Hong Kong Company Package Legitimacy | Generated by AI
Question: Is this Hong Kong company registration package (natural-person direct shareholding, ¥4,380, ~3 working days, including the listed services) a reasonable / legitimate offer?
Answer:
The service list itself is standard and complete — nothing suspicious in what’s included. The price is also in the realistic range, but here’s the math you should verify before paying.
Government fees alone (post-April 2026, since the levy waiver expired):
Companies Registry incorporation fee: HK$1,720; Business Registration Certificate: HK$2,350 — so the base official fees total roughly HK$4,070 for companies registered on or after April 1, 2026. That’s about ¥3,700 CNY at current rates. If the ¥4,380 is CNY (verify — could be HKD), the agent’s margin is only ~¥600-700 to cover the secretary service, address, SCR/KYC, green box production, and shipping.
That margin is too thin to be their real business model. This is loss-leader pricing: official costs alone reach ~¥3,650, so any legitimate all-in package can’t be much below ¥3,800 — meaning yours is barely above cost. They’ll make money on year 2: annual review (NAR1 + BR renewal, official fees ~HK$2,455+ per the new schedule), plus the mandatory audit, which typically runs HK$3,000–8,000/year. That’s where agents recover margin, sometimes aggressively.
What to check before signing:
- TCSP license. Company secretary services must be provided by a TCSP-licensed agency; you can verify the license for free on the Companies Registry website. Ask for the license number and check it yourself.
- Year-2 pricing in writing. Get the annual review fee (service fee, not just官费) and audit fee quoted in the contract now. The classic trap is ¥4,380 registration → ¥5,000+ annual review.
- The 3-working-day claim is fine — e-filing via the Registry’s electronic system can issue CI/BR same-day, so 3 days with document prep is normal, not a red flag.
- What’s NOT included: bank account opening (the actual hard part for mainland natural-person shareholders), first-year audit, and profits tax filing. Ask how they handle bank introduction — avoid any agent whose account-opening service requires you to park deposits or buy wealth-management products.
- SCR/KYC “1 year” — confirm what renewal costs, since the Significant Controllers Register is an ongoing obligation, not one-time.
One structural note since you’re a mainland resident: strictly speaking, mainland individuals/companies investing overseas should complete ODI filing / FX registration; in practice most small natural-person HK companies skip this, but know the exposure exists, especially if you later route real revenue through it (e.g., for App Store developer accounts or receiving overseas API/service payments — likely your use case).
Verdict: the package contents are the standard full set and the price is legitimate (not a ¥99-style scam), but treat it as a teaser rate. The real cost of owning a HK company is ~¥5,000-10,000/year ongoing (annual review + audit + secretary renewal). Decide based on year-2+ economics, not the registration price.
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