33
of tax payers (other than salaried persons) seeking personal
assessment will be a deciding factər in settling what should
be the next step towards the ultimate introduction of a
normal income tax on an individual basis. If the great
majority of such taxpayers elect for personal assessment it
will be clear that the objections to normal Income Tax are
and
not very widespread/în 1948/49 it should be possible to
introduce legislation more on the lines of the kodel
Ordinance.
If no such clear indicυtion is given, however,
the rate of progress towards a pure Income Tax must
conditioned by the results of the offer in Chapter VII.
13. Murtaz.
Under the present proposals a Surtax is
imprnoticable. Surtax is essentially based on individual
incomes and until general individual assessment is in force
any attempt at imposing a Eurtax would mall only on salaried
persons and those sleating tò personal assessment. This
would obviously be unfair and would equally obviously load-fend
to defeat the object of Chapter VII by inducing those with
large incomes to refrain from aleating to personal assessment.
To attempt to place a surtax on profits over
certain figure would merely be to tax the size of a business.
To place a surtex on profits representing more than a certain
percentage on the shareholders' or proprietors' investment
would be difficult and certainly very inequitable in a
community such as Hong Kong, where the standard of business
records and accounting is still often deplorably low.
บ. Bates of Tex.
I have not suggested any a tandard rate of tax,
preferring to leave this until more is known of the 1947/48 budgeting position. But the need to bring the incidence
of taxation in Hong Kon: more into line with that of other
Colonies in the United Kingdom (bearing in mind, of course,
the/