Hong Kong Pillar Two Filing Guide
March 28, 2026
A practical guide to Hong Kong’s Registration, top-up tax notification, GIR / top-up tax return architecture, and current Hong Kong-specific data-format rules
Article 10 of the OECD Model Rules defines an entity as either:
– a legal person (except an individual); or
– any arrangement that prepares separate financial accounts.
Note that the First Set of OECD Administrative Guidance also excludes government agencies (both central and local government) that carry out government functions.
The first limb above would generally catch foundations, whilst the second would catch trusts.
This means that trusts and foundations are squarely within the Pillar Two rules and could be a low-taxed entity, an intermediate entity/partially owned parent entity or even an ultimate parent entity (UPE).
Under Article 1.4.1 of the OECD Model Rules, a UPE for the Pillar Two rules is:
Whether a trust is a UPE is an important consideration as (1) in many cases the UPE is required to apply the income inclusion rule to account for top-up tax and (2) the definition of an MNE group hinges on the relationship between the group companies and the UPE.
For instance, take this scenario:
Determining if the trust was the UPE could result in all companies then potentially being within the scope of the Pillar Two rules (subject to any specific exclusions etc). Aside from the application of Pillar Two to the group, the trust could then be liable to account for top-up tax.
This in itself could create issues.
The definition of a group in the Pillar Two rules relies on accounting principles so that there is a group if there is a requirement to prepare consolidated financial statements.
Whilst a trust or foundation may not usually have to prepare consolidated financial statements under an accounting standard, the Pillar Two rules go further.
Article 10 of the OECD Model Rules states that if no consolidated financial statements are prepared a deeming provision applies so that the entity must prepare hypothetical consolidated financial statements as if it was required to prepare them in accordance with an Authorised Financial Accounting Standard that is either an Acceptable Financial Accounting Standard or another financial accounting standard.
As such, a trust or foundation would need to determine if it would be required to prepare accounting standards under an accounting standard.
This would again depend on accounting principles.
Under IFRS for instance, there is a requirement to consolidate if the trust or foundation possesses power over the parent entities, has exposure to variable returns from its involvement with them and has the ability to use its power over them to affect its returns.
A practical guide to Hong Kong’s Registration, top-up tax notification, GIR / top-up tax return architecture, and current Hong Kong-specific data-format rules
A practical guide to Germany’s Registration, group head notification and GloBE Information Return (GIR) filing through the BZSt framework
Australia issued the Taxation (Multinational—Global and Domestic Minimum Tax) (Qualified GloBE Taxes) Amendment (Measures No. 1) Determination 2026, on March 20, 2026. This updates Australia’s domestic lists of foreign Qualified IIRs, foreign Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Taxes, and jurisdictions with QDMTT Safe Harbour status
On March 24, 2026, Finland gazetted a law amending its Minimum Tax Act to provide for aspects of the January 2026 OECD Side By Side Tax Package and the June 2024 and January 2025 OECD Administrative Guidance.
On March 24, 2026, Belgium issued an updated draft QDMTT Form and XSD Schema.
A practical guide to Luxembourg’s top-up tax return on MyGuichet.lu, including what the local XML does, which fields drive the filing logic, and where groups usually need extra controls.
On February 27, 2026, South Korea issued an amendment to its international tax adjustment decree to provide for detailed provisions for the application of its QDMTT.
In this article we look at how Japan handles the Pillar Two GloBE Information Return through the e-Tax Multinational Enterprise Information Reporting Corner, what fields Japan localises in the GIR XML and CSV package, and how that sits alongside the Japanese top-up tax return.
View our downloadable checklist for Japan’s Pillar Two filing process.
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