Hong Kong's Stamp Duty (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2026 will be gazetted on October 2

Zhitong Finance App learned that Hong Kong's “2026 Stamp Duty (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill” will be gazetted on October 2 to implement the measures proposed in the 2026-27 Budget and relax the stamp duty relief guidelines for asset transfers within enterprise groups.

According to the Stamp Duty Ordinance, transfers of real estate or Hong Kong securities between linked corporate bodies are exempt from stamp duty. Currently, the relevant corporate bodies are considered to be related, if one of the two corporate bodies holds 90% or more of the issued share capital of the other party, or if a third corporate body holds 90% or more of the issued share capital of each of the two corporate bodies. The bill will relax the criteria for determining that a corporate body is linked, take into account other direct or indirect beneficial interests or voting rights in addition to the issued share capital, and lower the relevant holding threshold to 75%.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government said, “Since some new types of enterprises do not issue share capital, such as limited liability partnerships (limited liability partnerships), company limited by guarantee (company limited by guarantee), etc., other companies may use direct or indirect beneficial interests such as equity interests and participation rights when exercising ownership of these enterprises. The bill relaxes the definition of an associated corporate body, so that these new types of enterprises can also benefit from stamp duty relief for intra-group asset transfers.”

“The expansion and restructuring of enterprises often involves the transfer of assets within the enterprise. The bill allows more enterprises to benefit from relevant stamp duty relief, which will help further optimize the business environment, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of Hong Kong's tax system.”

The bill will be submitted to the Legislative Council for the first reading and the beginning of the second reading debate on October 14. If passed by the Legislative Council, it will apply to instruments signed on or after February 25 this year.