Skip to main content

Move from Hong Kong for Europe.

Hong Kong taxes a company less than Cyprus does, and we won't pretend otherwise. A Cyprus company makes sense when your customers are in Europe, with an EU VAT number, euro payments and an effective 3% on qualifying IP income.

  • Fixed prices
  • Eligibility checked before you pay
  • One team for the Cyprus side

The numbers, as they are.

Hong Kong charges nothing on dividends and only 8.25% on the first HK$2,000,000 of profit. Cyprus charges 15%. Move the slider to your own profit.

€200,000
In Hong Kong
Corporate tax
−€33,000
Tax on dividends
−€0
You keep
€167,000
In Cyprus
Corporate tax
−€30,000
Health contribution (GeSY)
−€4,505
You keep
€165,495

Hong Kong: profits tax at 16.5%, the upper of its two tiers, and nothing on dividends. The first HK$2,000,000 of a company's profit pays 8.25%, so you keep more in Hong Kong than this shows.

Headline rates for a founder who takes the profit out as dividends and has become Cyprus tax resident with non-dom status. Your own figures will differ. This is an illustration, not tax advice.

What Hong Kong keeps hold of.

There's no exit tax. What follows you is a few charges and some paperwork. Plan them with a Hong Kong tax adviser before you go.

  • No exit tax, no foreign company rules

    Hong Kong doesn't tax capital gains or tax people by residence, so nothing is charged when you leave. No rules tax a foreign company's profit at home either. But a restructuring done mainly to save tax can be taxed as if it never happened.
  • Share options follow you

    Gains on share options from a Hong Kong job stay taxable after you leave, and you and your employer must report them. A notional exercise settles them early, taxing the gain as if you'd exercised on leaving. Elect it before you go or within three months after.
  • Clear your tax before you go

    Everyone leaving Hong Kong must settle their tax first. If you're employed, your employer files a form, the IR56G, and holds back your pay for a month or until you get a Letter of Release. A late return brings an estimated bill you then contest from Cyprus.
  • A Cyprus company brings foreign-income rules

    Add a Cyprus company and your Hong Kong company very likely falls under the foreign-income rules. Its foreign dividends, interest, IP income and gains from selling assets are then taxed when they reach Hong Kong, unless it has real staff and spending there or another exception applies.
  • The company can't move

    Hong Kong only lets companies move in, not out, and a company incorporated there stays Hong Kong resident wherever you live. Keep it for a Hong Kong trade, or close it once it has sat idle for three months and the tax office has cleared it.
  • MPF on leaving for good

    Leaving Hong Kong permanently is one of the legal grounds for taking out your MPF early. Check the current requirements with the MPF Schemes Authority and your trustee before you book the flight.

What Cyprus adds.

Access to the EU single market, and a working day six hours closer to your European customers.

Corporate tax
15%
One flat rate, with no local surcharges.
Tax on dividends
0%
As a non-dom, for up to 17 years.
Days a year for tax residency
60
Under the 60-day rule, with a home and a business here.
Wealth or inheritance tax
0
Cyprus has neither.
  • Hong Kong and Cyprus signed a tax treaty on 12 June 2026. It isn't in force yet. Once it is, dividends and interest are taxed only where the owner lives.
  • A Cyprus company gets a VAT number EU buyers can check, one VAT return for consumer sales and euro payments. A Hong Kong company sells to the EU from outside.
  • Qualifying IP income pays an effective 3% under the IP Box, against 5% in Hong Kong. It's the one line where Cyprus is cheaper.
  • Running your own Cyprus company counts towards the 60-day rule. Without EU citizenship you need a Pink Slip, the residence permit for non-EU citizens, and we file it with you.

The move, month by month.

Every case runs on its own clock. The order stays the same.

  1. First

    Options and the Hong Kong company

    A Hong Kong tax adviser decides with you whether to settle your share options now, whether to keep the Hong Kong company, and whether the foreign-income rules already apply. We can recommend one if you need it.

  2. Month 1We do this

    Form the Cyprus company

    We register it with tax, VAT and VIES. Your books open the day you order.

  3. Month 1 to 3We do this

    Pink Slip and directorship

    We check which route fits you, prepare your Pink Slip application and file it with you. A lawyer joins complex cases. You become a director of the Cyprus company, which counts for the 60-day rule.

  4. Month 1 to 3

    Clear your tax

    Your adviser clears your tax with the Hong Kong tax office and collects your Letter of Release. If you're on a Hong Kong payroll, your employer files the departure form (IR56G) first.

  5. Month 3 to 6

    A Cyprus home and the decisions

    Rent or buy the Cyprus home the 60-day rule needs. Take the company's decisions in Cyprus and record them here, or it counts as run from Hong Kong. Start your MPF claim with your trustee.

  6. From month 6

    Close the Hong Kong company

    If you're closing it, settle staff and debts, stop trading and tell the tax office within a month. After three idle months, your adviser files the last returns, gets the tax office's clearance and deregisters it.

  7. From month 12We do this

    Tax residency and non-dom

    We register your Cyprus tax residency and non-dom status, then keep your day counts and Cyprus filings in order.

Hong Kong founders ask us.

Still unsure? Talk to a person on WhatsApp, or book a free call below.

Almost certainly not. Hong Kong charges 8.25% on the first HK$2,000,000 of profit and 16.5% above, taxes no dividends, and has no capital gains tax and no VAT. Cyprus charges 15% on profit and 19% VAT. The one place Cyprus is cheaper is the IP Box, an effective 3% on qualifying IP income against Hong Kong's 5%.

No. Hong Kong taxes income from Hong Kong, not its residents, and has no capital gains tax, so leaving triggers nothing. The one thing that follows you is share options from a Hong Kong job, which stay taxable when you exercise them. A notional exercise settles them early. Elect it before you go or within three months after.

Clear your tax. Everyone leaving Hong Kong must settle what they owe first, even if their employer pays their tax. If you're employed, your employer files the IR56G and holds back your pay for a month or until you get a Letter of Release. There's no personal deregistration. Give the tax office an overseas address and keep filing for any Hong Kong income.

Not yet. It was signed on 12 June 2026, but Hong Kong still has to make the order that brings it in, and both sides then confirm. In Hong Kong it applies from the tax year starting 1 April after the year it comes into force. Until then it changes nothing, so don't plan on 0% withholding tax yet.

No. Hong Kong only lets foreign companies move in, with no way out, so you form a new company in Cyprus. The Hong Kong company stays Hong Kong tax resident, with filings, wherever you live. Keep it for a Hong Kong trade or close it. Closing needs three months without trading, no debts and clearance from the tax office.

Not safely. A company run from Hong Kong counts as Hong Kong resident wherever it was formed, and it may owe Hong Kong tax on its profits too. Once the treaty is in force, it settles a double claim by where the company is really run, which is Hong Kong if you never left. Take and record decisions in Cyprus, with spending approved and contracts signed here.

Leaving Hong Kong for good is one of the legal grounds for taking out your MPF early. You claim through your trustee, under rules the MPF Schemes Authority sets. Check the current requirements with both before you book the flight, and don't plan your cash flow around a figure you read online.

No. Under the 60-day rule you can be Cyprus tax resident with 60 days a year here, a home you rent or own, a business or job in Cyprus, and no more than 183 days in any other country. Running your own Cyprus company can count as the business. Without EU citizenship you also need a Pink Slip to live here, and we file it with you.

No. We build and run the Cyprus side. For share options, the foreign-income rules, your Hong Kong company and anything else in Hong Kong, work with a Hong Kong tax adviser. We can recommend one if you need it.

Plan your move with us.

Tell us what you own and when you'd like to move. We'll tell you what applies, what it costs, and what to do first.

  • Which rules at home affect you
  • The order to do things in
  • A fixed price for the Cyprus side

30 minutes, by video, free

Your move, one partner.

We form your company, apply for your residency with you and keep your books.

What can we help with?

30 minutes, by video, free.