Hong Kong Personal Income Tax and its Deductible Allowances 2023-2024
Hong Kong Personal Income Tax and its Deductible Allowances 2023-2024
Personal Income Tax of Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department has adopted a flexible tax regime to foster liveable living conditions. As a Hong Kong taxpayer, you are entitled to the basic allowance and may be eligible to claim other allowances provided that the prescribed conditions are satisfied.
Here are a summary of the allowances that you might be able to claim from:
Basic Allowance
You are entitled to the basic allowance unless you are married and have been granted the married person’s allowance for the year. You do not have to lodge a claim for this allowance.
Married Person’s Allowance
You can claim the married person’s allowance in any year of assessment if you are married at any time during that year, and you are not living apart; or are living apart from your spouse but are maintaining or supporting your spouse; and fulfil the following conditions:
Child Allowance
You can claim the child allowance if, during a year of assessment, you maintain an unmarried child, who was:
- under 18 years old; or
- of or over 18 but under 25 years old, and receiving full time education at a university, college, school or other similar educational establishment; or
- of or over 18 years old and was, because of physical or mental disability, unable to work.
A “child” means:
- your own child, adopted child or step child; or
- the child / adopted child / step child of your spouse or former spouse.
Dependent Brother or Dependent Sister Allowance
You can claim dependent brother or dependent sister allowance if you or your spouse maintains an unmarried brother or sister, who at any time during the year of assessment was:
- under 18 years old; or
- of or over 18 but under 25 years old, and receiving full time education at a university, college, school or other similar educational establishment; or
- of or over 18 years old and was, because of physical or mental disability, unable to work.
A “brother or sister” means:
- a brother / sister of full or half blood of you or your spouse;
- an adopted brother / sister of you or your spouse;
- a step brother / sister of you or your spouse;
- a natural child of your or your spouse’s adoptive parent; or
- a brother / sister of your deceased spouse.
A brother or sister is only treated as maintained by you or your spouse if during the year, you or your spouse had sole or predominant care of the brother or sister. If, other than you, someone else is entitled to claim the allowance for the same brother or sister for the same year of assessment, you must agree among yourselves on who shall claim it. If there is no agreement, no allowance will be granted.
Dependent Parent and Dependent Grandparent Allowance
You may claim allowance in respect of each dependent parent / grandparent maintained by you / your spouse, not being a spouse living apart from you, during the year. To qualify for the allowance, the dependent parent / grandparent must at any time during the year be:
- ordinarily resident in Hong Kong;
- aged 55 or more, or eligible to claim an allowance under the Government’s Disability Allowance Scheme; and
- resided with you / your spouse, without paying full cost, for a continuous period of not less than 6 months or have received from you / your spouse not less than $12,000 in money towards his / her maintenance.
If the dependent parent / grandparent resided with you continuously throughout the whole year without paying full cost, you are also entitled to Additional Dependent Parent and Grandparent Allowance.
Single Parent Allowance
You can claim single parent allowance if you have taken ongoing responsibility for the care and supervision to your child, and have satisfied the following conditions:
- Throughout the year of claim you must not be married. Hence, no allowance can be claimed for the year of marriage, divorce, death of your spouse or separation from your spouse. The earliest opportunity to make a claim will be the year following these events.
- You are granted a child allowance for the year of claim.
Whilst child allowance is granted on account of monetary contributions to maintenance and education, single parent allowance is granted on account of time spent on care and supervision.
If both parents want to claim the single parent allowance, the allowance may be apportioned by reference to the periods of time in which the claimants had the sole or predominant care of the child concerned during the year of assessment. The law provides that, in case of dispute, the Commissioner may decide the basis for such apportionment.
The law also specifies that no parent can claim the single parent allowance merely on the ground that he or she had made contributions to the maintenance and education of the child. Furthermore, no allowance can be granted for any second or subsequent child.
Disabled Dependant Allowance
You can claim disabled dependant allowance if you or your spouse maintains a dependant who is eligible to claim an allowance under the Government’s Disability Allowance Scheme.
Here, “dependant” means:
- your spouse / child / parent / grandparent / brother or sister; or
- your spouse’s child / parent / grandparent / brother or sister.
This allowance is granted in addition to the following allowances or deduction for the disabled person:
- married person’s allowance; or
- child allowance; or
- dependent parent and grandparent allowance or elderly residential care expenses; or
- dependent brother or dependent sister allowance.
Here you can learn the amounts of the various allowances over the recent years.
DISCLAIMER
This article should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be relied upon in relation to any tax or legal advice. The information we provide does not address your particular requirements and is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute any form of legal advice and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to particular circumstances and is not intended to be relied upon by you in making any decisions that may arise from reliance on materials contained on our website.
