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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?
Percentage of
payers of
Amount of provisional Number of provisional
salaries tax for the payers of salaries tax
2005/06 year of provisional in the total
assessment (HK$) salaries tax work force
--------------------- ------------ ------------
0
1-1,000
1,001-2,000
2,001-5,000
5,001-10,000
10,001-15,000
15,001-20,000
20,001-30,000
30,001-40,000
40,001-50,000
50,001-60,000
60,001-70,000
70,001-80,000
80,001-90,000
90,001-100,000
100,001-200,000
200,001-500,000
500,001-1,000,000
over 1,000,000
Reply:
Madam President,
An analysis of the persons paying the provisional salaries tax for the 2005/06 year of assessment based on the assessment statistics up to March 22, 2006 is set out below -
Percentage of
payers of
provisional
Amount of provisional Number of salaries tax
salaries tax charged payers of in the total
for the 2005/06 year provisional work force
of assessment (HK$) salaries tax (Note 1)
--------------------- ------------ ------------
0 2,276,835 66.7%
1 -1,000 324,896 9.5%
1,001 - 2,000 87,203 2.6%
2,001 - 5,000 150,519 4.4%
5,001 - 10,000 120,352 3.5%
10,001 - 15,000 70,921 2.1%
15,001 - 20,000 54,454 1.6%
20,001 - 30,000 74,692 2.2%
30,001 - 40,000 51,300 1.5%
40,001 - 50,000 35,854 1.0%
50,001 - 60,000 26,794 0.8%
60,001 - 70,000 20,284 0.6%
70,001 - 80,000 16,319 0.5%
80,001 - 90,000 12,511 0.4%
90,001 - 100,000 10,288 0.3%
100,001 - 200,000 51,119 1.5%
200,001 - 500,000 22,770 0.7%
500,001 - 1,000,000 3,201 0.1%
Over 1,000,000 1,188 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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