Inland Revenue Department 60th Anniversary

IRD celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2007-08. Let us go into the time tunnel to revisit the history of the Department in the past 60 years:

Revenue Collection and Cost of Collection

1947-48 to 1956-57
	1 April 1947 • The Inland Revenue Department was established 3 May 1947 • The Inland Revenue Ordinance 1947 was enacted to impose tax on earnings and profits 1 April 1949 • The Estate Duty Office was transferred to the Inland Revenue Department from the Treasury	20 September 1952 • The Inland Revenue Ordinance Committee was appointed to review the Inland Revenue Ordinance 1 February 1956 • The Stamp Duty Office was transferred to the Inland Revenue Department from the Treasury 1 April 1956 • The Department took over from the Treasury the responsibilities for collecting entertainments tax, bets and sweeps tax and public dance-halls tax 1 April 1956 • The property tax charge on land and buildings in the New Territories was suspended

1967-68 to 1976-77
	Late 1960s • The Department commenced the use of computers for storing and analysing assessment data 1 April 1970 • Public dance-halls tax was abolished 1 April 1973 • Entertainments tax on cinema admission was suspended • The basis of salaries tax assessment was changed to current year and payment of provisional salaries tax was demanded 1 April 1974 • The property tax charge on land and buildings in the New Territories was re-introduced 1 April 1975 • The basis of profits tax assessment was changed to current year and payment of provisional profits tax was demanded	1 April 1975 • Entertainments tax on cinema admission was re-introduced February 1976 • The Third Inland Revenue Ordinance Review Committee was appointed to review the Inland Revenue Ordinance 1 April 1976 • The basis of property tax assessment was changed to notional rent

1997-98 to 2007-08
	July 1997 • A Working Group was appointed to conduct a comprehensive review of profits tax 11 February 1998 • A limited double taxation arrangement was entered into with the Mainland of China 1 April 1998 • The advance ruling service was introduced May 1999 • Counter service for collection of income and profits tax payments was taken over by the Treasury (The counter collection service was later out-sourced to the Hongkong Post in October 2001) May 2000 • The Taxpayer's Charter was launched 19 January 2001 • On-line services for tax filing, business registration applications and enquiries were launched April 2001 • The "Assess First, Audit Later" (AFAL) assessment system was implemented April 2003 • The use of passwords for online tax filing was introduced	August 2003 • Football betting duty was introduced 10 December 2003 • The first Comprehensive Double Taxation Agreement was signed with Belgium August 2004 • Property e-stamping service was launched 11 February 2006 • Estate duty was abolished 21 August 2006 • A Comprehensive Double Taxation Arrangement was signed with the Mainland of China 1 September 2006 • The basis of charging betting duty on horse races was changed from gross bets to net stake receipts 19 January 2008 • Taxpayer Portal (eTAX) was launched