question about hong kong/U.S income tax

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Posts
    110

    question about hong kong/U.S income tax

    this might be a fairly elementary question, but for someone who holds a U.S passport, has a HK ID (through marriage), how does the income tax work when they get a job?

    I know (or have heard rather) that the ones who get transferred to HK, a lot of employers will consider the employees' tax back in their home country, and their salary package will be adjusted accordingly to reflect that.

    For someone who is an American, but doesn't need employer sponsorship, do you ask for that in the salary package? This is not an executive post, but a low level management position under 30HKD.

    My initial hunch is no. If that is true, the more important question is, how much will I lose out of my paycheck paying taxes both ways? Are there any ways to be exempt from one or the other?


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    383
    Quote Originally Posted by semidevil:
    this might be a fairly elementary question, but for someone who holds a U.S passport, has a HK ID (through marriage), how does the income tax work when they get a job?

    I know (or have heard rather) that the ones who get transferred to HK, a lot of employers will consider the employees' tax back in their home country, and their salary package will be adjusted accordingly to reflect that.

    For someone who is an American, but doesn't need employer sponsorship, do you ask for that in the salary package? This is not an executive post, but a low level management position under 30HKD.

    My initial hunch is no. If that is true, the more important question is, how much will I lose out of my paycheck paying taxes both ways? Are there any ways to be exempt from one or the other?
    Unlikely an employer will make any adjustments for someone on 30k/ month.

    However, regarding your US income taxes, you are eligible for a foreign earned income exclusion for the first US$97k. Details here: Details here: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Inter...-Earned-Income You still need to file your US taxes though. For anything over 97k, you can set off taxes paid in HK against what you owe in the US, but its a pain to figure it all out and would highly recommend getting an accountant who routinely deals with US and foreign income taxes to prepare your US returns.