 |
Publications and Press Releases :
Press Release
: News Archives
LCQ19: Property tax
************************
Following is a question by the
Hon Sin Chung-kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial
Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council
today (March 14):
Question:
Under the Inland Revenue Ordinance
(Cap. 112), the owner of any land or buildings or land and buildings
shall pay property tax to be computed at the standard rate on the
net assessable value (80% of the rental income after deducting the
rates paid by the owner) of the relevant land or/and buildings.
In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) |
(i) |
of a breakdown, by groupings
in terms of whole-year rental income of the tenements concerned,
of the total amount of property tax charged by the Government
each year; and |
| |
|
|
| |
(ii) |
of the annual number of tenements which
are subject to property tax, together with a breakdown by
the type of buildings, since the tax year 1997-1998; and |
| |
|
|
| (b) |
|
given that the number of "sole tenants"
(i.e. households which rent the whole tenements) living in
private buildings has been around 170 000 to 220 000 since
2000, as revealed in the Quarterly Reports on General Household
Survey published by the Census and Statistics Department,
why the number of property tax demand notes issued for each
of the relevant tax years by the Inland Revenue Department
were around 80 000 to 90 000 only? |
Reply:
Madam President,
| (a) |
Under the Inland Revenue
Ordinance, property owners who receive rental income are assessable
to property tax at the standard rate. Individual property
owners may, however, elect to have their rental income assessed
with other incomes under personal assessment. |
| |
|
|
| |
(i) |
In the years of assessment from 1997-98
to 2005-06, the total amount of property tax charged by the
Government each year is shown at Table
1 at annex. |
| |
|
|
| |
(ii) |
The number of rental tenements liable
to property tax or tax under personal assessment each year
in the years of assessment from 1997-98 to 2005-06 is as follows: |
Table 2
----------
Year of assessment |
|
Number of rental tenements
liable to tax |
| ----------------------------- |
|
---------------------------------------- |
| 2005-06 (Note) |
|
222,600 |
| 2004-05 |
|
213,286 |
| 2003-04 |
|
211,857 |
| 2002-03 |
|
208,103 |
| 2001-02 |
|
213,434 |
| 2000-01 |
|
213,543 |
| 1999-2000 |
|
208,638 |
| 1998-99 |
|
204,688 |
| 1997-98 |
|
203,944 |
Note: Not all property tax demand
notes for the 2005-06 year of assessment have been issued.
As property owners are not required
to report the types of rental tenements in their tax returns, the
Inland Revenue Department (IRD) does not have any information on
property tax assessment by types of tenements.
| (b) |
As mentioned in (a) above, not all rental property owners
elect to be charged under property tax. Therefore, the number
of property tax demand notes issued by IRD each year does
not necessarily reflect the total number of rental tenements
chargeable to property tax in that year of assessment (i.e.
the numbers listed in Table 2 above). |
Ends/Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Issued at HKT 11:30
NNNN
|
|