44
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
Revenue derived from the four taxes in the 1954-5 year
of assessment was as follows:
Corporation Profits Tax Business Profits Tax
...
$54,750,777.98 26,603,250.79
Salaries Tax
Personal Tax
Interest Tax
Property Tax
81,354,028.77
9,505,072.25
2,147,773.16
2,856,921.95
11,803,746.02
$107,667,542.15
Estate Duty is levied on conventional lines at rates varying between 2% (in the case of estates valued between $5,000 and $10,000) and 52% (in the case of estates valued at over $30,000,000). The total revenue received from this duty during 1954-5 was $12,035,170.
Rates have been levied in the Colony since 1845, when an Ordinance was passed to raise an assessed rate on lands, houses and premises "for the upholding of the requisite Police Force." To-day rates are one of the largest revenue-producing items, the estimate for 1955-6 being over $44,000,000.
The basis of rateable value is the annual letting value of a tenement, by which is meant any land or any building or part thereof held or occupied as a distinct or separate tenancy or under licence from the Crown.
Rates at present are levied in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon. Until recently a modified form of rating, according to the capital value of buildings, existed in three urban areas of the New Territories. These modifications were repealed in 1954, however, with the inten- tion of gradually extending the urban method of valuing to the New Territories (outside New Kowloon), one area of which has been designated under the Rating (Parts of the Colony) Regulations 1954, and a valuation of the tenements in it ordered for the financial year 1956-7.
In Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon rates are mainly charged at 17 per cent per annum of rateable value, and are payable quarterly in advance. In respect of any new valuation in the New Territories, the corresponding charge will be 11 per cent. The valuations are prepared by the Com- missioner of Rating and Valuation, while demand notes are issued by the Accountant-General for payment at Treasury. There is provision for a surcharge on any rates in arrears, but the yield from this has been comparatively small.
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