Chinese Edition           April, 2019 | www.zetland.biz/ Dear Friends of Zetland, We have recently updated our website www.zetland.biz. The new website is more streamlined than the old version and content has been reduced. The website is offered in English, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Japanese, Spanish and Russian. We would welcome any feedback on the new website since we intend to continuously improve it. Under pressure from the European Union amongst others offshore jurisdictions are increasingly bringing in regulations which require “economic substance” to be demonstrated for resident corporations. In this newsletter is an important article on the requirements in the British Virgin Islands (“BVI”). What is notable is the speed at which the BVI has acted (30 June 2019 deadline for old companies) and the severe penalties for non-compliance. However the BVI is merely the first jurisdiction to act others will follow – for example Belize has just tabled similar legislation. Zetland staff will be reviewing all clients’ BVI companies with a view to advising any action needed. Don’t worry – we do have solutions that will not require shipping staff and office equipment out to Tortola to show business activity! We are also happy to offer advice and options to any non-clients who may be interested. Yours sincerely, James C Sutherland Chairman Hong Kong 2019-2020 Budget Highlights On 27 February 2019, the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong announced the Budget for the fiscal year 2019-2020. The forecast is that for the fiscal year 2018-19, there will be a surplus of HKD 58.7 billion. [More...] Rankings We seem to be in the season for the publishing of rankings of countries for various things related to business or quality of life. I think what is interesting is not just the absolute order of rank. [More...] BVI Economic Substance Requirement The EU code of conduct Group (“the Code Group”) has assessed the tax policies of BVI in 2017 and opine that BVI should be included in a list of jurisdictions which were required to address the Code Group’s concerns about “economic substance”. [More...] Global Tax Transparent Compliance Trust Structure Trend and US Investment Environment On March 1, 2019, Zetland Fiduciary Group, in collaboration with the Nautilus Family Office, co-organized a private event with the theme of “Global Tax Transparent Compliance Trust Structure Trend and US Investment Environment”. [More...] Belize Update The European Union (EU) on March 12th, 2019 issued its list of “non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes,” which includes Belize among the ten new black listed countries. [More...] April Fool! Hong Kong is suffering a miniature measles epidemic especially amongst Cathay Pacific staff. Readers may be amused by the following exchange…. [More...] Zetland Tax Advisors News China Strengthens Tax Incentives for Manufacturing and Small-scale and Low-profit Enterprises The Chinese government carried out a large-scale tax cut in 2019. In January 2019, the Ministry of Finance issued a notice to implement the policy of inclusive tax relief for small and micro enterprises, and implemented an inclusive tax reduction and exemption policy for small and micro enterprises. For small-scale taxpayers with a monthly sales of less than 100,000 yuan (including this number), they are exempt from VAT. [More...] Removal of Hong Kong from EU Tax Watchlist On March 12, 2019, the European Commission removed Hong Kong from the European Union’s watchlist on non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. The decision was welcomed by the Hong Kong Government. Hong Kong’s Secretary for Finance Services & Treasury, James Lau, stated that “the latest decision shows that Hong Kong’s compliance with international tax cooperation is recognized by the international community.” [More...] Upcoming Holidays Hong Kong : Apr 19-22, May 1 and 13 China : May 1 Singapore : Apr 19, May 1 and 20 Belize : Apr 19-22, May 1 and 27