Advance Ruling under section 88A of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Ordinance (“IRO”) is for those who wish to ascertain the tax position of a contemplated transaction or arrangement. A person may apply to the Commissioner of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department (“IRD”), subject to the payment of a fee and certain regulations, for a ruling on how any provision of the IRO applies to the arrangement specified in the application.

The Commissioner will decline to make such ruling for subject matters and grounds specified in section 1A, 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 10 of the IRO and also for some other circumstances, such as the issue involves the interpretation of a foreign law. Advance ruling will only be given for a seriously contemplated transaction but not for hypothetical or speculative situations.

The ruling made by the Commissioner will state the identity of the person, the applicable statutory provision and arrangement, the covered period and any material assumptions being made about future events or any other matters. Reference can only be made to a ruling if the facts are identical to the proposed transactions. The person who has obtained a ruling should state the existence of the ruling, the reliance on the ruling in preparing and providing the tax return and any material changes to the arrangement identified in the ruling.

Some rulings of general interest have been selected for publication in the IRD’s website. In order to protect taxpayer confidentiality, the IRD will edit the selected rulings prior to publication. Accordingly, all information that may enable identification of the taxpayer will be removed from the edited version.

Source：Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department’s website

- https://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/pol/aru.htm
- https://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/ppr/arc.htm
- https://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/pdf/dipn31.pdf