China's super-rich face a deadline on Thursday, October 22, to declare income booked in offshore trusts, as Beijing imposes a 20% tax on such profits in a tougher push on capital held overseas, Reuters reported, citing wealth advisers, lawyers and others familiar with the matter who said some of China's richest people are winding down offshore trusts, selling shares and even switching nationality as the deadline arrives.

Founders of Hong Kong- and US-listed Chinese firms would be hit hardest, advisers said, because many sold shares through trusts at peak valuations between 2014 and 2020. “We estimate that the tax payable in a single case could range from a few million yuan to hundreds of millions, or even billions,” said Oscar Liu, CEO of wealth adviser JLT Legacy Group, which has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore — yaani, in the biggest single cases the bill could run to billions of yuan, that is 100 crore yuan or more for one person.

Boston Consulting Group estimates China's offshore wealth at about $1.7 trillion — yaani, $1.7 trillion is about 170,000 crore dollars held outside the country — and offshore trusts have become a popular tool for top shareholders of overseas-listed Chinese companies to park wealth abroad, Reuters reported. China's State Taxation Administration has ordered employees to chase up those liable for the offshore trust tax, working from a list drawn from the Hurun wealth rankings, corporate filings and other public information, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The move is part of tougher scrutiny of capital outflows and rule enforcement amid growing fiscal strains, as the world's second-largest economy battles persistent weakness in domestic demand and broader economic imbalances, Reuters reported. Tax officials have stepped up efforts to gather information on wealthy individuals in their jurisdictions and are setting up dedicated teams to collect taxes owed on offshore incomes, the advisers and lawyers said.

Beijing set the October 22 deadline in late July, triggering the scramble to calculate liabilities. A separate Bloomberg estimate carried in deadline-day coverage put the exposed assets of eight of China's richest tycoons at roughly $140 billion — yaani, about 14,000 crore dollars — though that figure is an estimate of assets potentially in scope, not a tax bill, and Awaaz Punjab reports it as an estimate only.