Hong Kong sets crypto tax reporting dates for 2027-2028

Hong Kong has passed a law requiring covered cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers to collect customer and transaction data from 2027 and share it with overseas tax authorities from 2028.

The Inland Revenue Department will transmit customer details and annual transaction totals to tax authorities in participating jurisdictions where customers are tax residents, the Hong Kong government said. The measure establishes a tax-information channel rather than a public disclosure regime.

Christopher Hui, Hong Kong's secretary for financial services and the treasury, said: "The rules would help combat cross-border tax evasion." Hong Kong introduced licensing requirements for crypto exchanges in 2023. The new law adds tax reporting to that existing regulatory regime.

Which transactions and customer records fall within scope?

The rules cover cryptocurrency purchases, sales, crypto-to-crypto swaps and transfers to external wallets. Crypto exchanges and brokers subject to the regime must record:

• Customers' names and addresses.
• Tax residency and identification numbers.
• Records of cryptocurrency purchases, sales and transfers.

The external-wallet category extends the reporting perimeter beyond activity completed within an exchange's own platform.

What changes for exchanges operating in Hong Kong?

The 2027 collection start precedes the 2028 information-exchange date by 12 months. Firms must identify each customer's tax residency, capture identification numbers, and record purchases, sales, swaps and transfers associated with that customer.

The practical change is that customer identification, transaction recordkeeping and cross-border reporting become one connected compliance process. A customer who is a tax resident in a participating jurisdiction triggers information sharing through the Inland Revenue Department, including the customer's details and annual transaction totals.

"The Inland Revenue Department said it will issue guidance and provide technical support to help firms comply." The department's planned guidance and technical support address the implementation burden created by the new collection and reporting duties.

Hong Kong's law adopts the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), released in October 2022. The framework is designed to help governments identify crypto transactions that may otherwise go unreported for tax purposes. Its mechanism is the exchange of customer information among participating tax authorities, not public disclosure.

The reporting regime builds on Hong Kong's existing participation in the OECD Common Reporting Standard, through which the jurisdiction has exchanged financial account information with overseas tax authorities since 2018. Amendments extending that system to more digital financial products will take effect in 2028, with information exchanges beginning in 2029.

The annual-total requirement gives tax authorities the scale of a customer's crypto activity alongside identity details. The staggered timetable also puts the crypto regime ahead of the wider digital-financial-product changes: information exchanges begin in 2028 under the crypto rules, while the expanded Common Reporting Standard process starts in 2029.

The first binding deadline arrives in 2027, when covered providers must begin collecting the data required for automatic overseas tax information exchanges in 2028.