Can I leave the money in a Hong Kong account and use a debit card, etc in the US, or when do I have to pay taxes on money I make in Hong Kong?

First of all, you will have to report this information correctly.  You will have to declare any foreign accounts, and the Hong Kong government has just signed a tax agreement with the US, so you should assume that any accounts that you have in Hong Kong are known to IRS. Also google for "IRS form 8938" and "FINCEN Form 114". There are some very tricky rules  here, and you will need a tax professional, but the bottom line is that  in the end you will have to pay US income taxes.  There are some very complex and messy rules, but in the end the purpose of those complex rules is to make sure that you pay US taxes.  If you are a US resident then you will definitely have to pay US tax on money that you move from Hong Kong to the US.  This is US income and is taxable.  However, because this is income, you can deduct this as an expense from your HK corporation and not pay HK tax on it. This assumes that this is an actual HK business.  To simplify things greatly (and again you need to see a tax professional), if this is a real HK business with income in HK, then you will not have to pay US income tax until the income gets transferred to the US.  You pay HK profits tax on the HK profits, but the moment it gets transferred to the US, you pay US taxes.  This gets tricky because you want to avoid double taxation, so in this situation you really *want* to pay US taxes. If the HK company is a shell company, then you are subject to controlled foreign corporation rules, and the taxes will get very messy and you will need a tax professional.  If it is a shell corporation, then you will likely find that in the end, the best thing to do is to disregard the shell corporation, treat all of the income as subject to US taxation, and then put in whatever HK taxes you have to pay as a foreign tax credit. There are some things that can make things even more complicated (i.e. if you are a citizen of a third country.) My advice is do not fight the tax code.  There are a dozen landmines, but in the end if you pay your taxes, the tax man will not come after you.  If you fill out forms X, Y, and Z incorrectly but you end up paying the right amount of taxes (or more taxes), then the tax man will not care.  If you get clever, then whatever tax savings you would have gotten will be eaten up by lawyers and accountants. One thing that an accountant may do is to first do the taxes the straightforward way.  Then they get clever and you see how much money you can save by being clever.  One reason for doing things this way is that if you aren't careful, you can end up paying *more* taxes by being clever.  For example, the profits tax in HK is a flat tax, whereas US income tax is progressive.  It's not hard to come up with a scenario in which you end up paying 16% on income which the US would have taxed at 0%.

It depends on the nature of the money you are being paid.  If you are living in the US, then I assume you are either a US citizen or US resident, which means you file a 1040 tax return each year and report ALL of your income.  Determining if the money from Hong Kong is taxable in the US is going to depend on a whole lot of other factors that you will have to address in your tax return.  You can research this yourself and I would start by finding out about foreign earned income exclusion and foreign tax credit, but I will warn you foreign income of US taxpayers is a somewhat complex issue and you would probably be better off consulting a tax professional who can discuss your unique set of facts. You are certainly free to use the money in the Hong Kong account, but you will have to report the income and potentially you may have to report the foreign bank account if there is a sufficient balance in the account to meet the reporting threshold.  Reporting does not necessarily mean the income is taxable, just reportable.