China starts taxing its citizens’ global income for first time

BEIJING, July 10 (Bloomberg): China has started tracking down some of its citizens living abroad to collect taxes, surprising expatriates who never had to pay levies back home on overseas income, according to people familiar with the matter.

State-owned enterprises operating in Hong Kong, which has one of the lowest tax rates in the world, told mainland Chinese expats recently to declare their 2019 income so they can pay taxes at home, according to the people, who asked not be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Chinese SOEs are also informing employees working in other places such as Singapore, two of the people said.