Moving from India-advice needed

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  1. #1

    Moving from India-advice needed

    Dear friends,
    I will be moving to hong kong in 3 months time.I will really appreciate if you people can help me with some queries.I am a regular visitor of this forum and you people are really doing a great job for newcomers.

    I am male/single/23.I am a fresh graduate from IIT and have got an offer from one of the i-banks in HK.The salary offered is HKD 4,80,000 pa.The bank people says that I will not be considered as expat and hence package will not contain any relocation benefits.But on my insistance they are ready to provide air fare and 1month accomodation.
    Now I have several questions

    Q1: Is this salary offer good enough?I have another offer in india who are ready to pay around 9.5 lakhs pa here?

    Q2:Is the relocation benefit enough?From some other thread on this forum I have come to know that you have to pay around 3.5 months rent in advance and advance for other utilities also?If that is true how one can manage without company giving any advance cash??

    Q3: Regarding leasing of the apartment,is it normal that your company signs that lease?Should I talk to the comapny about it right now ?From what I get from this forum lease is for 12 months.What if company throws you out and you have to break the lease?

    Q4:Is it true that in the first year you have to pay around 30% taxes in HK?

    Q5:Where do most of the young indians live in HK?Is it possible to get a studio apartment around<10K on HK island?

    Q6:I understand that i-banking is heavy duty but is it normal in HK even to work on weekends.
    I will really appreciate your help.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    23

    Q1: Is this salary offer good enough?I have another offer in india who are ready to pay around 9.5 lakhs pa here?

    Not too bad, though I know IIM fresh graduates recruited straight from campus as associates getting around HKD 700,000 per annum in i-banks.

    Q2:If that is true how one can manage without company giving any advance cash??

    Had the same problem when came here first. So lived in a serviced apartment for first three months (deposit there is just one month's rent), saved some money and then moved to a rented apartment.

    Q3: Regarding leasing of the apartment,is it normal that your company signs that lease?

    As far as I know its not very normal.

    From what I get from this forum lease is for 12 months.What if company throws you out and you have to break the lease?

    Yes, normally its 12 months locked lease, but one can negotiate for 6 months too, but in that case rent will be higher. And if you break the lease you have to pay the rent for locked lease period.


    Q4:Is it true that in the first year you have to pay around 30% taxes in HK?

    No, its not true. No one has to pay income tax any more than 16% calculated at flat rate.

    Plenty of threads are here already covering tax issue-please do a search.

    Q5:Where do most of the young indians live in HK?Is it possible to get a studio apartment around<10K on HK island?

    Everywhere.. no such concentration.

    Q6:I understand that i-banking is heavy duty but is it normal in HK even to work on weekends.
    I will really appreciate your help.

    No, its not normal.


  3. #3

    Clarification

    Thanks (in HK) for your reply

    Regarding taxes somebody was telling me that you have to pay advance taxes for the second year and hence you have to budget that in your 1st year salary itself?

    By the way what is the concept of service apartments?I thought that it is provided by company for free but your post suggests that we are supposed to pay rent for that as well.Can you throw some more light on this?


  4. #4

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    that is a very good package that you are being offered.
    It is hard work in i-banks but it is fun and no, you don't work w/ends regularly.


  5. #5

    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    23
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurubhai:
    Thanks (in HK) for your reply

    Regarding taxes somebody was telling me that you have to pay advance taxes for the second year and hence you have to budget that in your 1st year salary itself?

    By the way what is the concept of service apartments?I thought that it is provided by company for free but your post suggests that we are supposed to pay rent for that as well.Can you throw some more light on this?
    In my opinion the way the tax payment is designed in first two years of one's stay in HK is absolutely perfect but may seem a little complicated in the beginning.

    Please note than there is normally no advance tax payment is required here.

    The fact is, an employee does not file his tax return in the first tax year (april to march), but in the middle of the second year (most probably around aug-sep) he files the return for the first year i.e., april to march (which he has already earned) and the estimated income for the whole of second year too (thus in aug-sep he is just filing what he would earn till march of the following year).

    After that he gets the tax demand note in november and would be required to pay the first instalment in January (which is 100% of first year tax that he has already earned and 75% of second year's tax which he has already earned by then too because its January and tax year is from april to march, thus exact 75%- so NO advance tax payment is required). The second and last instalment which is 25% of second year's tax has to be paid in April, and please note that he pays it very much after he had earned it i.e., after march salary.

    So if a person just puts aside no more than 16% (its the maximum rate currently) of his income every month starting from his first month in HK , he is pretty much settled.

    Having said this, I must admit that in some cases (not all) one has to pay advance tax on his annual bonus specially if he works for an european i-bank where bonus is paid in feb-march unlike US banks where its nov-dec. So the problem here is, an emloyee has to pay 75% tax on second year bonus in January which he has not earned by then. So in this case you are absolutely correct, you have to budget for you second year bonus in the first year itself.

    As for the serviced apartment, the first month is paid by the company but if you decide to live a few more months there before moving to a rented apartment you have to pay the rent the second month onwards and then has to make a deposit of one month's rent too.

  6. #6

    Thanks HK and katanka

    Thanks friends for your reply.Looking forward to have a galla time in HK.


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    669
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurubhai:
    Dear friends,
    I will be moving to hong kong in 3 months time.I will really appreciate if you people can help me with some queries.I am a regular visitor of this forum and you people are really doing a great job for newcomers.

    I am male/single/23.I am a fresh graduate from IIT and have got an offer from one of the i-banks in HK.The salary offered is HKD 4,80,000 pa.The bank people says that I will not be considered as expat and hence package will not contain any relocation benefits.But on my insistance they are ready to provide air fare and 1month accomodation.
    Now I have several questions

    Q1: Is this salary offer good enough?I have another offer in india who are ready to pay around 9.5 lakhs pa here?

    Q2:Is the relocation benefit enough?From some other thread on this forum I have come to know that you have to pay around 3.5 months rent in advance and advance for other utilities also?If that is true how one can manage without company giving any advance cash??

    Q3: Regarding leasing of the apartment,is it normal that your company signs that lease?Should I talk to the comapny about it right now ?From what I get from this forum lease is for 12 months.What if company throws you out and you have to break the lease?

    Q4:Is it true that in the first year you have to pay around 30% taxes in HK?

    Q5:Where do most of the young indians live in HK?Is it possible to get a studio apartment around<10K on HK island?

    Q6:I understand that i-banking is heavy duty but is it normal in HK even to work on weekends.
    I will really appreciate your help.
    A1. Thats the best an IITian gets in HK. And There is only one Bank in HK which pays this much salary . All other pays pretty less than this. ( I assume you are joining as a fresher)

    A2. I think airfare and 1 month accomodation are fine.

    A3. Yes. normal standard is 12 months lease. And if you break the lease you will lose your deposit ( which is 2 month rent). Dont worry no bank will through you out in the first year. they have spent so much on you.

    A4. No idea

    A5. You can get a decent flat in 7-8 HKD.

    A6. This depends upon the type of work and the project requirement. But normally no work on weekends.

    PM me in case you need more info.

  8. #8

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    40,000 per month as a fresh graduate seems like an extraordinary amount of money to me - the average starting salary for graduates in HK isn't much over 10,000. We have plenty of graduates with 6-8 years experience only earning $20,000!


  9. #9

    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    40,000 per month as a fresh graduate seems like an extraordinary amount of money to me - the average starting salary for graduates in HK isn't much over 10,000. We have plenty of graduates with 6-8 years experience only earning $20,000!
    you are right PDLM. thats why said there is only one Investment Bank in HK which pays 40000 HKD to a fresher.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
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    Hong Kong
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    23,205

    So how much would they pay for someone with 20 years experience?


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