Is 37K good enough for salary in HK?

[yoshioka09]

For tax , usually 12 - 15% of your salary , as Blackwings said, just assume the max 15%.

I suggest that you always try to negotiate, no matter what, it is very rare and almost never happen that employer will forget about you as soon as you start to negotiate.
It is your own fear and assumption.
If you negotiate, you will not look back to regret years later .....at least you try....for yourself.

note on the airfare and temp. accom. ...I have heard couple of cases of relocation ....usually these should be provided....but if I were you..I will focus on getting higher salary rather than these....you should negotiate with them on this basis....be confident that they want you.....
in the end, if negotiation will end up you losing the job, they will let you know and you can always say ""ok i will take it"".


Trust me, especially the agent, he only earns money when you accept the job!!

It was mentioned in previous posts that I might not be in a good position to negotiate since it is my first job in HK even though I have years of experience working in other countries - That's what I am afraid of - if I’ll try to negotiate the salary and they’ll decide to find someone else who'll settle for the original salary offered to them.

But that tax starts on the 2nd year right? (the 12-15% one?) is this the provisional tax? What about MPF?

Thanks blackwings and vcorn for your answers. Appreciate it.

[HK_Katherine]

Re tax, set up an etax account with the government and save 10 percent per months in tax certificates. Then the will automatically Pay the tax when it comes due, easier to submit tax return etc. Makes it much easier to budget.

[blackwings]

Yeah.. aside from flat sharing I am looking at studios too that are in my budget range 5-7K as long as they'll allow me to cook and there are at least electronic appliances.

- This might come off as a stupid question but why should I set aside 5500 monthly and not 1500 for monthly tax and 1K for MPH per month instead? Is it to prepare for the taxes that'll start on the second year? Kindly educate me on a layman's term the difference between MPF and Provisional taxes? (I've been doing my own research but it would be better to know from people like you who've been either there for quite a while or are local residents.

- Is 500 enough for utilities? (electric, water, wifi, mobile phone)?
- How about transportation? it's not added yet to the calculation, right?
- What about emergency medical expenses
- Is 4K is enough for a month's worth of groceries? (including lunch and dinners?) I don't eat breakfast.
- Additional question is - can you recommend the cheapest wet market that I can go to? or bargain shops where I can find household gems at a reasonably low price? As well as your recommended local places to eat at?

You always assume the worse case scenario with HK IRD aka tax dude. At the end of the day, any extra they don't need, can go into your piggy bank. Or take HK_Katherine's advice.

MPF = mandatory provident fund aka retirement nest egg, not a tax. Provisional taxes are prepayment of next year's taxes.

Second year , yes provisional tax can be a pisser if you didn't save the maximum.

I pay China Unicom 98 HKD a month prepaid. Bring your own mobile.
Rentals sometimes include water ( mine does) but with my air con 24/7 on in my 200 plus sqft studio - it costs me at most 300 HKD but my air con is grade 1 electrical whatever it is.
Medical is 100 HKD at the ED which includes cost of medicines and any treatment. It sucks to be in public healthcare system but hey private can bankrupt you easily.
4000 HKD includes transport - buy an octopus card and your octopus card is usable in Wellcome supermarket, park n shop supermarket, all 7 elevens, K , Vango convenience stores along with some other select stores. MTR is fairly affordable - going to New Territories from HK island is around 19 HKD for me (recently visited it).

If you want to avoid debt but want to have a debit Visa card, go to Citibank.

Household gems - Aeon, 12 dollar shop Daiso or something - where everything is 12 HKD. JHC, wet market with the price tags.

Wet markets are good if you can bargain in Cantonese. If not, the prices are as stated on the makeshift placards.

Ordinary working class Hkers survive on much less.

[TheBrit]

On 37k/month, your total tax bill for the year will be a little less than 40k. You don't need to save 15% of your salary to pay tax.

https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/taxe...omputation.htm

[Mat]

You will never pay 15% of tax on a 37K salary. At most 10%.

Anyway it's been made clear by now that 37K is more than enough so no worries.

[civil_servant]

You can easily calculate your taxes. Let's say you start July 1st, you'll work 9 months in this tax year given you a total salary of $333000. On that you'll pay $17160 taxes for the 2017/18 tax year and then pay provisional tax of the same amount for the following year. So your total tax due will be in 2 installments, one in January 2018, which will be roughly $23300, and another payment in April 2018 for $11000. So you have to save 5% of your salary.