The Government announced today that based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development's (OECD) recommendation, Hong Kong is amending the lists of jurisdictions on automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters (AEOI) under the Inland Revenue Ordinance.

This involves the removal of nine jurisdictions from the list of participating jurisdictions which have yet to activate exchange relationships for AEOI with Hong Kong, namely Bahrain, Belize, Marshall Islands, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Seychelles, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Meanwhile, 11 participating jurisdictions which have already activated exchange relationships for AEOI with Hong Kong will be added to the list, including Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Maldives, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand.

Since September 2018, Hong Kong has conducted AEOI with other jurisdictions as advocated by the OECD, with a view to enhancing tax transparency and combating cross-border tax evasion.

In its latest review of Hong Kong’s AEOI legal framework, the OECD recommended that the list of participating jurisdictions should only include those which have activated exchange relationships for AEOI with Hong Kong.

To take forward the OECD’s recommendation, Hong Kong will update the list of participating jurisdictions based on the latest status of the activation of AEOI exchange relationships.

This will enable Hong Kong to comply with the prevailing international tax standard on the exchange of tax information, the Government said.

The Inland Revenue Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 17E) Notice 2024 will be gazetted on May 3 and tabled at the Legislative Council for negative vetting on May 8. Subject to the completion of the legislative procedures, the amendment notice will come into operation on January 1 next year.