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Tax concessions for those with special needs
The Financial Secretary, the Hon Sir Hamish Macleod, today (Wednesday) proposed in his Budget Speech to the Legislative Council salaries tax concessions for those with special needs and a 10 per cent tax cut for the majority of salaries taxpayers.
These improvements in tax concessions would reduce the tax burden of some 96 per cent of salaries taxpayers.
For those with special needs, Sir Hamish proposed:
to double the additional dependent parent and grandparent allowances, from $3,000 to $6,000, for those parents or grandparents living with the taxpayer.
to increase the child allowance for the third to ninth child to $11,000. (The existing level of allowance ranges from $1,000 to $3,000.)
to increase the single-parent allowance by 25 per cent, from $32,000 to $40,000.
to introduce a new allowance of $11,000 for a disabled dependant, defined as someone who is eligible to claim an allowance under the Government's Disability Allowance Scheme. An estimated 30,000 taxpayers would benefit from this new concession. This allowance would be in addition to any allowance already being claimed by the taxpayer for the disabled family member in question.
And for the majority of salaries taxpayers, he proposed:
to increase by 10 per cent the basic allowance, from $72,000 to $79,000.
to increase by 10 per cent the married person's allowance, from $144,000 to $158,000.
to increase the allowance for the first and second child by 10 per cent, from $20,000 to $22,000.
to increase the basic dependent parent and grandparent allowances by 10 per cent, from $20,000 to $22,000.