February 2021 / Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has proposed a 100% one-off reduction (limited to HKD 10,000) in profits tax, salaries tax and tax payable under personal assessment for the year of assessment 2020/21 and an increase in the stamp duty rate to 0.13% (from 0.1%) for share transactions.

The details were announced in the Budget for 2021/22 that was presented to the Legislative Council by the Financial Secretary on 25 February 2021. The tax measures proposed require legislative amendments before implementation. Once enacted, the amendments will apply from 1 April 2021.

The proposals are summarized below:

• a one-off 100% reduction in profits tax, salaries tax and tax payable under personal assessment for the year of assessment 2020/21, subject to a maximum of HKD 10,000 per case;
• a waiver of business registration fees for 2021/22; and
• an increase in the rate of ad valorem stamp duty on Hong Kong stock transactions from 0.1% to 0.13% for both buyers and sellers.

No new taxes were introduced by the government. The full details of the budget speech are available here.

The Territorial Spatial Planning of Guangdong Province 2020-2035 was recently released for public consultation between March and November. The plan covers the country’s land and sea territory with 2019 as the base year and looks to development during the years up to the middle of this century. Land will be set aside for six major corridors, including the “Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao high-speed maglev route” and the “Shanghai-Shenzhen-Guangzhou high-speed maglev route”.

According to the plan, one-hour traffic circles will be built in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the Shantou-Chaozhou-Jieyang metropolitan area and the Zhanjiang-Maoming metropolitan area, while a two-hour traffic circle will be built linking the GBA with the northwestern part of eastern Guangdong.