Hong Kong is making a bold play for hedge fund talent, and Singapore is already sweating.
A proposed tax exemption on performance fee income, including carried interest, for hedge fund, private equity, and venture capital managers could make Hong Kong the cheapest place on earth for fund executives to park their paychecks. The reforms would apply retroactively from April 2025, meaning managers who move soon could benefit from day one.
The tax math that’s turning heads
Hong Kong’s standard salaries tax sits at 15%. That’s already competitive. But the proposed reform would take performance-linked bonuses and carried interest, often the bulk of a fund manager’s compensation, down to zero.
Singapore, by comparison, can hit managers with salaries tax rates as high as 24%. Even under its special incentive program, the effective rate for qualifying firms currently sits around 10%.
