According to the following calculator there is around 16.5% tax (on $100K income) ... you can compare it with bunch of company and it looks like Singapore is the lowest.
btw, do you have any info on any agent who can help with this? do you need a physical address (even for opening a bank account)? Do you need to visit HK for any reason to setup a company?
I don't want to spam anything here, but there are tons of agents you can find via google.
The registered address in HK can be provided by the agent. I'm not sure what else you mean by physical address.
You'll need to visit HK to open a bank account in case you need one in HK, but you could open a bank account in any other country as well if you can find a bank willing to do so (tough where I'm from).
As far as I know, this wouldn't work for U.S. citizens, as they are taxed on world wide income. Residents of countries (like Canada) do not pay tax on world wide income, if person in question is considered a non-resident for tax purposes (ie not living in Canada).
I have no idea about the legal intricacies involved for US citizens, but that doesn't change the fact that there is no corporate tax for the HK setup I described.
I have considered HK but my friend is finding it very difficult to setup a merchant account for taking online payments there. Do you have any tips in this regard?
I don't do b2c e-business, but friends who do tell me that there are no good solutions in HK right now aside from PayPal, but good luck if they ever freeze your account.
There are company structures possible though via a second company in a EU country with a double taxation treaty that would make things easier if you need more than PayPal, but the cost for the whole setup is probably prohibitive if you're just starting out.
http://www.guidemehongkong.com/taxation/topics/hong-kong-tax...