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Working for US company remotely in Hong Kong

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  1. #1

    Working for US company remotely in Hong Kong

    Hi ! I am an US citizen working for an US company. I can work remotely, so I'm thinking about moving to Hong Kong. ( My wife is from HK). Do I have to pay HK taxes? And both federal and state taxes? Thanks !


  2. #2

    Join Date
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    Is your wife a US citizen or green card holder?

    For a US citizen you are taxed on global income. However the first 100k USD approx is tax free. You can increase this a bit more by calculating your housing and cost of living too.

    State tax depends on whether you are a resident or not of that state. Each state has different laws.

    Also will your company do this and do they know how to? I imagine they could hire you as a contractor and you would lose benefits such as social security payments when you retire in the US, unemployment benefits, etc. So you should be paid a higher salary given the tax savings to the company.

    Unless the company has a HK company set up then they could just hire you as a HK employee.

    Really we need more details.


  3. #3

    Hi MandM! Thank you for the response ! I got an offer from a non-profit, and they let me work remotely in a different state. So I'm hoping to negotiate to work in Hong Kong, since the location doesn't really matter for the work I do. This is a small non-profit and they don't have any other locations. My wife is also a citizen. Do you think I can still only pay the HK taxes for the first 100K? And do you know roughly how to calculate the tax exemption for the amount after 100K? And if I pay taxes to HK, does it mean I don't have to pay medicare and social security in US? (Isn't that a benefit since social security is not very promising?) Thanks in advance!


  4. #4

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    Talk to a tax advisor - seriously! You don't want to be facing IRS with your only defence being "someone on the interwebs told me".

    The only definitive thing I can tell you is - you'd need to get a dependant visa for yourself - which the Mrs would have to apply for. This would allow you to work / stay in Hong Kong. Dozens of threads on this site about dependents visas.


  5. #5

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    Shri is right. You should talk to a professional.

    Can you legally work and live in Hk?

    It isn't as simple as I can work in any state in the US so I can work in any country. Sending money and even information in/out of US may be controlled. Some businesses and even some laws protect/restrict this.

    Do you make more than Us$100k per year? Above this you are taxed at a high rate in both Hong Kong and US. It's called double taxation. You can apply for some relief but still you will be taxed a lot.

    For your first US$100k you would only pay Hk taxes.

    For US you only pay federal + state (if required) tax. You can skip Medicare and social security but you won't earn the points for retirement.

    In Hk you will need to open an MPF account and contribute up to hk$3k per month to a hk retirement account. (1500 from employer and 1500 from employee, provided you earn 30k HKD per month up). Under the 30k HKD per month it's just 5% of your income. (5% employer + 5% employee)

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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by MandM!:
    Shri is right. You should talk to a professional.

    Can you legally work and live in Hk?

    It isn't as simple as I can work in any state in the US so I can work in any country. Sending money and even information in/out of US may be controlled. Some businesses and even some laws protect/restrict this.

    Do you make more than Us$100k per year? Above this you are taxed at a high rate in both Hong Kong and US. It's called double taxation. You can apply for some relief but still you will be taxed a lot.

    For your first US$100k you would only pay Hk taxes.

    For US you only pay federal + state (if required) tax. You can skip Medicare and social security but you won't earn the points for retirement.

    In Hk you will need to open an MPF account and contribute up to hk$3k per month to a hk retirement account. (1500 from employer and 1500 from employee, provided you earn 30k HKD per month up). Under the 30k HKD per month it's just 5% of your income. (5% employer + 5% employee)
    In this scenario, say someone makes 200k USD a year in HK, there are MPF and other deductions which makes the HK taxable income say $150k USD and pays 15% tax to HK.
    With Foreign Earned Income Exclusion at around 105k, does US tax on (200k-105k) or (150k-105k)?

  7. #7

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    "Contribute " and MPF, nice euphemism


  8. #8

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    Can deduct the tax you pay to HK as well as rent and utilities (don't need receipts for these so pretty sure there is a lot of creating accounting going on). So you can get it down pretty far.

    Accountant takes care of however MPF is calculated as a deduction or not, not too sure about that. But many people end up owing no tax to the US after all the deductions are said and done...


  9. #9

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    US will tax you on:

    200k - 105k - housing expenses (rent, deposit, utilities, insurance, etc ... check the IRS instructions for list) = Taxable amount.

    Tax you will actually pay is = Tax calculated on the "taxable amount" from above - (tax paid to HK - disallowed amount).

    disallowed amount is basically tax you paid on portion of income that you excluded under foreign earned exclusion, i.e tax you paid to HK on the USD 105k that you excluded.


  10. #10

    Join Date
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    I've looked into the housing expenses allowances, there seems to be 2 types:

    1. The foreign housing exclusion applies only to amounts considered paid for with employer-provided amounts, which includes any amounts paid to you or paid or incurred on your behalf by your employer that are taxable foreign earned income to you for the year.

    2. The housing deduction applies only to amounts paid for with self-employment earnings.

    If a person is a working for a HK company but does not receive employer specifically provided housing or fund, how would one qualify?


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