TechFlow news, on December 17, the Hong Kong government recently announced that it has informed the Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Exchange of Information of the OECD of Hong Kong's commitment to implement the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) to enhance international tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion. Hong Kong commits to implementing CARF reciprocally with suitable partners who meet the required standards for safeguarding data confidentiality and security. In light of the Global Forum's latest timeline, the government tentatively plans to complete the necessary domestic legislative amendments by 2026, with the first automatic exchange of information under CARF scheduled to commence in 2028 with relevant tax jurisdictions.
The OECD published the CARF in June 2023 to ensure continued global tax transparency. As an extension of the existing Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the automatic exchange of financial account information, CARF establishes a similar mechanism requiring jurisdictions where crypto-asset users or controlling persons are tax residents to automatically exchange annually tax-related information on crypto-asset accounts and transactions. To ensure fair and effective global implementation of CARF, the Global Forum has invited all tax jurisdictions with significant crypto-asset industries and identified as directly relevant to CARF—including Hong Kong—to adopt the framework.
