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Following is a question by the Hon Bernard Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Treasury, Miss Denise Yue, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of the respective numbers of persons:
(a) who paid salaries tax at the standard rate of 15% in each of the past four financial years; and
(b) who paid salaries tax and were granted tax allowances or deductions in the 1998-1999 financial year, together with a breakdown by the types of allowances and deductions claimed?
Reply:
President,
(a) The number of taxpayers who paid salaries tax at the standard rate of 15% in the past four financial years is as follows:
% of standard rate
taxpayers against
Financial Year of Number of the total number
Year Assessment Taxpayer of taxpayers
--------- ---------- ---------- ------------------
1995-96 1994-95 71,570 5.25%
1996-97 1995-96 77,129 5.53%
1997-98 1996-97 78,002 5.77%
1998-99 1997-98 66,565 5.01%
The number of standard rate taxpayers for the 1998-99 Year of Assessment is not available since the Inland Revenue Department has yet to receive all the tax assessment forms for that year.
(b) There were around 1.3 million salaries taxpayers in the 1997-98 Year of Assessment. We have no statistics on the number of taxpayers who were granted a particular type of allowance or deduction. We only record the number of claims allowed against each category of allowance or deduction. A breakdown of the number of claims allowed in respect of each allowance or deduction in the 1997-98 Year of Assessment is appended below.
Child Allowance --------------- No. of marginal taxpayers (i.e. non-standard rate taxpayers) with claims for * 1 child 155,496 (52.4%) * 2 children 119,860 (40.4%) * 3 or more children 21,320 (7.2%) Total: 296,676 (100%)
Dependent Parent Allowance (including additional allowance)(note 1) ---------------------------------------- No. of parents claimed * NOT residing with the taxpayer 126,563 (29.9%) * Residing with the taxpayer 297,175 (70.1%) Total: 423,738 (100%)
Dependent Grandparent Allowance (including additional allowance) (Note 2) ----------------------------------------- No. of grandparents claimed * NOT residing with the taxpayer 9,168 (39.3%) * Residing with the taxpayer 14,175 (60.7%) Total: 23,343 (100%)
Disabled Dependent Allowance ---------------------------- No. of spouse/child/parent/grandparent/brother/sister claimed * spouse 245 (1.9%) * child 1,740 (13.4%) * parent 7,789 (60.2%) * grandparent 642 (5.0%) * brother/sister 2,517 (19.5%) Total: 12,933 (100%)
Single Parent Allowance ---------------------- No. of claims allowed 7,949 Dependent Brother/Sister Allowance ---------------------------------- No. of claims allowed 34,712 Self-education Expense Deduction -------------------------------- No. of claims allowed 137,404
In the 1998-99 Year of Assessment, two additional deductions are introduced, namely, the elderly residential care expense and home loan interest deductions. The number of claims allowed for these two deductions for the 1998-99 Year of Assessment will only be available after 31 March 2000.
- - - - - - - - -
Note 1: Additional allowance refers to a further allowance of $30,000 if the parent is residing with the claimant. This is given on top of the basic allowance of $30,000 to the claimant who maintains the parent.
Note 2: Additional allowance refers to a further allowance of $30,000 if the grandparent is residing with the claimant. This is given on top of the basic allowance of $30,000 to the claimant who maintains the grandparent.
End/Wednesday, December 8, 1999
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