Tip 1: When you are to incorporate a Hong Kong company, the most common choices are between a limited company and a sole proprietorship.
Tip 2: A limited company would mean the owner will not have to personally bear the liabilities of the company.
Tip 3: A sole proprietorship would mean the owner is responsible for all the liabilities of the company.
Tip 4: A new limited company must always have a name. The name may be an English name in full, or a Chinese name, but cannot be a mix of both languages.
Tip 5: A name that is already existed before cannot be used. The owner must check the availability of his/her preferred name through companies search. He/she can also appoint an agency to do the check for an available name.
Tip 6: Some words are not allowed to be included in the company name, such as mostly words that would confuse people to mis-believe your business is related to any local government departments.
Tip 7: Some advanced agencies would provide an online platform for the Hong Kong company registration with an easy-to-follow workflow/process. At any time you can check in the online platform at exactly which step your registration/application is.
Tip 8: You are required to appoint a secretary for your company. The owner, any shareholder, or any director cannot act as the secretary role. The company secretary can be represented by a real person who must reside in locally Hong Kong, or an HK based entity.
Tip 9: When the company would have more than one owners, the shares of each owner must be identified and submitted with the business registration.
Tip 10: All companies are required to register a local business address. Usually many startup owners would work from their homes. At the very initial stages of their business development, they do not usually have a valid business address. Usually this can be resolved by paying a small fee to one of the local agencies who are able to provide registered office address as one of the services.
Tip 10: The registered office address can also be used to receive government letters and documents. Depending on the service plans between you and your agency, you may request your agency to forward and/or mail any government letters to you (assuming you are working from your home office).
Tip 11: When you incorporate through the services that are provided by an agency, you will need to pay the agency the appropriate fee. The agency would usually also quote you the fees that are to be paid to the government i.e. Business registration fee and company registry fee.
