Friday, December 29, 1972
NEW SYSTEM OF ASSESSING SALARIES TAX
Provisional Salaries Tax To Be Introduced Under Bill
Hong Kong will have a new system of assessing salaries tax under
which people will be assessed on their actual income in the current year
rather than in the preceding year.
The change in the basis of assessment, recommended by the Inland
Revenue Ordinance Review Committee, is contained in the Inland Revenue (Amendment)
Bill 1973 published in the Gazette today for general information.
The bill seeks to implement the new system and introduce the payment
of provisional salaries tax with effect from April 1 next year, as proposed
by the Financial Secretary in his budget speech last March.
Under the Bill, the existing preceding-year basis of assessment
will not be used for a final and conclusive assessment after the 1972-73
year of assessment. Starting with the 1973-74 year of assessment, every person
chargeable to salaries tax will be liable to pay provisional tax which is to
be charged on the net chargeable income of the taxpayer for the year preceding
the year of assessment.
Commenting on this aspect of the Bill, a spokesman for the Inland
Revenue Department explained that, in the first year of transition, the income
of the year ending March 31, 1973 would be used provisionally to calculate the
tax payable for the year 1973-74.
/When