into... of course I declared this to my accountant...

if i had a laptop set up - i would be on a plane to thailand an work from there as well... in my wife's undies too!

so if u can get a bank account here - you might be ok... altho there is some risk - but for baiscally half mill a year u aint exactly the big money launderin king pin they searchin for...

[thatandyrose]

@all ahh sorry guys. Maybe I should be more open about my goals!

So the ultimate goal here is to be an "international" worker, working remotely from wherever I want. I'm a software engineer.

So, I'm happy to adhere to HK's visa rules. I think I get 3 months as a british national. Then after 3 months maybe I'll work somewhere else, or I'll go to Thailand for a few months, then come back to Hong Kong.. it's really not set in stone.

Ideally I'd love to have Hong Kong as a base. I think it's legal for me to go out and back in as many times as HK immigration allows me too.

The secondary goal is, it would be great to take advantage of HK's low tax rate to run by freelancing business. But I'm thinking that's not possible.

In terms of incorporating in the UK. You guys are right, it doesn't help me be a resident in HK. But that's ok, I don't need to be a resident. I only wanted to take advantage of the tax rate if I could legally.

But otherwise I have to incorporate somewhere right? And I figure the UK is the only place right now?

[thatandyrose]

if u can open a bank account u might be ok... doesnt have to be a business account... I dont think tax dep from diff countries really hook up... so if the money is leaving Aus legally,, ie they have an invoice and on that invoice is an account to pay into with a name... then you are set - whether its a personal account here...

I have a french customer - aside from moaning alot about nothing - he did pay into my personal account on several occasions ( due to dum ass HSBC rejecting transfers into my biz account for some pedantic reason ) ... all he cared about was the invoice had a matchin bank account number that he could prove he paid into... of course I declared this to my accountant...

if i had a laptop set up - i would be on a plane to thailand an work from there as well... in my wife's undies too!

so if u can get a bank account here - you might be ok... altho there is some risk - but for baiscally half mill a year u aint exactly the big money launderin king pin they searchin for...

haha @scrambler, I owe you a drink!!! Yeah.. so, that's exactly what I'm thinking too.

I'm talking to the HSBC tomorrow to try and set up a bank account here. And then yeah... that's the kind of other option, to just invoice them as me, and forget the tax altogether.

While living in Australia we hired so many offshore ODesk workers, we never cared about their legality of course and they were overseas. And I assume they're earnings we're insignificant. Most of them we're paid via PayPal and they never provided what seemed like entities.

Don't get me started on the french. ;-) I kid!

#undies-on