- Hong Kong has no general business licence. What you need depends on what your business does.
- Every business must register with the Inland Revenue Department within one month of starting. A one-year Business Registration Certificate costs HK$2,350 from 1 April 2026.
- A Business Registration Certificate is a tax registration, not a licence. Mixing up the two is the most common mistake here.
- Consulting, agencies, most professional services and most e-commerce sellers need no industry licence at all.
- Hong Kong is a free port, so there’s no general import or export licence. Specific goods are still controlled.
- No general licence exists: Hong Kong has no single business licence covering all trades.
- What everyone needs: a Business Registration Certificate from the IRD, HK$2,350 for one year from 1 April 2026.
- Who needs more: food and drink, alcohol, hotels, money services, telecoms, care homes and regulated financial activity.
- How to check: the government's Business Licence Information Service lists what applies to your trade.
Setting up in Hong Kong, you’ve probably wondered which business licence or permit you need before you can legally trade. Maybe a forum post mentioned one. Maybe your accountant back home assumed there’d be one. Most people arrive here half-expecting bad news.
Here’s the short version: Hong Kong doesn’t issue a general business licence. There’s nothing to apply for that says “you may now trade”. You register with the Inland Revenue Department, and licensing after that depends on your industry. For most founders, that’s the end of the story.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- Why a Business Registration Certificate isn’t a licence, and why that matters
- Which industries need a licence, and which department issues it
- Whether you need an import or export licence (usually not)
- How long licensing takes and where it sits in your launch timeline
- What happens if you trade without a licence you needed
Do you need a business licence in Hong Kong?
Probably not. Hong Kong has no general business licence, and most businesses never apply for one. Government guidance doesn’t point you to a universal permit, it tells you to find out what specific licences, permits and approvals your operations need.
What you can’t skip is business registration. Under the Business Registration Ordinance, anyone carrying on business in Hong Kong must register with the IRD within one month of starting. That gets you a Business Registration Certificate, and for a consultancy, an agency or most online shops, that’s the whole picture.
Licensing is the exception. It kicks in when your trade touches something regulated directly: food, alcohol, people’s money, people’s safety, the airwaves, or the border.
What’s the difference between a Business Registration Certificate, a licence and a permit?
Three different things. A Business Registration Certificate proves you’ve registered for tax. A licence is permission to operate in a regulated trade. A permit is narrower: permission for one specific activity.
Business Registration Certificate | Industry licence | Permit | |
Who needs it | Every business in Hong Kong | Only specified trades | Only specified activities |
Issued by | Inland Revenue Department | The relevant department (FEHD, Customs and Excise, OFCA) | The relevant department |
What it is | A tax registration | Permission to operate in a regulated trade | Permission for one specific activity |
Is it a “business licence”? | No, though it’s constantly mistaken for one | Yes, in the everyday sense | No, it’s narrower |
A Business Registration Certificate doesn’t mean you’re licensed. Open a café on that alone and you’re trading without a food licence.
Which licences does your business need?
Here’s what the main regulated trades need and who issues it. Everything below drills into the sectors founders ask about most.
Business type | Licence needed? | Issuing authority |
Restaurant, café or food business | Yes | Food and Environmental Hygiene Department |
Selling alcohol | Yes | Liquor Licensing Authority |
Hotel or guesthouse | Yes | Licensing Authority |
Clubhouse | Yes | Licensing Authority |
Money changing or remittance | Yes | Customs and Excise Department |
Dealing in precious metals and stones | Yes, registration | Customs and Excise Department |
Telecommunications | Yes | Office of the Communications Authority |
Residential care home | Yes | Social Welfare Department |
Environmental discharge or waste | Yes, permit | Environmental Protection Department |
Radioactive substances or irradiating apparatus | Yes | Radiation Board |
Prescribed electrical products (energy labelling) | Yes | Electrical and Mechanical Services Department |
Regulated financial activity | Yes | Securities and Futures Commission |
Consulting, most e-commerce, most professional services | Usually none | Business Registration Certificate only |
If your trade isn’t listed, confirm it rather than assume.
Do you need an import or export licence in Hong Kong?
For most goods, no. Hong Kong is a free port: no Customs tariff on imports or exports, and no general licence to apply for. This is the part that usually surprises people.
Licensing applies selectively, not by default. The Trade and Industry Department requires it only for goods tied to international obligations, commitments to trading partners, or public health, safety, and internal security. The legal basis sits in the Import and Export Ordinance (Cap. 60) and the Reserved Commodities (Control of Imports, Exports and Reserve Stocks) Regulations (Cap. 296A).
Where licensing does apply, it falls into a few buckets:
- Strategic commodities
- Reserved commodities, such as rice
- Other goods under specific controls
If you’re moving pharmaceuticals, food, chemicals, or dual-use electronics, check the Trade and Industry Department’s licensing overview against your product codes first. Outside those categories, setting up a trading company is a logistics question, not a licensing one.
Needing no import licence doesn't get you off the hook at the border. Anyone importing or exporting goods, other than exempted articles, must lodge accurate and complete declarations with Hong Kong Customs within 14 days of the shipment. New traders miss this constantly, because they read "free port" and assume there's nothing to file.
What licences do food, drink and hospitality businesses need?
Food businesses need a licence from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) before opening. The licence is tied to the premises, not the company, so a new location means a new application even if the business is the same.
FEHD issues several types, depending on what you’re running:
- General restaurant licence — for a sit-down venue
- Food factory licence — for production
- Restricted food permits — for higher-risk items such as sushi and cut fruit
Alcohol is a separate application to the Liquor Licensing Authority, so a bar-restaurant is running two approvals in parallel, not one. Hotels and guesthouses go through the Licensing Authority instead.
Sequencing catches people out. Food licences depend on the premises passing inspection, so your lease, fit-out, and ventilation all feed into the application — get any of them wrong and the licence application stalls with it. There’s more in the guide to starting an F&B business.
Do financial services and money changing need a licence?
Yes, if the business is moving or managing other people’s money, not just touching it in passing.
Which regulator you deal with then depends on what exactly you’re doing with that money:
- Currency exchange and remittance: needs a Money Service Operator licence from the Customs and Excise Department
- Dealing in precious metals and stones: needs registration with the same department
- Dealing in regulated activity such as asset management or securities dealing: falls to the Securities and Futures Commission. The SFC licensing rules are their own subject.
One distinction worth holding onto: taking client money doesn’t automatically make you a financial services business. For example, a design agency holding a deposit isn’t regulated. A business whose product is moving or managing other people’s money almost certainly is.
How do you check which licences apply to your business?
Use the government’s Business Licence Information Service, run by the Trade and Industry Department. It covers licences, permits, certificates and approvals relevant to business operations in Hong Kong. Describe your business, and it returns what applies.
Two habits make the result trustworthy:
- Describe what you actually do, not your industry label. “Wellness” could mean retail, food, or a licensed clinic, and the tool can only match what you tell it.
- Check each activity separately. A café that also sells packaged goods online may have obligations the café licence alone doesn’t cover.
If the lookup returns nothing beyond business registration, that’s a real answer, not a gap in the tool.
How long does licensing take, and will it delay your launch?
It varies by department, and premises-based licences take the longest because they depend on inspections you don’t control. Food and hospitality applications involve site checks, so the timeline moves with your fit-out, not just the paperwork queue. Licences without premises generally move faster.
Plan for licensing to run alongside your build-out, not after it. Founders who treat the application as a final box to tick before opening day end up paying rent on a venue they can’t legally operate.
Licensing sits after incorporation on your timeline, not before it. Most applications need an existing legal entity, a registered address and, for premises-based trades, a signed lease. That's why the sequence runs company first, business registration second, licence third, and why lining up a licence before the company exists usually stalls.
What happens if you operate without a licence you needed?
Operating a regulated trade without the required licence is an offence, and the department can stop you trading while you sort it out. For a food business, that often means closure.
Penalties are set by each ordinance and vary by trade, so check the figure with the issuing department rather than relying on a general number. The knock-on effects are more predictable: insurers may decline claims from unlicensed operation, leases often carry compliance clauses, and banks can ask what authority you’re trading under.
None of this is cause for panic if you’re still planning. It’s a reason to check before you sign a lease or take your first order, while fixing it is still administrative. Sleek’s guide topenalties for missing your obligations covers the wider picture.
When you almost certainly don’t need a licence
Most founders fall into the “nothing further required” category, and those arriving from markets with general business licences are often surprised by it. You’re likely clear if:
- You’re selling professional services such as consulting, design, marketing, legal or accounting support
- You’re running an online shop selling ordinary consumer goods, with no food, alcohol, medicine or restricted items
- You’re building or selling software, or operating a B2B service business
- You’re freelancing or contracting under your own registered business
- Your only footprint is an office you work from, with no public-facing premises
When you need to check carefully before you launch
Some activities trigger licensing even when the business sounds ordinary. Check properly if:
- You’re storing, preparing or serving food or drink for sale, including from a shared kitchen
- You’re holding, exchanging or managing other people’s money as your actual service
- You’re providing accommodation, care or supervision to people
- You’re importing goods that could be controlled, such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals or dual-use electronics
- You’re transmitting on the airwaves or operating telecoms infrastructure
- You’re selling regulated products such as alcohol, tobacco or certain electrical goods
The pattern is consistent: when your business touches public health, public safety, or other people’s money, expect a licence.
How Sleek helps you set up in Hong Kong
Licensing is one part of getting a Hong Kong business running, and for most founders it’s the easy part. The pieces that apply to everyone, registration, statutory records and filing deadlines, are where things go wrong.
With Sleek, you can:
- Incorporate and register together: get your Certificate of Incorporation and Business Registration Certificate as one process, not two.
- Keep records licence-ready: a licensed company secretary maintains the registers and filings licence applications ask to see.
- Use a compliant address: a registered office address that meets Companies Registry requirements and receives official mail.
- Stay ahead of deadlines: reminders for annual returns, business registration renewal and tax filing, so nothing lapses while you’re focused on the licence.
If you do need an industry licence, that application goes to a government department, not to Sleek. What we can do is make sure the company behind it is in order first.
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FAQs about business licences and permits in Hong Kong
Not usually, if the work is office-based. Consulting, design and online selling from home need nothing beyond business registration. The picture changes if you’re preparing food for sale or seeing clients on the premises. Check your lease and deed of mutual covenant for commercial-use restrictions first.
Selling into Hong Kong from abroad doesn’t automatically require a licence, since licensing attaches to businesses operating here. What triggers obligations is a presence: premises, staff or a registered entity. If you’re carrying on business in Hong Kong, business registration applies wherever you’re based.
Yes. Business registration is separate and universal, at HK$2,350 for one year or HK$6,170 for three years from 1 April 2026. Any industry licence carries its own fee set by the issuing department, and those vary widely by trade. Budget them as two distinct costs.
Renewal periods are set by each issuing department rather than centrally, so they vary by licence. What’s fixed is business registration: your certificate runs one or three years and must be renewed before it expires. Diary both dates separately, because they rarely align.
Licensing follows where food is handled, not whether you have a shopfront. If you’re preparing, storing or packing food for sale, those premises generally need a Food and Environmental Hygiene Department licence, even if every order arrives online. Confirm the exact type with FEHD, since it varies by process.
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No. Industry licence applications go to the relevant government department, and Sleek doesn’t offer them as a service. Sleek handles the company underneath: incorporation, business registration, company secretarial work and the registered address those applications expect. The company compliance FAQs cover recurring obligations.
