Business Registration Certificate in Hong Kong: Who Needs One, What It Costs, and How to Renew It

Every legally operating business in Hong Kong — a one-person online shop, a two-partner consultancy, a listed conglomerate — is required to hold one of the same pieces of paper: a Business Registration Certificate (BRC), issued by the Inland Revenue Department's Business Registration Office. It's easy to confuse with a company's Certificate of Incorporation, but the two documents serve different purposes and, for most businesses, require separate applications and separate ongoing fees. This guide covers what the certificate actually is, who needs one, how much it currently costs, how to apply and renew, and what the law does to businesses that skip it.

What the certificate is, and why it's required

The Business Registration Certificate is the certificate issued under the Business Registration Ordinance (Cap. 310), Hong Kong's law requiring anyone carrying on a business here to register that business with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and pay the associated fee.¹ The Ordinance defines "business" broadly: any form of trade, commerce, craftsmanship, profession, calling, or other activity carried on for the purpose of gain, whether conducted from a physical shop, an office, or entirely online.¹ That breadth is deliberate — the certificate isn't a company-law formality, it's a tax-administration tool. The IRD uses the business register as its master list of taxable economic activity in Hong Kong, which is why registration is tied to the Inland Revenue Ordinance's broader compliance machinery rather than to the Companies Registry alone.

A Business Registration Certificate is not proof that a business is a company, and it isn't proof that a company is validly incorporated either — those are two separate legal facts, each with its own certificate. A sole proprietorship or partnership can hold a valid BRC and never touch the Companies Registry at all, because it was never incorporated in the first place. Conversely, an incorporated company must hold both a Certificate of Incorporation and a Business Registration Certificate to operate lawfully — the two typically now arrive together, which is covered below.

Who actually needs to register

The registration requirement catches almost everyone running an income-generating activity in Hong Kong:

• Sole proprietors — any individual carrying on a trade, service, or online-selling business under their own name or a trading name
• Partnerships — two or more people carrying on business together, whether formalised by a partnership agreement or not
• Local limited companies — every company incorporated in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance, from the moment it begins carrying on business
• Non-Hong Kong companies — overseas companies that establish a place of business in Hong Kong
• Branches — a business with more than one business address must register each branch separately, at a lower branch fee (covered below)

People who are only employees — drawing a salary under an employment contract, with no independent business activity of their own — are exempt, since they're not "carrying on a business" in the sense the Ordinance targets.¹ A handful of narrow statutory exemptions also exist for certain charitable and non-profit activities, but for anyone selling goods or services for gain, the default assumption should be that registration applies, including part-time and side businesses run alongside a full-time job, and businesses that operate only through an online storefront or marketplace with no physical shopfront at all.

How and when to apply

The deadline is the same regardless of business structure: within one month from the date the business commences.¹ That start date is the date the business actually begins operating — taking its first order, opening its doors, or starting to trade — not the date paperwork is filed, so the one-month clock starts running immediately once trading begins.

The application route differs depending on whether the business is being incorporated as a company or not:

For new local companies and non-Hong Kong companies: Hong Kong runs a one-stop company and business registration service jointly operated by the Companies Registry and the IRD.² When you submit the incorporation form for a local company (Form NNC1 or the simplified NNC1G) or a non-Hong Kong company (Form NN1), together with the Notice to Business Registration Office (Form IRBR1 for local companies, IRBR2 for non-Hong Kong companies), the Companies Registry treats you as having filed a business registration application at the same time. If the incorporation is approved, the Companies Registry issues the Certificate of Incorporation and the Business Registration Certificate together in the same package — you don't file two separate applications with two separate departments.² Processing is fast when done electronically: applications filed through the e-Services Portal are typically completed within about one hour, while paper applications take about four working days for local companies and about nine working days for non-Hong Kong companies.² Certificates issued this way are delivered in electronic (PDF) form, which the law treats as having the same legal effect as a paper certificate — though, as covered below, you still need a printed copy on display at your premises.

For sole proprietorships, partnerships, and any business not going through company incorporation: there's no incorporation step to piggyback on, so the business owner applies directly to the Business Registration Office using Form IRBR1 (or IRBR2 for certain other structures), either in person, by post, or online through GovHK for eligible applicants — separately from, and regardless of, whether the business ever registers as a company at all.

The current fees: 1-year vs 3-year certificates

This is the part that genuinely changes year to year, because the fee has two separate components set by the government: a registration fee, and a levy that funds the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund (which compensates employees if their employer becomes insolvent). Budget measures periodically waive the levy, and the current 2026/27 schedule, covering the period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, is as follows³:

A few things worth knowing about how this schedule moves. First, the levy has been waived entirely in some past years as a relief measure — anyone comparing an older fee table against the current one may see a HK$0 levy line and wonder why the total looks different; the waiver that applied from April 2024 through March 2026 has since lapsed, and the levy is back at HK$150 per year (HK$450 for a 3-year certificate) from 1 April 2026.³ Second, the 3-year certificate isn't simply three times the 1-year fee — it's priced at a modest discount to reward businesses willing to commit to (and pre-pay) the longer cycle, which also means three years without needing to file a renewal. Third, branch certificates are charged at a much lower registration fee than a standalone business (HK$80 vs HK$2,200 for one year) but carry the same per-year levy, since the levy is tied to the certificate rather than the size of the registration fee. Because these figures move with each Budget cycle, always check the IRD's current fee and levy table before paying, rather than relying on a fixed number quoted anywhere, including this article.

Displaying the certificate at your business premises

Holding a valid certificate isn't enough on its own — the Ordinance also requires it to be displayed in a conspicuous place at the address where the business is carried on, and produced for inspection on demand by an authorised officer.⁴ For a business issued its certificate electronically under the one-stop service, the requirement doesn't disappear just because the original document is a PDF: the business still needs to print a physical copy and display it at the premises.⁴ For a business with more than one address, each branch needs its own certificate on display at that specific location — the head-office certificate doesn't cover a second shopfront or warehouse. Businesses operating purely online, with no public-facing premises at all, should still keep the certificate accessible at wherever their registered business address is, since that's still the address the certificate legally attaches to.

Renewing your certificate

The Business Registration Office sends a renewal demand note automatically, roughly in the middle of the month before the current certificate's next validity period begins, so a certificate set to renew in, say, March would typically see its demand note arrive in early-to-mid February.⁵ Once you pay it, the receipted demand note itself becomes the new Business Registration Certificate — there's no separate certificate document issued afterward; the paid, receipted notice is the certificate.⁵ If the demand note doesn't arrive — whether by post delay or an outdated address on file — the business is still responsible for renewing on time, and the Ordinance requires the operator to inform the Commissioner in writing within one month of the current certificate's expiry if no demand note has shown up.⁵ Renewal can also be completed electronically: businesses registered for eTAX can log in, download the demand note instantly, and pay online, with the renewed certificate available to view and print through the same account from the following business day.⁵ Because certificates run on fixed 1-year or 3-year cycles rather than a rolling annual date, it's worth checking the expiry date printed on the certificate itself rather than assuming it aligns with the calendar year or the business's own financial year — the two rarely match up exactly.

What happens if you don't register, or let it lapse

Operating a business without a valid Business Registration Certificate — whether because it was never applied for, or because it lapsed and wasn't renewed — is a criminal offence under the Ordinance. On conviction, the maximum penalty is a fine of HK$5,000 and imprisonment for one year.¹ That penalty applies to both a first failure to register at all, and to non-compliance with the certificate's other requirements, such as the display obligation described above.⁴ The IRD's practical enforcement is layered: minor, first-time lateness is typically resolved with a modest late fee well below the statutory maximum, but the department can and does escalate to prosecution for persistent or large-scale non-compliance, and a business that has gone unregistered for an extended period is generally required to pay accumulated fees covering every certificate period it operated without one, not just the current one going forward. Beyond the legal exposure, an unregistered or lapsed business also runs into practical dead ends that have nothing to do with the courts: banks generally require a current Business Registration Certificate to open or maintain a corporate account, tax filings and government-grant applications typically ask for the certificate as a standard supporting document, and counterparties doing basic due diligence on a supplier or landlord will often ask to see it before signing anything.

Where this fits with the rest of Hong Kong's company data

The Business Registration Certificate is one of the few pieces of a Hong Kong business's paper trail that applies to every business structure — company or not — which makes it a useful first check when you're trying to confirm that an entity you're dealing with is operating on the level. For companies specifically, business registration sits alongside incorporation as one of two separate legal facts worth verifying independently; our guide on registering a company in Hong Kong covers the incorporation side of that one-stop process in more detail, and our guide to BRN vs CI number explains the difference between the business registration number a BRC carries and the CI number a Certificate of Incorporation carries — the two look similar but come from different registers and serve different purposes. If you're researching a specific counterparty rather than your own filings, this directory's own company and company profile pages are built directly from the Companies Registry's incorporation data, which is the closest thing to an independent, publicly sourced starting point for confirming that a company you're dealing with actually exists as a matter of public record — a step worth taking before assuming a certificate you're shown, printed or otherwise, is genuine.

Citations

1. IRD — "Business" Required to be Registered and Application for Business Registration, accessed 2026-09-10

2. IRD — FAQ on One-stop Company and Business Registration Service, accessed 2026-09-10

3. IRD — Business Registration Fee and Levy Table, accessed 2026-09-10

4. IRD — Display / Loss of Certificate, accessed 2026-09-10

5. IRD — Renewal of Business Registration, accessed 2026-09-10