Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and Amended Common Reporting Standard) Bill 2026

The contents of this page are based on the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and Amended Common Reporting Standard) Bill 2026 which is subject to scrutiny by the Legislative Council.  Readers are reminded to be alerted to the latest development upon enactment of the Amendment Bill.  

Gazetted on 22 May 2026, the Amendment Bill aims to implement the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) and latest amendments to the Common Reporting Standard (amended CRS) developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  Subject to the passage of the Amendment Bill, the legislative amendments concerning CARF and amended CRS will be implemented from 1 January 2027 onwards and 1 January 2028 onwards respectively.  For details of the legislative amendments concerning CARF, please click here. 

To implement the amended CRS, Part 8A of and Schedules 17C and 17D to the Inland Revenue Ordinance will be amended.  The main legislative amendments relating to the amended CRS are as follows:

Including new digital financial products

Digital money products (i.e. central bank digital currencies and specified electronic money products), derivatives referencing relevant crypto-assets and investment entities investing in relevant crypto-assets are included under the scope of CRS.

Specifying additional reporting requirements

Reporting financial institutions (RFIs) are required to report additional information in respect of account holders, controlling persons and their financial accounts, including whether valid self-certification for each reportable person has been obtained, the role(s) of controlling persons or equity interest holders, whether the account is a pre-existing account or a new account, whether the account is a joint account and the number of joint account holders, and the type of financial account.

Refining due diligence requirements

The Amendment Bill supplements and refines certain definitions and due diligence obligations, including specifying the standards of anti-money laundering / know-your-customer procedures for new entity accounts, refinement of the definition of “excluded accounts” to include capital contribution accounts, requiring the account holder to self-certify all jurisdictions of tax residence, etc.

Preventing dual reporting under CARF and amended CRS

The amended CRS requires RFIs to report gross proceeds from the sale or redemption of financial assets, including relevant crypto-assets.  If an RFI is also a reporting crypto-asset service provider, the gross proceeds in relation to the relevant crypto-assets must be reported under CARF.  To avoid duplicative reporting, RFIs are not required to report such information under the amended CRS if it is already reported under CARF.  Nevertheless, RFIs may elect to report the relevant information under the amended CRS in addition to its mandatory CARF reporting.

Click here to view full content of this Amendment Bill.

Click here to view the Press Release announced on 20 May 2026.