Joseph Fu

Joseph served as a council member of the Taxation Institute of Hong Kong for many years and was the Institute’s president in 2002 and 2003. He was an admitted partner of Deloitte in 1992 and international tax partner of Ernst & Young in 2004. He left Ernst & Young in 2007 to found his own firm, JFU, focusing on tax and risk management in Hong Kong and mainland China. 

Joseph was named one of Hong Kong and mainland China’s top tax advisors by the International Tax Review in 1998, 1999 and from 2003 to 2006, and by Euromoney in 2002. As part of a World Bank-sponsored fiscal policy project, Joseph advised China’s Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on tax policy issues.

What do you focus on?

I have been advising corporations and individuals on Hong Kong and mainland China tax matters, particularly issues arising from cross-border operations, pricing for related-party transactions, transaction structuring, business association and reorganization, mergers and acquisitions, tax investigation, and due diligence review.

What do you see on the horizon?

Intergovernmental efforts in recent years have resulted in many new compliance requirements, such as Common Reporting Standards, Automatic Exchange of Information, and tax documentation for deterring Base Erosion Profit Shift. Such changes require that greater care be given to tax compliance management, as well as tax planning, which must be a very transparent and well-documented exercise—a good challenge for the tax profession.