That's definetely not my understanding. If not trading HK stocks, it seems you could either trade under ur personal name, a bvi company or a HK company tax free. I'm surprised profits from trading foreign stocks would qualify as taxable profits in HK, although things are not moving for the better there. Besides if you are the director of the HK Ltd you trade through, you can pay yourself up to 120k HKD per year allowance/salary tax free. Not much but still the beginning of an income you can show. Dividends are tax free in HK if you need to distribute larger amounts. You definetely should check with a CPA, and possibly a couple of them, it's possible they don't all have the same interpretation of the law. The Cpa should also be willing to defend its positions towards the ird, HK companies claiming tax free profits do get audited - which doesn't mean the ird finally doesn't accept their claims
OP, the issue arise when you trade HK stocks not foreign stocks out of HK, it seems Mcdull is saying the same thing. i'm not a HK resident so not aware of all intricacies for such residents, but how does the IRD gets to know (and tax ) one is trading HK stocks through a BVI company rather than whatever other products available? Also opening a BVI or other offshore company bank account in HK is much more difficult now than it was only a couple of years ago, I'm very much interested in reading of HK banks that still allow those, say for an equity trading company.
I was told that since start of this year the large banks in HK dont let BVI companies open bank accounts anymore. Re trading profit tax i think i will stick with trading with personal account as IRD dont seem to enforce it (like it does with properties). thanks for participating, good to know views from each of you.