New Content Daily Sign Up Here

Black boxes and taxes – an unheady mix!

QUESTION

Hi Stephen,

A friend of mine is looking into the idea of residing in Hong Kong. He’s a soon to be traditionally published book author in the United States, and he’s based in another country.

Well, assuming his work becomes a financial hit and reasonably well known in first world countries (not on the scale of Rowling, but I think you get what I mean), do you think he’ll find higher success with the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme?

What other visa options can he consider if you think the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme is still going to be like a lottery draw?

And assuming he does get to stay in Hong Kong, since his royalties will be coming from a US based company that already deducts their share and US withholding tax, does he need to open up a company there to receive his funds, or can he just open up a Hong Kong bank account and start depositing his cheques there without having to worry about Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department swooping down on him?

(I take it they won’t need to since the funds are foreign-sourced, but is this really the case or am I missing something here?)

Thanks again for your time!

ANSWER

Like anything to do with the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme (QMAS), in the final analysis, your guess is as good as mine as to the chances of approvability for any particular skill set or any particular candidate. Given the circumstances surrounding the professional career of your friend, it seems to me that if he’s going to make an application under the QMAS, then it’s going to be under the Achievement-based Points Test rather than the General Point Test,sothat would require the candidate to have a significant amount of peer recognition for his accomplishments, that would suggest that if he’s had one good book, then it may not be sufficient, there could be a requirement to have a track record of publishing; also, I think I suspect depends on the nature of his writing.

So, as I say, that’s just me surmising that there is the possibility of an application under the Achievement-based Points Test; and that would be it, whether he’s going to get approved or not, as I say, your crystal ball is just as good as mine.

In terms of other applications that might be open to him, it seems to me that there probably is only the capital investment entrance scheme, which is a HKD10 million investment for residence program that takes six to eight months to complete.

If he has that level of funds and he’s prepared to lock them into qualifying investment asset classes in the HKSAR, then there’s a very good chance to get unlimited approvals under the capital investment entrance scheme, which would seem living, working, doing whatever he wish quite lawfully in Hong Kong without any further reference to his rationale for being here.

Aside from that, I can’t really envisage there any other immigration status that would be suitable for him if he’s just going to carry on writing and being a self commissioned author. So that’s about the shape of his options as regards immigration. Now in relation to your questions as regards taxation, my expertise is in immigration and not in tax, I’m afraid, so I’m not qualified to answer that question for you.

Okay. I hope you found this helpful nonetheless.

Check Out VisaGeeza.Ai

All Our Know-How : All Our Experience : Fully Interactive

100% FREE!

More Stuff You May Find Interesting Or Useful

STOP PRESS! Hitler’s HKSAR Passport Application Has Been Denied!

The Impact Of Brain Drain And Resulting Immigration Policy Development

The HKID Are Out To Deny, Not Approve, Visa Applications – Aren’t They?

The Hong Kong Immigration Department – What An Efficient Organisation They Really Are!

A Public Thank You To The Hong Kong Immigration Department

PODCAST ANSWER

Podcast: Play in new window