The Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Child Allowance and Tax Concessions) Bill 2023 will be gazetted on March 3. The Bill seeks to implement tax concessions and increase of child allowance proposed in the 2023-24 Budget.
 
     The Budget has proposed one-off reductions of salaries tax, tax under personal assessment and profits tax for the year of assessment 2022/23 by 100 per cent, subject to a ceiling of $6,000 per case. The reductions will be reflected in taxpayers' final tax payable for the year of assessment 2022/23. The proposals will benefit 1.9 million taxpayers of salaries tax and tax under personal assessment as well as 133 500 tax-paying businesses. The total government revenue forgone in 2023-24 will amount to $9.2 billion.
 
     To alleviate the financial burden of taxpayers from raising children, the Budget has also proposed increasing the basic child allowance and the additional child allowance for each child born during the year of assessment from $120,000 to $130,000 starting from the year of assessment 2023/24. Around 324 000 taxpayers will benefit from the proposal, with estimated revenue forgone at $610 million per year.
 
     The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council on March 15.

Ends/Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Issued at HKT 15:00

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