The Hong Kong government will gazette six orders on October 16 to implement Comprehensive Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements (CDTAs) signed with Barbados, Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Maldives, Norway and Rwanda, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) said. The Chief Executive in Council made the six orders under the Inland Revenue Ordinance on October 6; they will be tabled at the Legislative Council on October 21 for negative vetting.
The agreements matter to Hong Kong residents and companies with income or assets in any of the six jurisdictions, and to residents of those jurisdictions with Hong Kong-sourced income. The FSTB’s published highlights for Barbados give a sense of the practical mechanics: Hong Kong residents working there are exempt from Barbados tax on employment income if their stay totals 183 days or less in any 12-month period; Barbados’s withholding tax on dividends paid to Hong Kong residents will be exempt, and withholding on interest and royalties will be capped at 5% if charged; and shipping and air transport profits earned in Barbados by Hong Kong enterprises will not be taxed there. Jordan’s agreement follows a similar structure — credit relief for tax already paid, a 183-day employment threshold and capped withholding rates.
Hong Kong signed the six CDTAs over roughly a year: with Maldives in May 2025, Jordan in September 2025, Rwanda in October 2025 and Norway in December 2025, and with the Kyrgyz Republic and Barbados both in March 2026. The city has now signed CDTAs with 60 jurisdictions in total, 15 of them under the current-term government.
None of the six agreements is in force yet. The FSTB said each will take effect only once both Hong Kong and the relevant jurisdiction complete their own ratification procedures — a step that follows gazettal and legislative tabling, with no effective date set at this stage.
References
HKSAR Government Press Releases – Orders on Comprehensive Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements with Six Countries to be Gazetted / China Daily – HK to Gazette Orders Friday to Avoid Double Taxation with 6 Countries
