Human Resources

As at 31 March 2003, there are 6 units. The Commissioner, the two Deputy Commissioners and the five Assistant Commissioners form the top management of the Department.

Deputy Commissioner (Technical) is responsible for overseeing the operations of Commissioner's Unit, Unit 1 and Unit 2.

Deputy Commissioner (Operations) is responsible for overseeing the operations of Unit 3, Unit 4 and Headquarters Unit.

**Responsiblities of Units**
Unit	Duties
Commissioner's Unit	Appeals Technical Research Double Taxation Charitable Donations Complaints Internal Audit
Unit 1 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Tax Processing and Review Profits Tax - Corporations and Partnerships
Unit 2 (managed by 2 Assistant Commissioners)	Tax Processing and Review Salaries Tax, Profits Tax - Sole Proprietorships, Property Tax, and Personal Assessment
Unit 3 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Collection Inspection Estate Duty Stamp Duty Business Registration
Unit 4 (managed by 1 Assistant Commissioner)	Field Audit and Investigation
Headquarters Unit	Information Systems Training Taxpayer Services Departmental Administration

**Overall Establishment**
Unit	Number of Staff
Commissioner's Unit	66
Headquarters Unit	360
Unit 1	375
Unit 2	1,434
Unit 3	724
Unit 4	252
Total	3,211

The Commissioner, the two Deputy Commissioners and the five Assistant Commissioners form the top management of the Department..

As at 31 March 2003, the Department had an establishment of 3,211 permanent posts (including 25 posts for directorate officers) in 6 Units. Of the total, 2,007 posts were for departmental grades officers (namely Assessors, Taxation Officers and Tax Inspectors), who were required to perform duties directly concerned with taxation. The remaining 1,204 posts were for common / general grades officers, who provided supporting administrative, information technology and clerical services (Figure 39).

**Figure 39 Staff Establishment**
Rank	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03
Assessing Officers (Professional)	737	724	735	731
Taxation Officers	1,170	1,164	1,163	1,153
Tax Inspectors	134	130	126	123
Common/general grade officers	1,315	1,318	1,271	1,204
Total	3,356	3,336	3,295	3,211

Most of the professional officers serving in the Department were below the age of 45 (Figure 40). The ratio of male to female professional officers was 1:1.2.

**Figure 40 Age Profile of Professionals**
Age Group	Male		Female		Total
Age Group	Number of staff	Percentage	Number of staff	Percentage	Number of staff	Percentage
Below 25	0	0%	6	2%	6	1%
25 to below 35	81	24%	137	35%	218	30%
35 to below 45	124	37%	167	42%	291	40%
45 to below 55	111	34%	84	21%	195	27%
55 and over	15	5%	1	0%	16	2%
Total	331	100%	395	100%	726	100%

In 2002-03, 5 departmental grades officers and 2 general grades officers were promoted. 68 officers were recruited by or transferred to the Department. During the year, 139 officers left the Department.

As always, the Department is committed to providing ample training opportunities in different areas for its staff. During 2002-03, staff training and development amounted to 13,802 man-days which is equivalent to about 4.2 training days per staff.

The Training Section conducts a two-part taxation law and practice course with formal examinations for the newly appointed Assistant Assessors. Induction courses are provided for all grades of staff upon their joining the Department.

Eight in-house Continuing Professional Education (CPE) seminars were held during the year which were attended by 1,454 participants.

‧ Complaint Management – An Overview and Some Practical Hints
‧ Video seminar on "Improvements to the Performance Management System for the Assessor Grade"
‧ Tax Update
‧ Video seminar on "Leadership: An Art of Possibility"
‧ Counteracting Avoidance Arrangements
‧ Prepaid or Deferred Revenue Expenses
‧ (1) Valuation of Unquoted Shares for Tax Purposes
(2) e-Stamping
‧ Rules of Interpretation of Statutes

Video sessions were arranged for those who could not attend the seminars. Technical information is also disseminated across the Department through the IRD Intranet where officers can access to updated materials and share work experience.

The Department encourages and sponsors officers to attend seminars organized by academic and professional institutes. During 2002-03, 59 officers were sponsored by the Department to attend such seminars.

The accelerated integration of the world economies requires our professional officers to deal with many new global issues. The Department has put emphasis on the international dimension of our tax administration.

During 2002-03, 13 professional officers attended overseas courses in Korea, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In addition, 5 officers attended 4 courses in China, and 3 officers went on familiarization visits to some parts of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Sichuan Province respectively.

Officers also attended various courses on Putonghua, English language training, Chinese writing skills, human resources development, customer service and computer applications etc. organized by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute and other organizations.

In April 2002, the Finance Bureau (now renamed the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau) and the Department co-sponsored a 5-day training course on tax treaty negotiation conducted in Hong Kong. Three instructors of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) led the course which was participated by 16 government officials including officers from this Department, the Department of Justice, the Finance Bureau and officers from 7 neighbouring countries.

Maintaining effective communication and sharing of views with staff at all levels is of utmost importance in ensuring a sense of belonging and maximizing the Department's operational efficiency and productivity.

The Committee is chaired by the Deputy Commissioner (Operations) and comprises representatives from all staff unions/associations and staff groups in the Department. In addition to the distribution of relevant papers to the DCC members and the subsequent collection of their opinions on specific concerns, the Committee held two regular meetings and a briefing session in 2002-03 where staff and the management exchanged their views on a wide range of topics of mutual concern, including recruitment, promotion, career posting, training, working environment, staff welfare and service-wide matters. The DCC meeting is an effective forum for the sharing of views within the Department.

The Committee was formed in June 1999 and provides a formal channel for the clerical and secretarial grades staff in the Department to discuss matters relating to their grades with the management. Staff members of the clerical and secretarial grades have made good use of the GGCC regular meetings to pass on their various concerns to the management as well as to the General Grades Office of the Civil Service Bureau. Representatives of the Committee are invited to participate in the DCC for the sharing of their views with other departmental grades staff representatives on issues of general concerns within the Department.

With the objective of further enhancing communication between the senior management and staff in the respective units, the "Meet-the-Staff Programme" was launched in 1996-97. At the regular meetings under the Programme, non-directorate staff meet the management and share their views on issues of their concern in a less formal atmosphere. A number of staff opinions collected from these meetings have been turned into practical arrangements either for the good of staff welfare or for the good of taxpayer services.

Since its establishment, the Staff Suggestion Scheme has attracted from staff a large number of constructive improvement ideas. Many of the suggestions have been implemented with rewarding results. During 2002-03, a total of 17 suggestions were received. The ideas covered mainly improvement of operational efficiency and betterment of customer service plus some suggestions on green management. Five of the officers concerned were granted cash awards and commendation certificates in recognition of their contributions and efforts.

The Programme was launched in 2000 with a view to encouraging staff participation in preparing and implementing their own improvement projects and proposals with creative thinking. The first one-year Excellent Service Programme was completed with success in mid 2001. The second programme started in November 2001 and registered a total of seven projects for implementation within 2002-03 by the respective Excellent Service Teams comprising staff of different operational units. Upon the completion of evaluation on the competition projects, the winning teams will be commended for the effectiveness of their implemented projects as well as their team effort.

The departmental newsletter serves as another communication channel between the management and staff and is published quarterly. It disseminates information of service-related matters and recreational activities through articles and contributions collected from staff and unit management.

The Inland Revenue General Staff Welfare Fund was established voluntarily by a group of staff in 1972. It operates on funds collected from staff on a voluntary donation basis. Though the interest-free loans and grants released are not of great amounts, the IRGSWF provides a quick source of relief to help staff with unexpected financial difficulties.

In 2002-03, 31 long-serving officers were granted awards of free travel, together with their spouses, under the Long Service Travel Award Scheme.

Throughout the year, the IRD Sports Association organized many popular sports, social and recreational activities for colleagues and their families. These included Fun Fair, Annual Dinner, outings, seminars and workshops on a wide-ranging of interesting topics, sporting events, etc. All activities received positive and overwhelming responses.

The Association also participated in a number of charitable and sports activities held by other organizations, including the ACCA Charity Fun Day 2002, the HKSA Football Competition, Fok Ying-tung Cup Tennis Tournament, Football, Fishing and Badminton Competitions. We are most pleased to have won several top awards.

In response to the Civil Servant Volunteer Work Program launched by the Civil Service Bureau, the IRD Volunteer Team was formed in May 2002. The generosity and enthusiasm of the Team had demonstrated the serving the community spirit of IRD staff, and showed our love and care for the less fortunate groups of people. Despite its short history, the Team had successfully organized and participated in a number of community services, including visiting the senior citizens, fund raising, child service and training programs.