Hong Kong: Launch of digital certificate of resident status

The Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department (IRD) announced on its webpage that, effective from November 10, 2025, digital certificates of resident status (CoR or e-CoRs) will be issued to entities and individuals upon their successful CoR applications under the China-Hong Kong income tax treaty. 

Key points of the new e-CoR arrangement include the following:

• Currently, e-CoRs are issued in respect of the China-Hong Kong treaty only. For CoRs in respect of the other Hong Kong treaties, the IRD will continue to issue the CoRs in paper form.
• Entities and individuals can still submit a completed CoR application form under the China-Hong Kong treaty to the IRD in paper form or electronically via the business tax portal (BTP) or individual tax portal (ITP).
• However, the IRD will no longer issue any CoRs in paper form under the China-Hong Kong treaty.
• The e-CoR will be sent to the message inbox of the successful applicant’s BTP or ITP account.
• The tax representative of the CoR applicant will be able to access the e-CoR issued by the IRD in the tax representative portal (TRP) if the applicant has given proper authorization for their tax representative to do so in its BTP account.
• China tax authorities can verify the authenticity of an e-CoR by uploading the certificate to the “e-Proof” website.

Read a November 2025 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in Hong Kong