Hong Kong’s Treaty Network: Are the US, Germany and Australia Sensibly Standing Aloof? Or Sadly Missing Out?

Abstract

The importance of the campaign currently being waged by the OECD and its Member States against Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) is illustrated by the fact that Issue 5, 2013, of this Review was devoted to an examination of it. Yet over the same period as BEPS has emerged as a matter of worldwide concern, the governments of 17 of the 34 OECD countries (and many other governments also) have entered into Double Tax Agreements (DTAs) with Hong Kong. This seems odd, in that Hong Kong can be used as a tax haven. Thus, whilst the OECD has been expressing concern about BEPS, half of its members have been undermining their own tax bases. Moreover, Hong Kong’s DTAs seem to reward treaty shopping even more generously than most other DTAs. In particular, they seem to facilitate the erosion not only of the tax bases of the countries that have entered into them, but also the tax bases of countries that have not entered into them. This article examines Hong Kong’s DTAs. It seeks to explain their effects, to explain also why so many countries have entered into them (notwithstanding their professed concern about BEPS), and to explain whether or not they are a good idea.