Like Tree13Likes

Deducting rent from salary to save on income tax

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 ... LastLast
  1. #1

    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    101

    Deducting rent from salary to save on income tax

    Hi,

    I have heard of people deducting their rental expenditure from the total income to save on HK's income tax. Apparently, the company needs to have some provision with the IRD to facilitate this.

    Does anyone know if:
    a) the company has to bear additional costs for this
    b) how easy/difficult it is for the company to do this

    Thanks!


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    4,574

    a. no additional costs
    b. not too much extra work

    if you have a HR department, they should be able to arrange this

    scumbag likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    856

    work the math, depending on your salary and your rental. High salary with low rent might save you a few bucks only which makes the whole effort pointless


  4. #4

    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    101

    Thanks guys. Does the Tenancy Agreement have to be under my name or will proof of address do?


  5. #5

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    If your rent is more than 10% of your income, then it is worthwhile to do.


  6. #6

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    θ–„ζ‰Άζž—
    Posts
    47,965

    >> Does the Tenancy Agreement have to be under my name

    Yes.

    This FAQ covers most issues and you should take it to your HR department if they're not familiar with the procedures: http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/pdf/pam44e.pdf

    scumbag likes this.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Gold Coast Marina
    Posts
    17,934

    If you work for a small business, it's no cost but not administratively simple. Actually we just got a letter from the IRD asking for proof of all this for one employee (I'm guessing a spot audit) and it's taking my (only) admin staff all day to respond to their questions. So if you work for someone small who mainly employs locals, they might resist.

    scumbag likes this.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    23,205

    Why "who only employs locals"? The scheme is not somehow specific to "non-locals" - decent employers would make it available to all their staff! (As did both my employers here)


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Gold Coast Marina
    Posts
    17,934
    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    Why "who only employs locals"? The scheme is not somehow specific to "non-locals" - decent employers would make it available to all their staff! (As did both my employers here)
    My point was a small firm (read "not many admin staff") may not be so keen on setting up a rental scheme just for one expat if most of their staff are local (read "low paid, living in cheap housing and/or own their own housing so don't much need the scheme").

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    4,012
    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    Why "who only employs locals"? The scheme is not somehow specific to "non-locals" - decent employers would make it available to all their staff! (As did both my employers here)
    Quote Originally Posted by MovingIn07:
    If you work for a small business, it's no cost but not administratively simple. Actually we just got a letter from the IRD asking for proof of all this for one employee (I'm guessing a spot audit) and it's taking my (only) admin staff all day to respond to their questions. So if you work for someone small who mainly employs locals, they might resist.
    And to be particularly pedantic, MI0 did say "mainly", not "only"!
    Last edited by Stoob; 03-11-2011 at 10:48 PM.

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 ... LastLast