PRESS RELEASE

(Source : Government Information Centre)

LCQ8: Salaries tax

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Following is a question by the Hon Bernard Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (November 2):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council of the average percentage of the amount of salaries tax in the income of the payers of the tax, excluding those who paid at the standard rate, and the highest and lowest amounts of tax paid by them in the past three financial years?

Reply:

Madam President,

In the years of assessment 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04, tax payers subject to progressive rates paid respectively an average of 5.3%, 5.9% and 6.1% of their assessable income (i.e. total gross income from all sources before deduction of any allowable outgoings, expenses, concessionary deductions and allowances) in salaries tax. The lowest amount of tax payable was $1 whereas the highest amounts were $560,112 (Note1), $523,701, and $435,340 for the respective years.

Note1: After the rebate of 50% of 2001-02 final tax, subject to a cap of $3,000 per case.

Ends/Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:27

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