Cheap Chinese Goods Are Becoming a Costly Problem. Exhibit A: Hong Kong.

Prices are falling in mainland China. That’s a boon for people living in Hong Kong, but a big problem for the city’s businesses.

Consumer prices in China fell 0.8% in January compared with a year earlier, the country’s biggest deflation reading in more than a decade. That is a sign of the tepid state of the world’s second-largest economy, where a sputtering recovery has knocked confidence and encouraged Beijing to censor some economic research .

Hong Kong residents are increasingly hopping across the border to the city of Shenzhen, where they load up on frozen food and cheap furniture at big-box stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club. Hong Kong business owners, unable to compete with their Chinese counterparts on price, are feeling the squeeze.

“Walking on the streets these days, you’ll feel that Hong Kong retailers are in big trouble,” said the city’s former financial secretary, John Tsang, in a recent social-media post.

The pain being felt by businesses in Hong Kong offers a partial answer to a question that has been debated by economists for much of the past year: How will deflation in China affect the rest of the world?

Chinese export prices have dropped steadily since late 2022 and were 8.4% lower in December than they were a year earlier, according to customs data. Economists think that’s probably a good thing for Europe and the U.S., where central banks have been forced to embark on an aggressive series of interest-rate increases to keep rising prices in check. But the impact on smaller countries could be more troublesome.

China is the biggest trading partner for many countries across the world, and is particularly influential for countries in Asia. The risk for them is that Chinese companies dump their goods overseas in response to weak demand at home. They can also undercut manufacturers in countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, which have slowly been muscling in on China’s status as the world’s factory.

“This Hong Kong story is applicable to countries that are near the neighbourhood of China because the supply chain is much smaller,” said William Lee , chief economist at the Milken Institute, an economic think tank. The shorter supply chain for China’s trade with its neighbours means changes in price pass through more directly, rather than being swallowed up by the various companies that get involved in shipping goods over longer distances.

China’s neighbours in East Asia don’t have the option to impose protectionist policies against it, analysts at Citigroup wrote in a January note. China is simply too big a force in global trade for them to risk its ire.

But if it is hard for China’s neighbours to push back against falling prices, it is even tougher for Hong Kong—which is run by a pro-Beijing government that wants closer integration with the superpower next door.

Hong Kong residents are partly benefiting from the strength of the U.S. dollar. The Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the U.S. dollar, and the city’s de facto central bank has copied the Federal Reserve’s series of interest-rate increases over the past two years. China’s central bank has gone in the opposite direction, cutting rates in an attempt to boost the moribund economy.

Since the end of 2021, the Chinese yuan has lost more than 11% of its value against the Hong Kong dollar.

Counting the cost

Hong Kong’s economy grew 3.2% last year, clawing back some lost ground after a 3.7% contraction in 2022. But the numbers mask a host of difficult problems, including an exit of foreign businesses , a prolonged slump in the real-estate sector and the lowest fertility rate in the world .

The apparent embrace of what mainland China had to offer would have appeared unthinkable five years ago, when the city was swept up in antigovernment protests. Back then, shoppers and diners looked up color-coded maps to help them identify businesses that shared their political stance to patronize—and avoided those perceived as having links to mainland China.

But years spent cooped up in Hong Kong during the pandemic and penny-pinching by anxious residents have helped boost Shenzhen’s appeal.

“We’re seeing a readjustment of our way of life that suggests economic interdependency between Hong Kong and Shenzhen,” said Edmund Cheng, a political sociology professor at the City University of Hong Kong.

Last year, Hong Kong residents made more than 50 million trips up north following the lifting of all pandemic-related travel restrictions in February, according to Hong Kong Immigration Department data. That’s still below pre pandemic levels, but the Hong Kong residents’ spending power helped boost retail sales in Shenzhen, which rose by 7.8% in 2023, recording one of the biggest jumps at any mainland city last year.

In a survey by a business lobby last year, just 37% of Hong Kong businesses said they expected revenue to grow in 2024. Less than a third thought they were on track to beat pre pandemic levels.

Korsy Lee, 39 years old, is one of many Hong Kong residents who make a regular pilgrimage to Shenzhen—and earns a profit from it. He began shuttling goods back from Shenzhen last August as a side hustle, and now goes there four times a week, loading up his Toyota minivan with frozen hamburgers, fish maw soup, Panasonic dishwashing machines and even toilet-paper rolls. He takes orders from customers and charges a flat fee.

“Eighty percent of my customers are housewives who want to make every penny count,” he said.

Happy is the family whose members—parents, grandparents and grown children—trust each other enough to cooperate on shared goals, especially financial ones. When that is truly the case, Uncle Sam’s tax rules can help as well.

This matters especially now that mortgage rates are above 7%, and many families are looking for ways to help younger members. If the elders have resources and are confident younger ones can cooperate, a family loan could make homeownership possible while providing the elders with a useful income stream.

Other strategies can actually lower taxes, such as when funding 529 plans or Roth IRAs, or when someone inherits a traditional IRA with required withdrawals larger than they will need.

Here are three strategies useful for functional families.

Intrafamily loans

It is perfectly legal for families to lend money to a relative for a down payment or even a private mortgage.

But it is important not to cut corners, says Ryan McKeown, a CPA with Modern Wealth Enhancement in Minnesota. If the loan is for a down payment, be honest with the mortgage provider and have a formal agreement. The lender owes tax on the interest payments received.

If the loan is for a private mortgage, both sides should have legal representation with a formal written agreement, including payment terms. The lender owes tax on the interest, and the borrower often can deduct it if he or she itemizes.

To avoid IRS trouble, the interest rate shouldn’t be lower than the agency’s Applicable Federal Rate at the time of the loan. Currently that is about 5% for loans longer than nine years; about 4.5% for loans three to nine years; and about 4% for loans three years or less. Currently, traditional mortgage rates are generally above 7%.

In addition, the lender could use the $19,000 annual gift-tax exemption (described below) to forgive some or all of the interest or principal annually. If both lenders and borrowers are married, that is up to $76,000 a year. There is no tax for the borrower on such forgiveness, because it is from a gift.

If you’re going this route, McKeown advises against having a fixed plan to forgive the debt. Instead, do it in one-off letters specifying the amount—and keep careful records. Otherwise the IRS might try to treat the loan as a taxable gift.

Asset gifts

Powerful tax-saving moves for families often use gift-tax provisions. Under current law, anyone can give anyone else up to $19,000 of assets annually, free of gift tax. That means a married couple with three grandchildren could give them a total of $114,000 in 2026.

The gifts can be cash or other assets, like stock. For noncash gifts, the cost basis—which is the starting point for measuring taxable gain after a sale—“carries over” to the recipient. So if someone buys $1,000 of stock and gives it away when it is worth $5,000, the recipient’s cost basis is $1,000. If the recipient later sells the shares for $8,000, the taxable gain is $7,000.

Here’s an example showing how gifts could save a family taxes. Grandma is a widow of modest means, while her child and spouse have prospered. The couple has two children, and they want to contribute $5,000 to a 529 college-savings plan for each—but they need to sell stock to do it. Their tax rate on the sale would be 18.8%, and they would need to sell about $11,000 of stock.

However, Grandma’s federal tax rate on the stock sale is 0%. If the couple gives $10,000 of shares to Grandma, she could sell them, pay no tax, and fund the grandchildren’s 529 plans. This saves about $1,000 of tax.

These moves are legal, and they could be used in other ways, such as to help a young person fund a Roth IRA.

But trust among family members is essential: Under the law, givers can’t put conditions on a gift. Grandma could use her stock proceeds to take a cruise, but she makes 529 contributions instead.

Mark Sellner, a retired tax attorney and CPA living in Sarasota, Fla., uses this strategy. His children sell stock he gives them and fund 529 plans for his grandchildren.

The family’s tax savings aren’t huge, but he likes other benefits. The sales by his children don’t boost his adjusted gross income, which in turn could raise his Medicare Irmaa premiums or his 3.8% surtax on net investment income.

Sellner doesn’t worry about his children using the funds for another purpose.

“There can’t be any strings attached to gifts. Of course, it is up to us to decide whether to make them in the future,” he says.

Two caveats: The “kiddie tax” applies to most children under age 24, and it is levied at the parents’ rate on investment income above $2,700 in 2026. Consider this before making gifts to a young person.

Investors who give away stock also forgo the step-up, an important provision that exempts assets held at death from capital-gains tax.

Sellner knows he’s losing a step-up, but says, “The children could use a little more now. Why should they wait 20 years to get it?”

Disclaimers

A disclaimer is a highly useful strategy in which one heir renounces an inheritance in favor of another heir. Assuming family members cooperate, this can save taxes.

Here’s one example. Dad died and had a large traditional IRA that he left to Mom. She has enough assets and income to cover her expenses, and she lives in a state with a stiff estate tax. The inherited IRA would put her estate over the threshold.

Also surviving are three young-adult children. If Mom disclaims all or part of Dad’s IRA within nine months of his death, that amount could go directly to the children. They will have 10 years to empty the account, and the family as a whole will likely save estate and income taxes.

Disclaimers have many key details, especially regarding beneficiary documents. Although heirs have great freedom in choosing what assets to disclaim, the rules about who gets disclaimed property are rigid. It is best if the original owner names tiers of heirs so that if one disclaims, the next recipient is clear.

Cheap Chinese Goods Are Becoming a Costly Problem. Exhibit A: Hong Kong.

Shoppers are hopping across the border after a prolonged decline in prices

Counting the cost

Strong family financial planning can help reduce taxes and support younger generations. From intrafamily loans and asset gifts to inheritance disclaimers, strategic cooperation can create meaningful financial benefits—when families have the trust and structure to make it work.

Intrafamily loans

Asset gifts

Disclaimers