Paul Chan: Digital assets will be classified as eligible investments for tax concessions starting from the 2025/2026 tax year

Deep Tide TechFlow News: On February 25th, according to the Hong Kong Government Press Release, Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced in his Budget Speech that to further attract family offices and funds to Hong Kong, the tax system will be optimized. Digital assets, precious metals, and other assets will be classified as eligible investments for tax concessions, with plans to implement this starting from the 2025/2026 tax year. Additionally, over the next two years, Hong Kong will adopt the OECD’s crypto asset reporting framework and the revised Common Reporting Standard (CRS) to enhance international tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion. The draft amendments to the Tax Ordinance are expected to be submitted in the first half of the year.

Paul Chan also stated that the Hong Kong government will continue to issue tokenized bonds regularly. Within this year, a digital asset platform will be established to support the issuance and settlement of digital bonds, gradually expanding to other digital assets and connecting with other tokenized platforms in the region.