Hong Kong Company Compliance Calendar: Key 2026 Deadlines

At a glance

The point most often confused: the annual return follows the incorporation anniversary — not the year end, and not the business registration expiry date. In most companies those are three different dates, and trying to derive two of them from the third goes wrong sooner or later.

Which ones do you have to remember, and which does the government prompt you about?

Two things arrive unprompted. The IRD issues profits tax returns and employer’s returns in bulk around 1 April each year (on 1 April 2026 it issued roughly 270,000 profits tax returns and 340,000 employer’s returns), and the Business Registration Office issues a demand note around the middle of the month roughly a month before the certificate takes effect. The clock starts when they arrive.

What you have to remember yourself is the annual return and MPF. The Companies Registry runs a free “e-Reminder Service for Annual Returns” — the reminder goes to your message box and registered email, and the link takes you straight to the e-filing portal. Registering for it beats relying on memory. MPF is entirely self-driven: you pay it in yourself, every month.

The annual return: why is every company’s deadline different?

Because it follows the incorporation date. A local private company must deliver its annual return to the Companies Registry within 42 days after the anniversary, in that year, of the date of incorporation. Incorporated on 18 March, your deadline is the 42 days following 18 March each year. A company next door incorporated in November is on an entirely separate timeline.

How the 42 days are counted: Sundays and public holidays are included. But if day 42 itself falls on a Sunday, a public holiday, a gale warning day or a black rainstorm warning day, the due date moves to the next day — a Saturday does not extend it. If you would rather not count, the Companies Registry’s website has a delivery deadline calculator.

The cost of being late is direct. HK$105 on time; more than 42 days and up to 3 months, HK$870; 3 to 6 months, HK$1,740; 6 to 9 months, HK$2,610; beyond 9 months, HK$3,480. The Registrar has no power to waive the higher registration fee and no power to extend the statutory period, and beyond the fee there is prosecution risk under section 662 of the Companies Ordinance. What to fill in and what to prepare: the annual return NAR1.

Business registration: what if the demand note never arrives?

The Business Registration Office issues the demand note around the middle of the month roughly a month before the certificate takes effect — a certificate effective in May means a note around mid-April.

If it has not arrived by the due date, you cannot simply let it go: you must notify the Commissioner of Inland Revenue in writing within 1 month of your existing business registration certificate expiring. That is an active obligation, not a matter of waiting for a second copy.

On cost, the business registration fee and the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund levy are adjusted each year with the Budget, and there have been several waivers and restorations in recent years, so figures circulating online date quickly. Industry sources put a one-year certificate for 2026/27 at around HK$2,350 and a three-year certificate at around HK$6,170, but these change annually — check the IRD’s current fee table before paying. Late renewal carries penalties; in practice the IRD generally issues a surcharge notice first and only follows up further if it is ignored for a long time. On how the business registration number differs from the company number, see BR number vs company number.

Those two tax returns every April — how do you handle them?

They arrive on the same day and require completely different preparation.

Employer’s return BIR56A: filed with all employees’ IR56B forms within one month of issue. Once it arrives it has to be dealt with — even if the company is just the owner and no wages were paid during the period, follow the form’s instructions and file. Do not treat it as unreceived.

Profits tax return BIR51: also within one month, but accompanied by audited financial statements and a profits tax computation. From the 2023/24 year of assessment, small corporations and small businesses generally have to submit these supporting documents with the return regardless of the level of income — the earlier turnover-based exemption has been tightened. The real pressure on this return is not the form; it is having the books in order. Hong Kong’s audit requirements set out what to prepare.

On extensions: a tax representative applies for a block extension through the IRD’s electronic services, with returns classified N, D or M by year-end date and a different deadline for each — and the dates are announced by the Commissioner in a circular letter every year. Do not commit a fixed date to memory; confirm the year’s announced deadline as it approaches. The system as a whole: the profits tax guide.

With staff: what happens monthly, and on every personnel change?

One thing is fixed monthly: the contribution day for monthly-paid employees is the 10th, and the employer must make the mandatory contribution on or before it. If the contribution day falls on a weekend, public holiday, gale warning day or black rainstorm warning day, it rolls to the next working day. A new hire does not need contributions immediately — the employer should make the first contribution on or before the contribution day following the end of the month in which the employee completes 60 days of employment.

Personnel changes are reported as they happen, not in April. The standard practice: IR56E for a new hire within 3 months of starting; IR56F on departure, filed 1 month before; IR56G where the employee is leaving Hong Kong for good or for a long period, filed not less than 1 month before departure — and after filing IR56G you must withhold salary until the IRD issues a letter of release. That last point catches a lot of owners out: they pay the salary first and only then find they are on the hook for the tax.

In a new company’s first year, does everything start at once?

Not all at once. Business registration is generally handled at incorporation, with renewal following the date on the certificate. The annual return starts counting 42 days after the first anniversary, so nothing is due until the end of the first year. MPF starts when you hire your first employee.

The profits tax return arrives last — the IRD generally issues a new company’s first return about 18 months after incorporation, and usually allows about two extra months to complete it, with no further extension after that. So new companies often go through a stretch where it feels like nothing needs doing, followed by everything falling due at once. Not keeping books during that stretch is what hurts most later. What to prepare for the first filing: the first tax return.

Want someone watching this calendar for you?

The difficulty with this table is not that any single item is hard. It is that four timelines run independently, five or six separate dates come up in a year, and each one carries its own penalty for being late.

AIcountant is a licensed Hong Kong TCSP and handles year-round compliance: reminding you ahead of the incorporation-anniversary annual return and filing it, seeing the business registration renewal through, never missing the monthly MPF, keeping your books ready through the year and handing them to the auditor — so when April’s two returns arrive there is already something to file. You do not have to remember the dates. We do. On the requirements attaching to the people behind the company, see how to identify significant controllers.

Want it all handed over at once? Talk to us, or get started.

This is general information. Annual return deadlines and registration fees are as published by the Companies Registry (cr.gov.hk); business registration, tax return issue dates, extension arrangements and penalties are as published by the IRD (ird.gov.hk); MPF contribution days are as published by the MPFA (mpfa.org.hk). Government fees are adjusted from time to time — check the amounts here against the current official fee tables. This does not constitute legal or tax advice; individual situations warrant advice from a professional.