HONG KONG: Hong Kong and Ireland on June 8 signed an agreement to commence automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters beginning 2018, the Hong Kong government has announced. Under such an agreement, Hong Kong would automatically exchange with Ireland, financial account information about accounts in Hong Kong held by Irish tax residents while Ireland would automatically exchange with Hong Kong financial account information about accounts in Ireland held by Hong Kong tax residents.
“Including the agreement with Ireland, Hong Kong now has 12 [automatic exchange of information] partners. The others are Belgium, Canada, Guernsey, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, South Africa and the United Kingdom,” a government spokesperson said. The Hong Kong government also said it plans to extend the application of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. Further, an amendment bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council in late 2017 to further expand Hong Kong’s automatic exchange of information network, the government said.
