Hongkong Personal Tax: A Wide Range Of Tax Exemption

HK $5.5, which is payable to Hongkong people who have reached HK $178 thousand a year after meeting certain conditions.

In fact, if you open similar tax receipts for low and middle income people in Hongkong, you will find that such a low tax burden is comparable to a LV or Coach package.

This is why a recent single tax bill circulated in micro-blog has attracted the envy, jealousy and hatred of mainland netizens.

However, whether taxpayers at all levels or related experts interviewed in an interview, they said that the phenomenon of "5.5 Hong Kong dollars" was similar to that in the mainland.

The annual income of HK $178 thousand is equivalent to HK $15 thousand per month.

Fang Zhou, assistant general research director of the Hongkong one country two systems research center, thinks that this is equivalent to the monthly salary of two thousand or three thousand yuan in the mainland.

According to the tax threshold set up by the mainland which has been raised to 3500 yuan, the mainland income earners do not even have to pay taxes.

"The receipt of tax bill is weak, and it wants to hit the wall". Some of the high income people in Hongkong also confirm the tax principle of "tempering justice with mercy".

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When entering the tax season, the Hongkong people who had been keeping tabs on income were suddenly caught up with tax bills by mainland netizens.

The income of a single Hong Kong person was HK $178 thousand last year, and it only paid HK $729 in personal income tax.

This is a piece of news that has gone crazy on micro-blog recently.

Let's go to the Hongkong Inland Revenue Department to calculate the salaries tax calculation form for the "happy man".

First, HK $178 thousand is not net income, and it must be deducted from HK $8900.

If the person is free of charge, deducting the basic allowance of HK $108 thousand of Pratt & Whitney, Hongkong, the total amount of taxable income should be HK $61100, and the total tax payable should be HK $2277.

In accordance with Hongkong's four progressive progressive tax rate, the first tax revenue is HK $40 thousand, the tax rate is 2%, and the next two HK $40 thousand tax revenues are 7% and 12%, and the remaining taxable income is calculated by 17%.

If the single port person lives with her parents who are 55 years old, they can enjoy a total of 30 thousand Hong Kong dollar tax exemption according to the conditions of last year.

If we live together for the whole year, the tax allowance will be doubled to HK $60 thousand.

As a result, the annual taxable income is HK $1100 and the tax amount is only HK $22.

If the above two cases occurred in last year, they could also enjoy the "concession" of Hongkong "finance minister" and the announcement by the financial secretary, Zeng Chun Hua, that the tax rebate was 75%, that is to say, if the amount of tax is HK $22, the discount will only be 5.5 Hong Kong dollars.

According to the new regulations this year, if the 178 thousand Hong Kong dollar income earners live with their parents (not living together all year round), the total tax allowance will increase to HK $36 thousand. The total taxable income will be HK $25100, and the tax payable should be HK $502.

In the mainland, if the annual income is 178 thousand yuan and the monthly income is 14 thousand and 800 yuan, the "three risks and one gold" will be deducted from different places. If the median value of 20% is calculated, the monthly income will be 11 thousand and 800 yuan.

Minus 3500 yuan threshold, the monthly taxable income is 8300 yuan, and the actual monthly tax payment is RMB 1105 yuan.

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Different levels

Not all single men and women are as happy as 5.5 Hong Kong dollars.

Mr. Wu, who is engaged in the media industry, told reporters that single persons who entered HK $178 thousand or entered HK $14 thousand and 800 each month were only a little higher in Hongkong than those who were called "grassroots". They did not represent the situation of all Hongkong people.

The latest statistics from the statistics office of the Hongkong special administrative region show that in the second quarter of 2011, the median monthly employment earnings in Hongkong amounted to HK $11 thousand, of which 13 thousand were men and 9000 were women.

Hongkong people ridicule that the monthly income of HK $14 thousand and 800 can only be taken off the poverty line.

In fact, a highly educated and high-income single person is unlikely to pay only a few hundred dollars in taxes.

"After receiving the tax bill, the hind legs are soft and want to hit the wall", a single woman in the Hong Kong investment bank said on micro-blog.

Take Mark, a single man who has entered HK $100 thousand and engaged in foreign trade as an example.

The annual income is HK $1 million 200 thousand, deducting HK $12 thousand MPF and HK $108 thousand exemption. The taxable income is HK $1 million 80 thousand, the total annual tax payable is HK $171 thousand and 600.

This is the tax calculated according to the four progressive tax rate.

Mark told reporters that the thoughtful and thoughtful tax department in Hongkong would recommend that he use the standard tax rate of 15%, and that the tax would be HK $162 thousand, which could be paid less than HK $9600.

Fang told this reporter that people who use standard rates to pay taxes are generally high-income people. "Li Jiacheng is paying 15% of the standard tax."

If Mark goes to work in Shanghai, according to the calculation of HK $1 to HK $0.81476 last Friday, the monthly income of HK $100 thousand is equivalent to 81476 yuan, with a deduction of 18% "three risks and one gold" and 3500 yuan starting points. The monthly tax amount is 16653.6 yuan, which is equivalent to 20439.9 Hong Kong dollars, which is 245 thousand Hong Kong dollars in the whole year.

That is to say, if Mark works in Shanghai, the amount of tax paid is about 1.5 times that in Hongkong.

Middle class families dare not eat out.

Mr Wu, who worked in the media industry twenty years ago, traveled from the mainland to Hong Kong and lived in the Tin Shui Wai area of the "tragic city" of the nickname.

He admitted that he and his wife were both low educated and low-income, raising two children, and now living in government public housing.

Public housing is similar to the security housing in the mainland. The maximum monthly income of 4 families is HK $18 thousand and 560, which can be applied. At present, more than 30% households in Hongkong live in public housing.

Statistics from the Hongkong special administrative region statistics show that the median monthly household income of households in Hongkong is HK $19 thousand and 600.

Mr Wu said that although their husband and wife's income was not high, because the family had two children, each person could enjoy a total allowance of HK $60 thousand for HK $60 thousand per year, plus two people could enjoy the annual allowance for married persons, a total of HK $216 thousand, and the annual tax exemption of at least HK $108 thousand per parent.

"The life of the grassroots in Hongkong can be guaranteed. The government has regularly reduced the rent of public housing and recently distributed HK $6000. I feel very happy."

He told our reporter.

Mr. Wang, who has a monthly income of HK $80 thousand, is a typical middle class family in Hongkong.

"Our disposable income is sometimes less than that of the grassroots."

Mr. Wang is a surveyor of a Private Companies, Mrs. Wang is a clerk in a bank, and a family member is a 3 year old daughter and a 60 year old mother.

There are quite a few types of tax exemption in Hongkong, including basic allowances, tax allowances for married persons, child allowance, parental allowance and parental allowances.

In addition, the cost of charitable donations and refresher studies can be tax deductible. Even so, if the 7788 is to be exempted, Mr. Wang will pay the equivalent of one month's income every year.

"The rent in Hongkong is high, the cost of children's kindergartens is high, pportation and food costs are all expensive, and now we dare not go out to eat."

The middle class is the most hardworking group, Mrs. Wang said.

Mr. Wang told reporters that their monthly rent of a house should also be close to HK $30 thousand.

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Is there any comparability?

The above case confirms that the spokesman of the tax department of the Hongkong Special Administrative Region has explained to the media that in the salaries tax of Hongkong, the high income people bear most of the tax. Hongkong residents with low and middle income only need to pay very little or even do not have to pay. This is a normal phenomenon.

Quite a few reporters interviewed also believe that the 178 thousand singletons in Hongkong who earn the first annual income in micro-blog are not comparable with those in the mainland.

Fang believes that the average income level of the mainland and Hongkong is different. "Hongkong's monthly income of HK $15 thousand is equivalent to two thousand or three thousand of the mainland's income. In the mainland, the monthly income of ten thousand is basically 50 thousand yuan in Hongkong."

In fact, as long as we compare the tax threshold and the basic tax allowance of the mainland and Hongkong, we can have a glimpse of it.

The mainland levy threshold is 3500 yuan. The basic tax allowance in Hongkong is HK $108 thousand per year, or HK $9000 per month, which is equivalent to 7332.84 yuan per month and two times that of Hongkong.

Fang believes that the low tax rate in Hongkong has brought the price of high housing prices and high land prices, coupled with high inflation, and the cost of living of Hongkong people is much higher than that of the mainland.

In his view, the real comparability is the tax system in the mainland and Hongkong, the proportion of tax paying people and the pparency of tax use.

Hongkong adopts two kinds of tax systems, namely, the standard and the four tier system, while the mainland adopts seven progressive tax rates. The two tax systems in Hongkong can be selected one by one, with the highest 15% ceiling and the mainland with the highest 45%.

As for the tax payers, the tax department of the Hongkong special administrative region shows that the total number of taxpayers in Hongkong is about 1 million 426 thousand, which accounts for about 40% of the working population, of whom 22 thousand and 400 are paid by the standard rate.

From 2009 to 2010, 200 thousand of Hongkong's most taxpayers paid 82% of their salaries tax.

In the mainland, the official data is that after raising the tax threshold, the number of taxpayers has been reduced from about 84 million to about 24 million.

When the mainland is further promoting structural tax cuts, the Hongkong SAR government is constantly distributing tax cuts.

Starting from the financial year 2006~2007, the Hongkong SAR government rebates 50%, 75%, 100% and 75% a year to reduce the pressure of inflation on taxpayers, and 6000 Hong Kong dollars as the tax rebate ceiling.