Follow Hong Kong Investment Immigration and Life in Hong Kong: Reports from Hong Kong indicate that it is once again the "green bomb" tax season, with the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department sending out tax bills. According to data submitted to the Legislative Council by the Hong Kong government on the 9th, in the 2011/12 tax year, 1.97 million citizens were exempt from paying salaries tax, accounting for 54.68% of the total working population; among them, about 40% paid salaries tax of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars or less. There are 4,000 "working emperors" who pay salaries tax of over 1 million Hong Kong dollars, accounting for 0.11% of the total working population. Based on the standard tax rate of 15%, it is estimated that their annual salary is at least 6.6 million Hong Kong dollars.
The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong responded in writing to Legislative Council members' inquiries on the 9th, showing that in the 2011/12 tax year, about 1.63 million people were required to pay salaries tax, of which 98.3%, or 1.6 million, had to pay tax at progressive rates, a steady increase of 0.1% from last year. The maximum tax payable under the non-standard progressive tax rate for salaries tax was 796,000 Hong Kong dollars, an increase of 67,000 Hong Kong dollars from the previous fiscal year, while the minimum tax was 1 Hong Kong dollar, with a total of 1.97 million citizens exempt from paying salaries tax.
Additionally, 28,000 people paid tax at the standard rate (i.e., 15%), a decrease of 0.1% from the previous fiscal year, while the tax amount accounted for 38.8% of the total, a slight decrease of 0.2% from the previous fiscal year.