PRESS RELEASE

(Source : Government Information Centre)

LCQ2: Persons paying provisional salaries tax for 2005/06 year of assessment

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Following is a question by the Hon Bernard Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (March 29):

Question:

Will the Government use the following table to provide this Council with the latest data on the number of persons paying the provisional salaries tax for the 2005/06 year of assessment?

Amount of provisional
salaries tax for the
2005/06 year of
assessment (HK$)
----------------------------

Number of
payers of
provisional
salaries tax
-------------------

Percentage of
payers of
provisional
salaries tax
in the total
work force
-------------------

0
1 - 1,000
1,001 - 2,000
2,001 - 5,000
5,001 - 10,000
10,001 - 15,000
15,001 - 20,000
20,001 - 30,000
30,001 - 40,000
40,001 - 50,000
50,001 - 60,000
60,001 - 70,000
70,001 - 80,000
80,001 - 90,000
90,001 - 100,000
100,001 - 200,000
200,001 - 500,000
500,001 - 1,000,000
over 1,000,000

Reply:

Madam President,

An analysis of the persons paying the provisional salaries tax for the 2005/06 year of assessment based on the assessment statistics up to March 22, 2006 is set out below -

Amount of provisional
salaries tax charged
for the 2005/06 year of
assessment (HK$)
----------------------------

Number of
payers of
provisional
salaries tax
-------------------

Percentage of
payers of
provisional
salaries tax
in the total
work force
(Note 1)
-------------------

2,276,835
324,896
87,203
150,519
120,352
70,921
54,454
74,692
51,300
35,854
26,794
20,284
16,319
12,511
10,288
51,119
22,770
3,201
1,188

66.7%
9.5%
2.6%
4.4%
3.5%
2.1%
1.6%
2.2%
1.5%
1.0%
0.8%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
1.5%
0.7%
0.1%
0.0%

The above data are compiled using income earned by the taxpayers as indicated in their tax returns (received by March 22, 2006) for the 2004/05 year of assessment as the reference. With an improved labour market in 2005/06, we expect that the total number of taxpayers liable to the final salaries tax in 2005/06 will exceed the total number of taxpayers currently paying 2005/06 provisional tax (Note 2) as shown above.

Note 1: For computing the percentage, the total work force is assumed to be 3,411,500 which is the projected average workforce for the year 2005/06.

Note 2: We expect that in the 2005/06 year of assessment, around 36% of the total workforce will pay some salaries tax in the final assessment.

Ends/Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:11

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