Oldham, Li & Nie

Oldham, Li & Nie

News and developments

Tax

Hong kong’s proposed refinements on foreign source income exemption (“fsie”) regime for passive income – part 1

In response to its inclusion on the “watchlist” for non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes by the European Union (“EU”), the Hong Kong government launched a consultation on the proposed refinements to Hong Kong’s FSIE regime for passive income, mapping out significant changes to address the EU’s concerns such that Hong Kong would not be “blacklisted” by the EU for tax purposes.

04 November 2022

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property for social media influencers

88% of Hong Kong population is using social media, and this number is growing every minute. It is no surprise that social media has become a lucrative business. Social media influencers (“Influencers”) or key opinion leaders (“KOLs”) are popular and powerful - they create tight bonds with their followers and have the ability to influence their perceptions of brands and hence their spending behaviours. As a result, they are now an important marketing channel for many local and foreign brands. Influencers partner with these brands and generate income by way of endorsement or other forms of support through their profiles on Instagram, WeChat, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and other social media networks.

07 September 2022

Corporate and Commercial

Limitation of action

In the midst of COVID-19, where everything seems to be delayed and rescheduled, one may be under the illusion that pursuing a legal action to recover damages could wait. However, it should be borne in mind that Hong Kong has limitation period on bringing civil actions. If these are not adhered to, one may potentially face the grave consequences of an action being time-barred, such that all the rights and recourse against the wrongdoer could vanish.

04 November 2022

Tax & private client

Insight from the recent cfa decision in commissioner of inland revenue v poon cho ming, john – whether benefits received on termination of employment are taxable or not

Employee termination is not uncommon during economic downturn or group restructuring. The termination payments or the compensation packages, especially for top executives or senior employees, often consist of many components such as salaries, gratuities, discretionary bonuses, golden handshakes, settlement sum for the employment dispute. Given the diversified nature of the compensation components, it might not be easy to identify which part of entire package is taxable and which is not under the definition of section 8(1) of the Inland Revenue Ordinance, Cap. 112 (“IRO”).

20 January 2022