Stamp duty at 0.1% on each side of a share trade.
Round-trip stamp duty
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Buy side (0.1%)
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Sell side (0.1%)
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Your breakdown
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The one government charge on a Hong Kong share trade
Hong Kong does not tax capital gains, so when you sell shares at a profit there is no tax on the gain itself. What there is, on both buying and selling, is stamp duty on the instrument of transfer, a charge the Inland Revenue Department administers under the stamp duty regime. It is easy to overlook because brokers fold it into the contract note, but on larger trades it is the single biggest statutory cost you pay. This tool isolates it so you can see the buy side, the sell side, and the round-trip total clearly.
The rate this calculator applies is 0.1 percent of the consideration on each side, so the buyer pays 0.1 percent and the seller pays 0.1 percent, giving 0.2 percent across a complete buy-and-sell. A fixed $5 duty also applies to the transfer instrument. Treat these as the tool's assumptions and confirm the current rate with the IRD, because the stamp duty on stock has been adjusted before and is a Budget lever.
Stamp duty on a $100,000 trade
Take a $100,000 trade, the tool's default. Each side attracts 0.1 percent, which is $100, and a round trip adds the two sides plus the single $5 fixed duty.
So a single sale of $100,000 of shares costs $100 in stamp duty, and a full buy-then-sell cycle costs $205 once the fixed duty is added. The chart breaks the round trip into its three pieces.
Why this matters more to active traders than long-term holders
For someone who buys a stock and holds it for years, 0.2 percent round-trip is a rounding error against the eventual return. For an active trader it is a recurring tax on turnover that compounds against you. Flip the same $100,000 position twenty times in a year and you have paid roughly $4,000 in stamp duty alone, before any brokerage, regardless of whether you made money. The honest takeaway is that frequent trading carries a quiet, certain cost in Hong Kong even though the gains are untaxed, and that cost is a real argument for trading less.
A common point of confusion: stamp duty is charged on the consideration, the money that changes hands, not on your profit. You pay it on the sell side even at a loss. That is the opposite of how a capital gains tax would work, and it is worth keeping the two ideas separate. This page covers stamp duty only; if you want the full all-in cost including brokerage and the exchange levies, use the trading-cost tool.
It also helps to understand who actually pays and when. In practice the duty is collected through your broker and the exchange's settlement system at the point of trade, so you will see it itemised on the contract note rather than receiving a separate bill from the IRD. The buyer and the seller each bear their own 0.1 percent, which is why a round trip totals 0.2 percent plus the single fixed duty rather than 0.1 percent shared between you. For an investor placing occasional orders, the cleanest way to think about it is as a small, certain entry-and-exit toll: known in advance, the same regardless of outcome, and easy to budget for as a fixed fraction of whatever you transact.
Do I pay stamp duty on Hong Kong ETFs and bonds?
Many exchange-traded funds and certain securities benefit from a stamp duty exemption or remission, and government and corporate bonds are generally not subject to the stock stamp duty. The 0.1 percent per side in this tool applies to ordinary listed shares. Check the specific product, because the exemptions are particular and change.
Is stamp duty charged if my trade makes a loss?
Yes. Stamp duty is on the value transacted, not the outcome, so the seller pays 0.1 percent even on a losing sale. Because Hong Kong has no capital gains tax, there is also no loss relief to claim, the duty is simply a cost of transacting.