To be honest I see us equalizing with mainland tax rates in a couple of years. If that's years or decades away depends on governments. But with more and more mainlanders taking on former expat and local jobs those people already pay mainland level taxes in HK. So for them nothing at all would change. In fact they might even demand to be on the same level as their colleagues from other countries. So up up the taxes go for the rest.
Rather unlikely and not in line with the low & simple tax system model of Hong Kong... also, what's the point of a small jurisdiction and financial center to have high taxes?
Also what's the financial point for those in charge doing that? I'd say none
With regards Mainland Chinese paying Mainland level taxes in HK is quite an exaggeration, you refer to those exceptional cases of those working for SOEs/ the Mainland China domicile rules? Unlikely the majority![]()
Needs to strike an attractive balance for attracting talents to keep rates in line with cost of living/ housing because it's substantially expats contributing to the salaries tax....only a rather small percentage of people in Hong Kong overall pays (salaries) tax. Quite some here, including the many many wealthy, investors and even some taxi drivers here live from dividends/ capital gains![]()
plus there are about 13,000 buildings (20% of stock) with major fire safety deficits , having about 225,000 fire safety orders outstanding, that should make them almost worthless, BD/FSD could shut all of those buildings, I guess they dare not shut them because not enough space to house them all.
Apparently the goal seems to be to earn revenues (profit tax/ salaries tax) from a growing economy that attracts businesses and creates jobs while maintaining its decades, almost century old low & simple tax business model... will see in a few years![]()
Following a similar footpath, it seems also that in other places like the USA a rethink of the rabbit hole of 'tax this and tax that' + cutting on expenses (=bloated public apparatus) is underway![]()
We used to be China's shopping centre and made great money with it. This was our "tourism". A Shopping Centre.
This has stopped in 2019 and never came back for reasons we all know including economic malaise across the boundary.
Tourism with visiting xiaohongshu spots and selling egg tarts and croissants (and now 10 minute Panda sightings) is not something a rich city like HK should aspire to, but we do. Unsurprisingly it didn't fill our coffers in any meaningful way whatsoever.
Isn't that the answer then - to tax capital rather than labour? Hong Kong has such huge capital flows and assets, a fraction of a percentage in taxing capital flows would hardly have any impact, yet provide so much revenue.
It wasn't long ago that lawmaker/official pronounced that rent was too high for top talents, and a few months back dimsum daily reported more than 20% of top talents are unemployed, not convinced that top talent scheme is worth it![]()
https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/22-of-top...repreneurship/