August 18, 2026, marks the start of the lead-up period ahead of the release of Hong Kong’s Policy Address. The focus of market observation this year has shifted significantly: compared to previous years, when discussions centered on “whether the High-Talent Pass list would be expanded,” “whether the rules for the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme would be adjusted,” and “whether investment immigration policies would be strengthened,” this year’s attention is instead on how Hong Kong’s first Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) will reshape the underlying logic of talent policies.

“If my Hong Kong company’s profits aren’t generated in Hong Kong, does that mean I don’t have to pay taxes?”—This is a question Qicaiying Consulting is asked every week. The answer becomes more nuanced in 2026: If profits are not generated locally in Hong Kong, you may indeed be exempt from profits tax—but only if you apply for an “offshore exemption” and obtain written consent from the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department. Otherwise, even if the profits appear to come entirely from overseas, you must first complete the audit and tax filing process.

In 2026, an increasing number of Chinese companies began to reexamine a key question: Have the overseas entities they established through various channels back then truly completed their ODI filing?

Zhang Min (a pseudonym) runs a Meiketuo store on the Mexico platform, but she can't make sense of the data.

Within the same category of 3C accessories, her listing—with a 4.7-star rating, professionally edited main images, a title that fully covers all relevant keywords, and a price that’s 81 TP3T lower than competitors’—should, in theory, have a decent conversion rate.

However, backend data shows that while her listing’s click-through rate is normal, the add-to-cart rate is somewhat weak, and the conversion rate is only 55% of that of a competing product (a local store).

She couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried, until she compared all the variables in the two listings item by item and discovered that the only difference that couldn't be bridged through operational efforts was—delivery time.

Zhang Min's Cross-Border Store: Shipping takes 15 to 25 days.

Local Competitors: Shipments from fulfillment centers, 1 to 3 days.

Chen Yang (a pseudonym) has been running a local store on Mercado Libre in Brazil for four months, with monthly sales consistently hovering around 250,000 reais.

Last week, his Brazilian accountant sent him the first-quarter tax return. It was three pages long, written in Portuguese, with densely packed forms and two rows of numbers showing two different results:

Simples Nacional (Simplified Tax System): Tax liability of 11,000 reais

Presumed Profit System (Lucro Presumido): Tax liability of 18,500 reais

For the same sales figure, the two calculation methods differed by 401 TP3T. Chen Yang’s first thought was—have I been overpaying my taxes all along?

The more he looked through the information online, the more confused he became. Some people said the simplified tax system was always the most cost-effective, others said that for high-gross-margin categories, the profit projection method should be chosen, and still others said they had tried both and eventually switched to a third approach.