CO129-615-3 Income tax 24-2-1948 - 12-8-1948 — Page 31

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41.

E. COLONIAL INCOME TAX OFFICER.

Arrangements were made during the year for utilising

the services of the Colonial Income Tax Officer in London.

This officer is accommodated in the office of the Crown Agents

for the Colonies and undertakes to assess and collect tax

on behalf of Crown Colonies on corporations having their Head

Offices in the United Kingdom or Eire. This is a useful

facility for Companies whose local branches are not normally

made aware of the profits which arise in or are derived from

Hong Kong and it is particularly useful in the case of a Com-

pany with its Head Office in the United Kingdom and operating

in more than one Crown Colony. During the course of the year

59 Companies elected to make use of the services of the

Colonial Income Tax Officer. 20 assessments were made, resulting

in the collection of tax to the total of $336,655.80.

42.

made up of

F. COST OF THE DEPARTMENT.

The cost of the Department amounted to $509,706.54

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Personal Emoluments

Other Charges

$262,529.19 53.553.95

Total charged to Departmental vote $316,083.14

H.C.L. Allowances, transport

etc. charged to "Miscellaneous Segvices".

193,623.40

$509,706.54

The total cost represented 3.6% of the revenue collected.

This percentage is believed to be low compared with the cost

of collection in Income Tax Departments elsewhere. Further,

considering that for the greater portion of the year activities

were confined to the preliminaries of opening a new Department

rather than to the collection of revenue, the true cost of

actual collection would be still lower and probably in the

region of 2%.

includes

43. Nothing is intended of this figure for the cost of

the services rendered by the Colonial Income Tax Officer, as

no debit was received during the course of the year.

The costs