International or cross-border marriages in China and with Chinese have been on steady rise in the past, and thus international or cross-border divorces have seen increase as well in China. We have been repeatedly approached by clients who wish to divorce in China with his or her spouse that is also a foreigner.
With regard to divorce (without regard to child …
In most cases in the past years, we help foreign clients in dealing with inheritance or succession of real properties, mainly residential properties like apartments or houses in cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and even Suzhou.
Ocassionally, we received clients’ inquiries about inheriting chattels or personal properties (properties…
With so many Chinese emigrating to foreign countries while having substantial assets within China or so many foreigners holding China assets, it is no wonder that we have seen the increase of inquiries regarding estate plan for their China assets, mainly real properties, corporate shares or bank deposits.
I. Why Do You Need a Separate Will for Your China…
We have already written a few articles regarding inheritance by foreigners of corporate shares (a stock company limited by share) or equity interests (a general limited liability company) in a China company, where typically the deceased is a Chinese citizen being a shareholder in a China domestic company and the heirs (often spouse and children) have already…
China has enacted its recently revised individual income tax law, a big overhaul of the law over more than 30 years from its inception.
Some of the changes will be set to have an impact on you, either foreigners or oversea Chinese.
1. New Definition of Tax Residents
In the prior version of the IIT law, a tax resident is one who has domicile within China or otherwise…
In the past a couple of days, four cities in China, Shanghai, Xi’an, Changsha and Hangzhou, has announced that they will restrict corporate entities in purchasing local properties, a new round of efforts in reining in local property market.
For a decade, China (mainly the central government) has been wrestling with property markets. On one hand, the…
Taxes are one of the major concerns of foreign heirs inheriting estates located in China. What taxes are levied on the estates or the inheritance? Is there any way of optimizing taxes in China on acquiring and cashing in on the estate assets?
I. Taxes for Inheritance of Estates
(1) No Estate Tax or Inheritance Tax in China
In today’s world, many …
It is no longer anything fresh for a foreigner to have assets or properties in China. The foreigner can be either real foreign individual without China root or overseas Chinese or naturalized Chinese. So when those people set up trusts in their residing countries (outside of China) and wish to place their China properties (either real properties or shares)…
This is the third post regarding inheritance of corporate shares in a China company. Again it is about a special situation that may become more and more in reality with more and more Chinese riches migrating to foreign countries.
I. Facts of the Case
In 2002, a Chinese husband set up a trading company with a third party, and business went well. In 2006, the husband…
Again this is a post for people who are caught in a divorce proceeding in either China or a foreign country but have marital properties located in China, in particular, real estate such as apartment, house, office or industrial premises.
As a Chinese tradition, parents often buy properties for their children even when they are very young or still babies. Nowadays,…
We all love money but hate debts. In particular, you extremely hate paying debts incurred by others, even if debts incurred by your other half.
In response to the outcries from Chinese wives, on January 17, 2018, China Supreme Court issued a brief new interpretation (hereinafter the “New Interpretation“) on how to decide on what debts shall be …
If you are looking for legal information regarding inheritance of estates in China, the blog is for you. You may have read a few posts (how foreigners inherit estates in China, tax issues of inheriting real estate in China, multiple heirs inherit one piece of estate property in China, make a will disposing of properties in China) already and you know that the basic…
At the end of last month, in response to an inquiry by a member from National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conferrence, China State Administration of Taxes published on its website its reply. It said:
(1) China has not levied inheritance taxes so far, and has never published any regulation on this or even any draft regulation on inheritance…
Does China has its own version of trust law? Many may not have a ready answer.
Yes, China does have its own Trust Law enacted back in 2001. This post will summarize the main provisions and talk about the main issues.
1. Definition of Trust
Article 2 of the Law provides for the definition of trust:
…“For purposes of this Law, trust refers to that the settlor,
This is a new sign of integration of Hong Kong into its mainland. The two sides now mutually agreed to recognize and enforce the family court judgments delivered by the courts in the other side in full aspects, meaning that clients who have obtained a divorce judgments (child custody or other family issues decisions) from Hong Kong court (vice versa) can now request…
A recent interesting case has sparked interests in China’s rich with regard to their family business continuation and inheritance.
A rich couple in China Jiangsu province was sued by their son to nullify a share transfer which was carried out by his parents without his knowledge in order to force the son to take up the family business to carry it on. Unfortunately…
Properties, I mean real estate such as houses, apartments, condos, and offices, can be owned by more than one owner, resulting in co-ownership in a certain piece of property.
I. Co-ownership under China Property Law
Under China Property Law, there are two types of co-ownership: tenancy in common and joint tenancy. However please be noted that the tenancy…
As I deal with quite a number of matters of inheritance by foreigners of estates in China, a few cases in which clients from Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions such as Canada and USA inherited estates left by their family members have involved trusts that are set up by the decedents, which are very interesting to me, a lawyer in China where civil trusts are rarely used in…
You can download the PDF version of this post HERE.
Trusts have been hot in China recent years esp in the financial sector of China economy. As a business and family lawyer in China, I find it intriguing how the trust mechanisms can help with respect to estate planning for wealthy Chinese and business planning as well, which has prompted to further explore the world…
I have been doing research on trust laws for some time in particular the comparison between Chinese trust laws and those of the Western countries such UK and USA.b
An obviously observatory difference manifested from trust laws is that western countries recognize and allow its citizens to use trusts and other legal instruments to reduce and evade tax burdens…
